Jack Dikian
November 2010
In psychology and cognitive science, perception is the process of attaining awareness or understanding of sensory information. The study of perception gave rise to the Gestalt school of psychology, with its emphasis on holistic approach.
Perception is one of the oldest fields in psychology and represents one of the oldest quantitative laws in psychology quantifying the relationship between the intensity of physical stimuli and their perceptual effects.
But can we really trust our senses?
Descartes did not believe that the information we receive through our senses is necessarily accurate and set out to attack what he considered the very foundation of perception systems: the idea that sense perception conveys accurate information.
In the case of visual perception, some people can actually see the percept shift in their mind's eye. Others, who are not picture thinkers, may not necessarily perceive the 'shape-shifting' as their world changes.
This has been shown by experiment: an ambiguous image has multiple interpretations on the perceptual level. The question, "Is the glass half empty or half full?" serves to demonstrate the way an object can be perceived in different ways.
Incomplete :
See:
The analogy of Plato's Cave was coined to express these ideas
But can we really trust our senses?
Descartes did not believe that the information we receive through our senses is necessarily accurate and set out to attack what he considered the very foundation of perception systems: the idea that sense perception conveys accurate information.
In the case of visual perception, some people can actually see the percept shift in their mind's eye. Others, who are not picture thinkers, may not necessarily perceive the 'shape-shifting' as their world changes.
This has been shown by experiment: an ambiguous image has multiple interpretations on the perceptual level. The question, "Is the glass half empty or half full?" serves to demonstrate the way an object can be perceived in different ways.
Incomplete :
See:
The analogy of Plato's Cave was coined to express these ideas
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