Each individual’s perception may react differently to the same event or situation. For example, even two people who see the same picture may have a different perception due to their personal background, emotional state and previous experiences. Therefore, perception is personal and varies between individuals. Perception is a cognitive ability to capture, process and actively make sense of information received through our senses. Our sensory organs play an important role in helping us perceive stimuli from our environment, enabling us to understand our surroundings. This cognitive process is extremely important for our everyday life. Perception is an ability that can be developed and exercised through cognitive training. This process requires both “bottom-up” and “top-down” processing of information. That is, it is not only passively guided by information from the outside world, but also actively anticipates and controls a particular stimulus. In this way, perception both interacts with information from the outside world and gains meaning by interacting with the individual’s prior knowledge and experiences.
Perception is a complex process that is not reduced to the classical five senses. Among them, spatial perception involves the ability to be aware of environmental relationships and depends on dermal and kinesthetic perception. Shape perception refers to the ability to learn about the boundaries and angles of an entity and is linked to visual and dermal perception. Example;
Time perception refers to the ability to understand changes in stimuli and organize them over time. Kinesthetic perception involves the ability to interpret information about the environment and the movement and speed of the body and is related to visual, spatial, temporal, dermal, proprioceptive, visceral and vestibular perception. Chemosensory perception represents the capacity to interpret the interaction of chemicals in saliva and is linked to taste perception. Perception is an active process in which we need to select, organize and interpret the information transmitted to the brain. This process consists of a series of important steps. First, in the selection stage, the amount of information we encounter in everyday life exceeds our cognitive capacity. Perception therefore has to filter and select. This selection is based on priorities that are unique to us. Next, we need to organize the stimuli into groups in order to make sense of the information we have selected. There is synergy in perception because what is perceived is considered as an overall whole. Finally, in the interpretation stage, we complete the perception process by giving meaning to all the selected and organized stimuli. The interpretation process is shaped by our past experiences and expectations. In this stage, we combine the perceived information with our own unique perspective and evaluations,
There is a strong relationship between perception and neuromarketing. Neuromarketing can study brain activity to understand how attention can be captured. It can develop new methods and strategies by taking into account the individual’s personalized perception. The difference in perception can be turned into positive data.
Reference:
Psychologist Merve Altındağ
Evelyn Shatil, Jaroslava Mikulecká, Francesco Bellotti, Vladimír Burěs – Novel Television-Based Cognitive Training Improves Working Memory and Executive Function – PLoS ONE July 03, 2014. 10.1371/journal.pone.010147
Improves Sleep Quality and Cognitive Function among Older Adults with Insomnia. PLoS ONE 8(4): e61390. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0061390 Thompson HJ, Demiris G, Rue T, Shatil E, Wilamowska K, Zaslavsky O, Reeder B. – Telemedicine Journal and E-health Date and Volume: 2011 Dec;17(10,):794-800. Epub 2011 Oct 19.
