Perception Psychology: Exploring Key Perception Theories

Perception is defined as “the process or result of becoming aware of objects, relationships, and events by means of the senses, which includes such activities as recognizing, observing, and discriminating.” This process allows us to notice and then interpret stimuli and sensory input around us so we can understand and respond accordingly. While perception may seem simple, it’s actually a complex and highly individualized process with many psychological components and implications. Below, we’ll cover the basics of perception psychology along with a few of the leading theories on this topic.

How we sense the world around us, from auditory to visual perception

Let’s start with a brief overview of the basic mechanisms of direct perception, or the ways in which we’re able to perceive the world around us (i.e., through sensory receptors). Scientists now recognize seven senses that humans can use to gather information about our surroundings. These sense organs and systems allow us to recognize faces, notice smells, and respond to other stimuli:

Visual perception

Visual perception involves sight and the visual information perceived through the eyes. It enables us to understand and navigate our environment through visual cues.

Tactile perception

Tactile perception is the awareness of sensation on the skin. It helps us feel touch, pressure, temperature, and pain, providing essential feedback about our environment.

Vestibular sense

The vestibular sense is the perception of balance and motion or physical energy. It helps us maintain equilibrium and coordinate movements.

Proprioception

Proprioception provides the perceptual context of the body’s position in space. It allows us to perform tasks with precision by understanding the relative position of our body parts.

The psychology of what the perception process involves in our brain

Perception psychology is a division of cognitive psychology that studies how humans receive and understand the information delivered through the senses—also known as the perceptual experience. As mentioned above, perception processes include a network of bodily systems and sense organs that receive information and then process it. As we interact with the physical world, our brains interpret this information to make sense of what we experience. 

Our brains also automatically attempt to group perceptions to help us understand and interpret our world. There are six main principles of the sensory systems the human mind uses to organize what it perceives:

• Similarity, or grouping things that look like each other. Items with the same shape, size, and/or color make up parts of perceived patterns that appear to belong together.
• Proximity, or grouping things according to how physically close they are to each other. The closer together they are, the more likely the brain will identify them as a group—even if they don’t have any connection to each other.
• Continuity, or the tendency to perceive individual elements and other objects as a whole rather than a series of parts
• Inclusiveness, or perceiving all elements of an image before recognizing the parts of it. For example, you may sense one object—a car—before recognizing the color, make, or who is inside. 
• Closure, or seeing a partial image or ambiguous picture and filling in the gaps of what you believe should be there. This ability allows one to overlook a partial understanding and perceive the situation in its entirety, despite missing information. 
• Prägnanz, or the tendency to simplify complex stimuli into a simple pattern. An example is using visual systems to look at a complex building and being aware of where the front door is while not registering the structure’s many other features.

Main theories on the psychology of the perception experience

Psychologists and researchers continue to explore the nuances of this complex field. As of today, here’s a brief overview of some of the key perception psychology theories out there. Note that none of these completely explains the process in every instance; this field of study is ongoing.

Perception psychology according to Bruner

Jerome S. Bruner was an American psychologist who theorized that people go through various processes before they form opinions about what they have observed. According to Bruner, people use different informational cues to ultimately define their perceptions. This information-seeking continues until the individual comes across a familiar part and the mind categorizes it. If signals are distorted or do not fit a person’s initial perceptions, the images are forgotten or ignored while a picture forms on the most familiar perceptions. 

Perception psychology according to Gibson

James J. Gibson is another American psychologist who studied perception psychology. Gibson is known for his philosophy of the direct theory of visual perception in particular, also called the “bottom-up” processing theory. He believed we can explain visual perception solely in terms of the environment, beginning with a sensory stimulus. In each stage of the perceptual processes, the eyes send signals to the brain to continue analyzing—from the bottom up—until it can conclude what the person is seeing.

Gibson theorized that the starting point of the bottom-up process of visual perception begins with the pattern of light that reaches our eyes. These signals then form the basis of our understanding of perceptions because they convey unambiguous information about the spatial layout we perceive. He further defined perception according to what he called affordances. He identified six affordances of perception, including:

• Optical array: the patterns of light that travel from the environment to the eyes

• Relative brightness: the perception that brighter, more evident objects are closer than darker, out-of-focus objects

• Texture gradient: The grain of texture becomes less defined as an object recedes, indicating that the object may be further in the distance.

• Relative size: Objects that are farther away will appear smaller.

• Superimposition: When one image partially blocks another, the viewer sees the first image as being closer to them. Superimposition is similar to inattentional blindness, in which the eyes cannot see an object because another object fully engages them.

• Height in the visual field: Objects that are further away from the viewer typically appear higher in the visual field.

Perception psychology, according to Gregory

Richard Langton Gregory was a British psychologist and Emeritus Professor of Neuropsychology at the University of Bristol. Gregory was also the author of the constructivist theory of perception, or the "top-down" processing theory—which takes the opposite approach of Gibson’s “bottom-up” theory. It assumes that our cognitive processes—including memory and perception—result from our continuously generating hypotheses about the world from the top down. In other words, we recognize patterns by understanding the context in which we perceive them. 

Consider handwriting as an example. The handwriting of many individuals can be difficult for others to read; however, if we can pick out a few words here or there, it helps us understand the text’s context, and that helps us figure out the words we could not read. In other words, Gregory's theory assumes we have previous knowledge of what we are perceiving in addition to the stimulus itself. Because stimuli can often be ambiguous, correctly perceiving them requires a higher level of cognition because we must draw from stored knowledge or past experiences to help us understand our perceptions. He believed perception is based on our accumulated knowledge and that we actively construct perceptions whether they’re correct or not—though an incorrect hypothesis can lead to errors in perception.

Exploring how thoughts affect perception with a therapist

The way we perceive objects, individuals, events, and our environment can have a significant impact on our mood, emotions, and behaviors. In some cases, our perceptions can be distorted, which can lead to distressing feelings or even symptoms of a mental health condition like depression or anxiety. Talk therapy—cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) in particular—is one way to learn how to recognize any cognitive distortions you may be experiencing and shift your thoughts in a more realistic, balanced, and healthy direction. 

Regularly attending in-person therapy sessions is not possible for everyone. Some may not have adequate provider options in their area, while others may have trouble commuting to and from in-office sessions. In cases like these, online therapy can represent a viable alternative. A platform like BetterHelp can match you with a licensed therapist who you can meet with via video, phone, and/or in-app messaging, all from the comfort of home. Research suggests that virtual therapy is “no less efficacious” than the in-person variety in many cases, so you can generally feel confident in selecting whichever format may work best for you.