The stars in the Figure 3.3 which are nearer to each other are perceived together as groups/single figure. For example, the word ‘Man’, here though the letters are discrete, when grouped together gives some meaning. The objects which are nearer to each other can be perceived meaningfully by grouping them. There are some principles which are followed by us in order to make our perception more meaningful. Grouping of Stimuli in Perceptual OrganisationĪs said above, according to gestalt principle, the objects can be perceived meaningfully when they are grouped together. So also the white background can be perceived as a vessel in the background of two faces. In the Figure 3.2, two faces can be seen in the background of a white colour. For example, letters written with a white chalk piece are perceived clearly in the background of a blackboard. Figure-ground Relationship :Īccording to this principle any figure can be perceived more meaningfully in a background and that figure cannot be separated from that background. This is explained under many sub-principles of perception. This is more meaningfully stated in the gestalt principle as ‘the whole is better than sum total of its parts’. They believed that the brain creates a coherent perceptual experience by perceiving a stimulus as a whole than perceiving discrete entities. This phenomenon was well explained by Gestalt psychologists. In the same way whenever it is necessary many discrete stimuli in our visual field are organised into a form and perceived more meaningfully than they appear. In perceptual process we select a particular stimulus with our attention and interpret it. Hence, we do not see the things as they appear, but we see them as we want, i.e. William James American psychologist has said if we understand the world as it appears to us, it will be a big booming- buzzing confusion. For example, the accuracy of sense organs, clarity of sensations, mental set of an individual, etc. It is a synthetic process where different physiological and psychological processes are involved. Perception is not as simple as said here. Hence, perception may be defined as “a process of interpretation of a present stimulus on the basis of past experience”. For example, a child who has not seen an elephant earlier either in photo or directly cannot identify that animal, whereas another child who has seen earlier will identify the animal easily. But interpretation of any stimulus requires past experience also. So perception involves two processes: sensation interpretation. This process of ‘interpretation of stimulus is known as perception’. Hence in understanding the world around us, attention occurs first, followed by sensation and finally interpretation by brain. It is only after such interpretation we understand what the stimulus is. In turn the brain will interpret these sensations.

Limited perception definition