Perception helps a person to know objective reality. Constancy, which is one of its main properties, is expressed in the constancy of color, shape and size of objects, and also provides the individual with knowledge of the world.
Perception and its properties
Perception in its essence refers to a complex mental process, which consists in a holistic reflection of the phenomena and objects acting at a certain time on the senses. Conventionally, perception is presented as a combination of thinking, memory and sensations. Experts distinguish the following properties of perception:
- objectivity;
- integrity;
- constancy;
- generality;
- selectivity;
- structurality;
- meaningfulness.
We suggest that you consider each of the above properties in more detail.
Subjectivity
With the help of objectivity and constancy of perception, a person is not able to perceive the surrounding reality in the form of a set of different sensations. Instead, he sees and distinguishes between separate objects that have certain properties that cause these sensations. After a long study and various experiments, scientists came to the conclusion that the lack of objectivity of perception can cause disorientation in space, a violation of the perception of color, shape and movement, as well as hallucinations and other mental deviations.
One of such experiments was as follows: the subject was placed in a bath with physiological saline at a temperature comfortable for him, where his perception was limited. He only saw a faded white light and heard monotonous distant sounds, and the coatings on his hands prevented him from receiving tactile sensations. After several hours of being in such a state, a person developed an anxious state, after which he asked to stop the experiment. During the experiment, subjects noted deviations in the perception of time and hallucinations.
Integrity
It is worth noting that the integrity and constancy of perception are interconnected. This property of perception allows you to create a holistic image of the subject, using the generalized information received about the individual qualities and attributes of the subject. Due to its integrity, we are able to perceive organized reality in a certain way, and not a chaotic accumulation of touches, individual sounds and color spots. For example, when listening to music, our perception is subject to hearing not individual sounds (frequency fluctuations), but the melody as a whole. So it is with everything that happens - we see, hear and feel the whole picture, and not separate parts of what is happening.
Meaningfulness
The essence of this property is to give a perceived phenomenon or object a certain meaning, to designate it with a word, and also to relate it to a specific language group, based on the baggage of knowledge of the subject and his past experience. One of the simplest forms of conceptualization of phenomena and objects is recognition.
Swiss psychologist Herman Rorschach revealed that even random ink spots are perceived by a person as something meaningful (lake, cloud, flowers, etc.), and only people with mental disabilities tend to perceive them simply as abstract spots. It follows from this that the perception of meaningfulness proceeds as a process of searching for answers to the question: “What is this?”.
Structural
This property helps a person to combine acting stimuli into relatively simple and holistic structures. Thanks to the stable signs of objects, a person is able to recognize and distinguish them. Externally different, but essentially uniform objects are recognized as such by reflecting their structural organization.
Generalization
A certain generalization can be traced in each process of perception, and the degree of generalization is directly related to the level and volume of knowledge. For example, a white flower with thorns is recognized by a person as a rose, or as a representative of the multi-colored family. In generalization, the main role is played by the word, and the name synonymous with a certain subject helps to increase the level of generalization of perception.
Selectivity
It implies the preferential allocation of certain objects in relation to others, due to the distinctive features of the subject of perception: his motives, needs, experience, etc. Of the many phenomena and objects that surround us, a person selects at some point only some of them, and the rest remain only a background. The constancy of perception, meaningfulness, selectivity and its other properties are of great biological significance. Otherwise, the existence and adaptation of man would not have been possible in the surrounding world if perception had not reflected its constant and stable properties.
Constancy
The integrity of perception has a close relationship with constancy, which should be understood as the relative independence of certain properties of objects from their mappings on receptor surfaces. With the help of constancy, we are able to perceive phenomena and objects as relatively constant in position, size, color and shape.
In psychology, the constancy of perception is the stability of the adoption of various properties of phenomena or objects that persist during various physical changes in stimulation: the intensity of speed, distance, light, and much more.
Significance of Constancy
Oa helps an individual to distinguish the sizes of certain objects, his objective form, color and angle of view of perceived objects. As an example of the constancy of perception, we can cite the following: just imagine, if our perception would not have such a property, then with every movement any object would lose its properties.
