Definition of perception

☆ Definition of Perception

Sensation is the first stage of the experience of a stimulus or stimuli present in the environment through our senses. But our sense organ become more active when encounters a sensation and act in more complex manner. The eye become more than a camera, the ear is more than a microphone. Both sensory systems transform their stimulus inputs at the very start of their neurological journey, emphasising differences and minimising stimulation that remain unchanged.

When we see a red rose, we merely do not have a sensation of the presence of an object around us, but we recognise it and know the characteristics of the rose. The sensation gets a meaning. This meaning depends not only on the presence o the stimulus but on many other factors like past experience, our needs, and our values. One who has not known about the rose may not be able to make meaning out of it. We rarely got one sensation at a time. We are most of the time flooded with a magnitude of messages. We sort it out, identify and interpret in order to construct a meaningful picture of reality.

So we may define perception as, “An active process in which we select, organise and import sensory input to achieve a group of our surroundings.”