Tutorial question: What is perception and why is it different from seeing?
According to Barry (2002, p.91-92), perception is the process where a person uses the external sensory information and combine it with other internal conscious and unconscious workings of the brains so that he/she could make sense of the world. In short, perception is the interpretation of visual stimulus. Perception can only occur if the person have a concept of reality.
The process of perception can be made in two ways; consciousness and unconsciousness. When the person is perceiving consciously, either one of the following will occur; extrospection or introspection. Extrospection is the process of cognition and understanding the external, material world, while introspection is the process of cognition and understanding the material world through one's psychology and mental actions, such as feeling, reflecting and imagining. The perception of time and space is shaped by science and by our cultural and social environment.
Why is it different from seeing? According to Lester (1995, p.4), Huxley manage to achieve clear vision by using the formula: sensing + selecting + perceiving = seeing. As we can see from the formula, perceiving is apart of the formula to get to seeing. This shows that perceiving and seeing are two different things. Seeing is just merely seeing and the process is determined by our biological properties. "What" and "How we know" what we see is determined by our perception. "The way we see things is affected by what we know or what we believe." (Berger et al., 1972, p.8). This show that what we see is affected by what we perceive.
The picture below shows that even without seeing, perception occur. The three person just touch the elephant, and three of them think otherwise. One hold the trunks and perceive it as a snake. One hold the body and perceive it as a brick wall and one held the tail and perceive is as a rope. But when those three people and see that it's an elephant then what they perceive will be false. From here we see the clear distinct difference of "seeing" and "perceiving".
Reference List
Barry, A.M. (2002). Perception and Visual Communication Theory. Journal of Visual Literacy, 22 (1), 91-106.
Berger, J., Blomberg, S., Fox, C., Dibb, M., Hollis, R. (1972). Ways Of Seeing. London and New York: Penguin Books.
Lester, P.M. (1995). Visual Communication: Images with Message. United States of America: Wadsworth Publishing.
