Human Perception
From ElateWiki
With the popularity of e-learning and the design of 3D immersive simulations and experiences for experiential learning, the study of perception has become important—so the designs align with the most efficient applications of human sensing.
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Sensory Systems
The five senses are traditionally categorized as the “far” and the “near” senses. The far senses involve sight and hearing because humans may use these for information that is far away as well as up close. Then, there are the near senses: smell, taste, and touch. These sensory systems work in coordination to create a holistic sense of the world for people.
Perception is understood as the initial milli-second update of sensory information—before full cognition of the stimuli. Perception may occur both unconsciously and consciously.
Not all perceptions though come from the physical world. The concept of “intrinsic light” or “dark light” alludes to the brain activity that occurs without stimulus from the world but is just part of the brain functioning. (Human dreams, hallucinations, injuries, and diseases, may also cause perceptual effects that are internal to the person.)
Psychophysics
A rigorous branch of psychology involves the study of psychophysics, which originated in the 1800s. This area of study focuses on how physical stimulation is translated into perceptual events. This science uses empirical research methods in laboratories, and the results are reported out in quantitative ways.
The structure of the sensory organs [eyes, ears, nose, tongue, and skin (sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch)] and their functions, and the processing of sensory signals in the brain (neural activity) are also critical aspects of the study of perception. Cognitive neuroscience identifies the functions of aspects of the brain and their interactions to support human perception. Lesion studies focus on compromises and changes to human perceptual capabilities based on damage to particular brain regions (due to accidents or diseases) and then later to “reversible lesions” induced in laboratories through magnetic stimulation.
Another lab-based approach is to examine “event related potentials”—the brain behavior with particular human perceptual experiences—as measured by brain imaging techniques (positron emission tomography, and functional magnetic resonance imaging).
A possible “sixth sense” may be understood as proprioception—or the spatial orientation from stimuli within the body. This unconscious perception stems from the awareness of the position of one’s body—in a kind of physical memory.
General Principles
The “materialism” approach suggests that human perception comes through the sensory organs and is processed through the brain. The “dualism” approach suggests that perception depends on the physical and some non-physical substance (like the soul).
Perception is a psychological process, too, in that environmental stimuli trigger neural activity (converting one form of energy to another—as a kind of sensory transduction), with perception being the interpretation of neural signals. Research suggests that human brains have some templating and categorization functions for particular sensory signals, to help people understand shape, form, distances, textures, light, and other aspects (in terms of the visual system).
Early research, known as “structuralism,” used human introspection to try to identify the “atoms” of perception (a reductionist approach)—the basic elements of perception—and to decompose various complex forms into component parts. Gestalt psychology focused on the relationships among sensory stimuli in terms of grouping principles. The constructivist approach looked at how human experiences and expectations (such as priming) affected human perception. This also looked at the role of inferences and problem-solving in terms of affecting perceptions. A person’s mental models or representations affect the inferences made about the incoming information.
Naïve realism refers to the assumption that the world is exactly as it is perceived. Any number of illusory experiences may show the inaccuracy of that assumption. Solipsism suggests a closed ego-based system that suggests that nothing exists outside of a person’s mind.
A computational (information processing) approach views perception as an informational tool—that extracts relevant features of objects and scenarios and environments.
Perception is a resource, with limited intra-modal resources (audio-audio / visual-visual) in terms of parallel processing (time-shared efficiencies) but more efficient cross-modal time-sharing (such as simultaneous auditory-visual channels).
Indirect Perception / Constructivist vs. Direct Perception / Ecological Approaches
Two basic schools of thought debate how to view sensory information.
The constructivist approach suggests that the stimuli in the environment are incomplete, so the human mind has to fill in the gaps based on prior knowledge and experiences. This suggests higher order mental processes that enforce a meaning over the sensory inputs. Perception here may be understood as a function of discrete time sampling. Information needs to be contexualized, and the perceivers have an active role in creating and interpreting the meaning of the information. Memory, then, is an important aspect of this indirect perception approach. People rely on memory to both interpolate (fill in gaps of information) and to extrapolate (to speculate beyond the boundaries of the known information).
The direct (ecological) perception approach suggests that the environment has sufficient stimuli richness, and the animal (based on evolutionary perception changes) gets everything it needs from sampling the environment. This approach focuses on the animal-environment relationship and suggests that the animal adjusts to its niche in order to survive, and the sensory organs then are tools that support that endeavor (Michaels & Carello, 1981). One example of this information richness exists in J.J. Gibson’s concept of “optic array” or “optic flow” in the flux and movement of light in the world. Gibson suggested that “information” is the bridge between the animal and the world that enables them to interact. This approach suggests a lower-order mental processing of specific details that are innately understood by the animal in its niche environment.
Perception here is seen as part of a continuous collection of information based on the length of the particular event or nested event (interrelated events). This theoretical approach suggests that the “perceiving” and the “acting” animal are the same, and the interactive perceiving in the environment is always tactical and survival-based (Michaels & Carello, 1981, p. 54). While the sensory research done under ecological perception often should be real-world, the theorists do suggest that artificial changes in an environment do change the affordances of the environment (Gibson, 1979, as cited in Michaels & Carello, 1981, p. 55). Mediated sensing (as through sensors) may still be considered direct perception. The reason why memory is considered unimportant in direct perception is that the theorists suggest anatomical and physiological improvements in the human animal over time based on genetic changes and the experiences of forbears…that allows for richer sensory interactions with the environment (Michaels & Carello, 1981, p. 77). In other words, experience makes a more adaptive animal. Memory would be too unwieldy in evolution and would require more time than the milli-seconds needed for initial perception and sensory processing.
“Invariants” are “patterns of stimulation over time and / or space that are left unchanged by certain transformations” (Michaels & Carello, 1981, p. 20). Universal ones span the animal-environment systems, and local invariants are unique to particular animal-environment niches. Features of invariants include shapes, sizes, brightness, and other elements—which abide by the laws of physics and are quantifiable by math. Perceived from different angles, these forms are still constant. “Ecological optics” are physical aspects of light relevant to the animal in the environment (Michaels & Carello, 1981, p. 22).
How humans pay attention will affect the quality of the stimulus perception captured. Focused detection is a way that people filter environmental information.
The Relevance to E-Learning
Perception research may be applied to a variety of design work in e-learning: user design interface and beta testing, simulation building, learner priming and post-simulation debriefing, and other elements.
Immersive 3D spaces do not have the same affordances of live environments. For example, the head movement used to collect visual and sound information (and even smells) do not have the same relevance in synthetic 3D worlds.
Im not wothry to be in the same forum. ROTFL
References
Michaels, C.F. & Carello, C. (1981). Direct Perception. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, Inc.
Weigelt, S. (2007). Seeing things: Illusory contours in the human visual brain.” Retrieved February 2, 2010, from http://www.cns.nyu.edu/heegerlab/content/publications/Weigelt-commentary-JNeurosci2007.pdf.