GE 10 - Perception

Perception

The process by which people notice and make sense of information from the environment.

Attention

Organization

Interpretation

Retrievall

Judgment

5 Stages of Perception:

Attention

The stage in the perception process that involves noticing some of the information available and filtering out the rest.

Organization

The perceiver sorts the information by using a frame of reference. Some mechanisms people use for organizing stimuli they observe.

Closure

Continuity

Proximity

Similarity

Figure ground

Schemas

6 Organization

Closure

People tend to perceive incomplete data in a whole complete form. The brain imagines and supplies the missing parts.

Continuity

people tend to perceive sensory data in continuous patterns, even if the data are not actually continuous.

Proximity

when stimuli are near each other, people perceive them as being related.

Similarity

when stimuli are alike in some way, people tend to group them. In a meeting of 10 people, two are black and 8 are white, we tend to group them as a group of two black and 8 white even though they are not related.

Figure ground

People tend to perceive the sensory date they are most attentive to as standing out against the background of other sensory data.

Schemas

cognitive (mental) structure in which related items of information are not grouped together.

Script

Stereotypes/prototypes

2 Schemas

Script

this is a schema that describes a sequence of actions. E.g., based on life's experience, people develop scripts in which they describe the sequences involved in many activities, ranging from birthday parties, weddings, meetings, etc.

Stereotypes/prototypes

a schema that summarizes a category o people or objects.

Interpretation

he stage in the perception process that involves looking for explanations for stimuli that have been observed. This involves 2 processes, projection and attribution

Projection

Attribution

2 Interpretation

Projection

Assigning one's own thoughts and feelings to a person being perceived.

Attribution

involves using observations and inferences to explain people's behavior.

Retrieval

The stage in the perception process that involves recalling information about past events.

Judgment

The stage of the perception process that involves aggregating and weighing information to arrive at an overall conclusion.

Sensitivity to stimuli

Learning

Moods, emotions

Recent experiences

Expectations, needs, values, interests

Influences on Perception

Characteristics of the Perceiver

Sensitivity to stimuli

some people appear to be more sensitive to stimuli than others;

Learning

As people's learning experiences expand along different lines, so too do their perceptions.

Moods, emotions

a person's state of mind at the time of perception can influence how the person organizes and interprets the stimuli. Optimistic and happy people tend to interpret their surroundings more positively than those who are pessimistic and depressed.

Recent experiences

For instance, recently you figure out a cognitive experience like ethical issues you are likely to apply the same in the forthcoming perceptions.

Expectations, needs, values, interests

ex. somebody who is ambitious for promotion might be inclined to noticed interpret colleagues' behavior as signaling they are competing for the

Intensity

Contrast

Frequency

Novelty

Size

Motion

Characteristics of the Stimulus Some types of stimuli grab attention better than others.

Primacy effect

Recency effect

Schemas

Characteristics of the Situation

Primacy effect

Stimuli near the beginning of the situation receive attention. First impressions really do matter.

Recency effect

stimuli near the end of the situation receive attention. The customer will remember the points near the closing of the sales rather than those points in the middle

Schemas

people evaluate stimuli differently whether or not it fits their schema for the context.

Perceptual defense

Perception Distortions

Perceptual defense

the tendency to protect ourselves from ideas, objects, and people that are threatening by selecting which stimuli to perceive and which to disregard.

Selective Attention

We tend to pay attention to the kinds of noticeable stimuli (as earlier discussed) plus those stimuli that match our expectations, needs, and interests.

Simplification and stereotypes

People use prototypes that are oversimplified: these include halo error, stereotypes, and contrasts.

Halo Error

A perceptual bias in rating, in which, the perceiver has an overall opinion of someone, and that opinion shapes the perceiver's rating of specific behaviors or characteristics.

Contrasts effect

a perceptual error that involves perceiving something as larger or smaller than it really is because it differs significantly from the reference point used to interpret

Selective retrieval

typically people forget (or fail to retrieve) information that is inconsistent with their scripts and prototypes

Performance cues

information from an external source that biases what people recall

Assimilation effect

Priming

Confirmation bias

Self-fulfilling prophecy (Pygmalion Effect)

Distortions in Judgment Stage

Assimilation effect

people tend to bias future judgments in the direction of their past judgments, so they make new judgments that closely resemble previous ones

Priming

a technique in which the researchers ask people to recall a set of events before asking them to make a judgment that may be related to those events.

Confirmation bias

the tendency to give heavy weight to information that reaffirms past judgments and to discount information that would contradict past judgments. One reason for this is that they would like people to think that they are consistent.

Self-fulfilling prophecy (Pygmalion Effect)

perceptions in line with expectations. High expectations may lead to high performance, and low expectations to low performance.

Attention Stage

Organization Stage

Interpretation Stage

Retrieval Stage

Judgment Stage

How to Overcome Misperception

Attention Stage

discuss with people who share a different perspective. They may raise additional possibilities to explore, or they may have noticed some information we have not.

Organization Stage

self-awareness is helpful. It is helpful to be aware of your scripts and prototypes and check whether the contents of these schemas fit with other people's scripts and prototypes, also ask yourself how well the scripts and schemas apply to the situation at hand.

Interpretation Stage

Again, discuss with people and compare your interpretation with those who observed the same stimuli. Doing this, you may identify some areas of controversy and may give you insights on what's or the other side of the coin.

Retrieval Stage

if you have records and facts, review them for accurate recall.

Judgment Stage

If your judgment does not match with that of others who are perceiving the same situation, explore the reasons for the difference.