Theories Of Perception Essay Example for Free

Theories Of Perception EssayHow the mind whole kit and caboodle during perception afford been champion of the mysteries of the mind. Cognitive psychology is involved in the investigation and the conceiveing of behaviors that is caused by cognitive functioning. If developmental psychology had to deal with the nature-nurture debate, the theories of perception are generally conceived either as a bottom-up near or the top-down approach. The bottom-up approach says that perception visual stimuli is dependent on the characteristics of the stimuli, if the stimuli has the right color, shape, intensity and background, accordingly the mind would readily perceive the stimuli (No, 2004). On the other hand, the top-down approach says that perception is influenced by previous experience and learning, wherein perception is dependent on what the mind have antecedently known and conceived about the stimuli (No, 2004). Thus, the mind has a sort of schema that guides the mind in identifying t he stimuli presented to him/her. It is also interest to note that perception as with e genuinelything else is shaped by the social and cultural context in which it occurs.In a conservative culture, same sex marriages may be perceived as immoral and abnormal, and to cultures who have endorsed homosexuality do not perceive it as such. In another pattern, a Catholic whenever he sees a cross or a church would surely make the sign on the cross while a Protestant or a Baptist would not. In order to illustrate the deflexion between the two approaches to perception the following examples are provided.Bottom-up The ability to appreciate an abstract delineation is an example of the bottom-up approach. The individualistic viewing the painting do not have any composition what the painting is and what it depicts. The mind then processes the painting in terms of the different color gradients, shapes, spatial characteristics and then tries to present a coherent whole that the mind place unde rstand (Marr, 1982).Thus, an abstract painting behind be interpreted in different ways since the viewer may manipulate the different strokes, colorize and lines to form an object or a figure that is pleasing to the eye. However, our perception of what the abstract painting represents can be affected by the cultural orientation of the perceiver. A person coming from a very structured environment may find the abstract painting worthless as he cannot understand it for it needinessed structure, while a person who is very open-minded may find the painting a gainsay since it makes him think.Top-down The famous expression hold offing for a needle in a haystack is an example of the top-down approach. The expression is meant to convey difficulty in finding a specific object or person, but when we look at it cognitively, it is not that difficult. The person who must find the needle already have a concept of what the needle looks like, it is thin, shiny and has a sharp edge (Gregory, 1990) . This information could have been organise during previous encounters with a needle, thus the task becomes easier because the person has to focus only on one thing, and that is the needle.He/she may eliminate the hay straws since they do not look like a needle. However, it would have been a different scenario if the person tasked with finding the needle has not had any experience with a needle, an example is quiescence Beauty. Due to the banishment of the spindle in her kingdom, she did not know what it looked like and hence she got pricked by one and was placed on a spell. Similarly, culture shock may also be caused by the lack of prior experience or knowledge of what the new culture testament be like, hence the individual is overwhelmed with the new stimulus.Bottom-up and Top-down The perceptual process involved in the perception of an object imbed in the background includes the bottom-up and top-down approach. The person directed to find the objects unknown in the furnish will first look at the picture and then analyze its characteristics and what it represents then he/she will look for the shapes, lines or a shift in color or depth (bottom-up) to determine where the hidden objects might be found.When the person has found the hidden object and identifies what it is, he/she then proceeds to look for the other objects guided by the knowledge of what the object would be (top-down). If the hidden object is as frequent as a face, then identifying it would not be difficult, but if it were an obscure figure like a zodiac sign, then only those who have had prior knowledge of zodiacs would be able to find the hidden object.ReferencesGregory, R. L. (1990). How do we interpret images? In H. Barlow C. Blakemore M.Weston-Smith (Eds.), Images and Understanding, Thoughts About Images, IdeasAbout Understanding (pp. 310-330). Cambridge Cambridge University Press.Marr, D. (1982).Vision. New YorkW. H. Freeman and Sons.No, A. (2004). Action in Perception, Cambridge, MA MIT Press.