Perception and Attention Issues - Essay Example

Perception and Attention Perception is the way in which humans grasp world and attention helps him to absorb facts better. Perception is a first stepin the social cognitive function and attention is the first step in perception. Perception is an interface between inner world and the outer world. Our perception is assisted with the help of sensory outputs. When we see, touch or hear we get a certain perception about an object, place or person. However during perception we give attention to that process of cognition and then we experience it on a deeper level. One cannot have perception without giving proper attention to that experience or event. Perception and attention are two functions that can be defined as an automatic process which happens naturally as a body functions. The perception and attention is a psychological process and as we perceive things according our information process. However perception and attention is largely driven by automatic process. Perception happens due to automatic integration of sensory stimuli. For example our perception is not formed by our ideas .Our ideas and thoughts do not influence this social cognitive process. Perception and attention is independent and automatic. It occurs due to integration of stimuli. The term perception refers to what happens to information after it has been detected by the senses. Perception is the processing and modification of sensory information by the internal cognitive processes of the individual, and the end result of that processing. It combines various sensory effects in to a single whole unified phenomenon. The perception and attention can be considered more as awareness rather than a thought process. When we look we don’t see a mass of brightness or colors but we see objects like book, computer, and cup of coffee. We see objects and people. Understanding what we see is different as it related to knowledge and it is not automatic. One person can see a book but in order to understand what it is he should know it is a book otherwise he can think that it is object which has thin sheets which can flipped and has writings in it. So to perceive one need is cognitive functioning and sensory inputs and hence it is biological and automatic process. However perception and attention is base of all knowledge. Perception of a person is based on his attention and it is a selection process. Our perception is influenced by our attention as it is a selection process that operates between our perception and sensation ability. The sensation is majorly a psychological process and it is a cognitive functioning based on sensory structure. For example, the information process of pilots during the Second World War to guide aircrafts to aerodromes is a kind of cognitive functioning. Here the sensation, perception and attention are process which is interlinked and it is automatic. As these are all related to brain functions we can understand it is an automatic biological process. We know that brain functions in a natural way and perception and attention being cognitive are automatic biological process. Attention is a mediating point between sensation and perception. This integration in cognitive functioning is called cognitive neuroscience. The perception and attention helps a person to solve practical problems in daily life. Perception is different among people as some may perceive images immediately than other. Perception can depend on the efficiency of their sensory inputs and attention they provide to the fact or object. Sensation may be same but perception can differ among people. Conscious perception is based on conscious awareness. Our stored memory and knowledge of an object can influence our perception and it is automatic. However our attention makes our perception perfect. Attention is a process by which cognitive processing resources are located. When the sensory inputs are stimulated by outer world the perception is also influenced by our attention. In a research study conducted on color blindness where people asked direction to people about a building only some noticed the difference in person they approached for direction. The person who was asked about direction had been changed and people did not notice the difference in people. This study shows that people perceived less than they were presented with. People notice only individual feature of a person from a similar social group and focused on general group feature of a person from different group. So here we can understand that people’s perception highly depends on the attention they placed on an object, place or event. This study gives us an understanding on the link between perception, attention and social identity. Brian has a limited capacity to central processor and this is the reason why people takes in only limited information while perceiving things and people. It is believed that arousal increases the perception and gain more attention of a person. We can understand that the effect of arousal on us is automatic. When one perceive or gives attention to their favorite food they get arousal as to eat the food. So we can understand the perception and attention is an automated process. In the dual - task studies the experiment was done to find out the attention resource allocation process. For example, while driving a car one need to focus attention on the condition of car, vehicles on road, driving process and direction. We can understand that we automatically allocate our senses as we drive a vehicle. While driving many functions takes place and an experienced driver can do things simultaneously without effort which means that we do perceive in an automatic manner. The drivers however reacted differently in laboratory rather than on road. As per ( Edgar) “For example, it has been shown that drivers react in different ways in the laboratory compared with on the road. However, as Graham Edgar points out, ‘real-world’ experiments raise their own set of difficulties”. This means that people have awareness and their perception and attention work automatically according to the situation. So perception and attention is regulated by an automated process by awareness and cognitive functioning. Another dual task research was conducted where participants were shown letters and auditory tone which followed a warning signal. One letter was followed by another with a warning signal and the difference is letters were asked to the participants. The auditory tones were presented at different times during visual task. It was identified that if the auditory tone was presented with the letters then the participated responded slower than it was presented at different timings. Here we can understand that perception and attention of a person can differentiate if too much information is provided. The participants did not have sufficient resources to process information. This means resource pools are divided and allocated for specific task. It means when there is multiple pools of resources we can access only limited amount of sensory information. For example in musical concert the spot light can aid our vision and hearing. Because spotlight focuses our attention on the musical instrument it helps in adding to our visual efficiency. So we can see there is attention tunneling which means we may not be aware that we focus our attention and awareness on a specific object without a control. It is mostly stimuli induced as our eyes focus on light and hence we see instrument and hence hear music better. This means stimuli – induced shift of attention is automatic process. The spot light reduced our attention on other objects and focuses us one specific object. This perception and attention are automatic and does not require our special mental process. Read More