In this case, instead of certain things, we would see only a constant flicker of continuously decreasing and increasing, shifting, stretching and flattening glare and spots of unimaginable variegation. In this scenario, a person would not be able to perceive the world of stable objects and phenomena, which, accordingly, would not be able to serve as a means of cognition of objective reality.
Thus, the constancy of perception is the property of the perceptual image to maintain relative invariability when changing the conditions of perception, the absence of which would lead to continuous chaos. That is why scientists pay special attention to this aspect.
Constancy of perception: types of constancy
Specialists distinguish a sufficiently large number of species. This property of perception takes place for almost any perceived characteristics of an object. Consider the most popular right now.
Stability of the visible world
One of the most important and fundamental among the types of constancy is the stability of the world. Specialists also call this type of constancy of the visual direction. Its essence is as follows: when the gaze of the observer or himself moves, the person himself seems to be moving, and the objects surrounding him are perceived as stationary. It is worth noting that the weight of the item is constant and perceived by us. Despite the fact that we lift the load with our whole body, foot, one or two hands - the assessment of the weight of the item will be approximately the same.
Form constancy
Distortions in the perception of the shape of objects can be found in the case when the orientation of the objects or the subject itself changes. This type is one of the important properties of the visual system, since proper recognition of the shape of objects is a necessary condition for adequate interaction of a person with the world around him. One of the first to identify the role of observer knowledge and signs of remoteness in form constancy was Robert Towless.
In 1931, an experiment was conducted by a psychologist, the essence of which was as follows: he invited the subjects to evaluate and draw or select from a certain set of squares or circles that would be similar in shape to the proposed objects lying on a horizontal surface at different distances from the observer. As a result of the experiment, the subjects chose a form of stimulus that did not coincide with either the projection form or its real form, but lay between them.
Speed perception
It is believed that the closer the trajectory, the higher the displacement rate of the retinal picture of objects will become.
Therefore, two objects located far away seem slower than in the real dimension. The perceived speed of nearby things depends on the phenomenal distance traveled per unit of time and, as a rule, does not change significantly.
Constancy of color and light perception
By color constancy is meant the ability of vision to correct the color perception of objects, for example, under natural light at any time of the day or when the spectrum of their lighting changes, for example, when their dark room comes out. Experts have come to the conclusion that the mechanism of constancy of perception is acquired.
This is evidenced by a number of studies. In one experiment, scientists conducted a study on people constantly living in a dense forest. Their perception is of interest, since previously they did not meet objects at a great distance. When the observers were shown objects that were at a great distance from them, they seemed to these objects not as remote, but as small.
Similar violations of constancy can be seen among the inhabitants of the plains when they look at objects down from a height. In addition, from the top floor of a high-rise building, cars or people passing by seem like tiny sizes to us. It is worth noting that in a child from two years old such types of constancy begin to form, such as sizes, shapes and colors. In addition, they tend to improve up to fourteen years.
Constant value
A well-known fact is that the image of an object, as well as its image on the retina, decreases when the distance to it increases, and vice versa. But despite the fact that when the distance of observation varies, the size of objects on the retina changes, its perceived dimensions remain almost unchanged. For example, look at the audience in a cinema: all faces will seem to us almost the same size, despite the fact that the images of people who are far away are much smaller than those located close to us.
Finally
The key source of constancy is the vigorous activity of the perceptual system. She manages to correct and correct various errors caused by the variety of the world around objects, as well as create adequate images of perception. An example of this is the following: if you put on glasses and go into an unfamiliar room, you can see how visual perception will distort images and objects, but after a while a person ceases to notice distortions caused by glasses, although they will be reflected on the retina.
An adequate correlation between the objects of the world around us reflected in perception and perception itself is the main correlation, as a result of which all relations between states of consciousness, irritations and irritants are regulated. Thus, it should be concluded that the constancy of perception, which is formed in the process of objective activity, can be considered a necessary condition for human life and activity. Without this property of perception, it would be difficult for any person to navigate in a changing and infinitely diverse world.