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Vision lends itself to illusion more than other senses. No wonder they say: "do not believe your eyes," "optical illusion."

 Light objects against a dark background appear to be enlarged against their actual size. A dark object appears to be smaller than a light one of the same size.

These illusions are explained by the fact that each light contour of an object is surrounded by a light border on the retina. She also increases the size of the image. In general, all light objects seem larger to us than dark ones. In a dark dress, people seem thinner than in a light one.

 When comparing two figures, one of which is smaller than the other, we mistakenly perceive all parts of the smaller figure as smaller, and all parts of the large figure as large. This is clearly seen in the figure: the upper segment on it seems to be longer than the lower one, although in fact they are equal.

 Look at the picture where the lines are shown - horizontal and vertical. Which ones are longer? You will say that the vertical ones are longer. This is a visual error. The lines are the same length. The horizontal ones are halved by the vertical ones, and therefore it seems that they are shorter.

 Artists, architects, and tailors are well aware of visual illusions. They use them in their work. For example, a tailor sews a dress from striped fabric. If he arranges the fabric so that the stripes are horizontal, then the woman in this dress will appear taller. And if you "lay" the stripes horizontally, then the owner of the dress will appear lower and thicker.

 Shape-shifter - a type of optical illusion, when the nature of the perceived object depends on the direction of the gaze. One of these illusions is the "duck-hare": the image can be interpreted both as an image of a duck and as an image of a hare.

 Sometimes illusions arise under the influence of strong emotions: For example, in fear, a person may mistake one thing for another (a tree stump in the forest is a beast.)

^ What do you see in the picture?

Which of the central more circles?	Which of the vertical segments are longer?
^ Are the lines parallel?	How many legs does an elephant have?

New concepts : perception, sensation, kinesthetic, organic, vibrational sensations, illusions of perception.

Test questions.

1. 
   What are sensation and perception?
2. 
   What are the similarities and differences between these processes?
3. 
   What are the physiological mechanisms of sensation?
4. 
   What types of sensations and perceptions do you know? What do they mean?

1. 
   What role do sensations and perceptions play in our lives?
2. 
   What are the illusions of perception? Give examples of illusions.
3. 
   Describe the sensations that make up the image of the pine tree.
4. 
   Why do we notice dust on furniture and not feel the dust particles that fall on our face?
5. 
   Choose the correct answer.

Psychology deals with the study of various mental phenomena, states and processes. With birth, each of us learns the world at all its levels with the help of our senses. We breathe in, inspect, touch, taste, be aware, etc. Psychologists divide these processes into and sensation.

Feeling is the first step in information processing. There are five main types of sensations: smell, hearing, taste, touch and sight. Without them, conscious life is simply impossible. The subject would simply fall asleep. For example, sensation allows you to recognize a warm object or cold, bright or dull, heavy or light, etc. All our sensations are momentary. We actively react to what is happening around us, as a result of which our eye pupils move, blood vessels narrow and muscles tighten. This sensory experience allows you to gain knowledge about the world around you.

How is sensation different from perception?

Perception completes the picture and forms a holistic image. It allows you to obtain information about objects and phenomena in general, i.e. processes the sum of sensations and forms the result. At the same time, perception includes information based on past experience and even ideas. It involves thinking, attention, memory, motor sphere, personality traits. For example, if we hold perfume in our hand, look at the packaging and inhale the scent, the whole experience will be called perception. In this case, such sensations as sight, smell and touch will be involved.

The relationship of sensation and perception

As a result of the sensation, a sensation is generated, such as brightness, sweetness, or loudness. Perception forms a complete image in our head, which consists of puzzles of sensations. In order to learn how to perceive information well, it is necessary to be able to recognize, synthesize and analyze the characteristics of a material object. Thus, the individual perceived details are combined in one whole that serves as the source of our experience. Violation of sensation and perception is the threshold of sensitivity. It can be low or high in relation to the norm. Neuropathologists are involved in the treatment of such phenomena.

Every living being is endowed with the ability to feel from birth. But only some animals and people possess perception. The ability to perceive improves over time. This helps us to better understand certain processes, so it is important to work on our development and improve perception.

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Every day we experience a huge number of sensations: we smell smells, distinguish colors, temperature, brightness of light and much more. What is this feature of our body and how does the brain function? How is sensation different from perception? And why do you need to know all this? In this article, we will answer these questions.

What is the feeling

Sensation (sensory experience) is a mental process that is a mental reflection of certain properties and conditions of the external environment that affect our sense organs. Simply put, this is the body's detection of external or internal stimulation. For example, the eyes detect light waves, the ears detect sound waves.

The sensing process consists of three sequential stages:

1. Sensory receptors detect stimuli (stimuli).
2. Sensory stimuli are converted into electrical impulses (action potentials) that must be decoded by the brain.
3. Electrical impulses move along neurons to certain parts of the brain, where the impulses are decoded into information (perception enters the scene).

For example, when soft tissue is touched, mechanoreceptors (sensory receptors on the skin) notice that your skin has been touched. This sensory information is then converted into neural information through a process called transduction. Next, neural information travels along nerve pathways to the corresponding part of the brain, where sensations are perceived as touching tissue.

Many psychologists have asked the question "How to measure the intensity of a sensation?" The answer has not yet been found, but the thresholds have been identified:

1. Absolute Threshold: The minimum amount of stimulation that a person can detect 50% of the time. This is the point at which something becomes tangible to our senses. For example, the quietest sound we can hear, or the slightest touch we can feel. Anything below this threshold goes unnoticed.
2. The difference threshold (or just a noticeable difference) is the minimum difference that must occur between two body stimuli to identify them as two separate sensations 50% of the time. Here's an example: you hear the sound of a radio in the next room, and then you realize that someone has added sound. The difference threshold is the sum of the changes required to understand that a change has occurred. However, the difference itself is not absolute. Imagine that you are holding a suitcase weighing 5 kilograms. If you add 1 kilogram, you will feel the difference. But if it weighs 50 and add 1 kilogram to it, you will hardly notice it. Therefore, we need to talk about a percentage, not an absolute ratio. In the first case, the difference is 20%, and in the other 2%.
3. The final threshold is the maximum amount of stimulation a person can feel.

There are several theories that can help us better understand the concept of sensation.

Signal detection theory

You were probably in a crowded room where many people were talking at the same time. Situations like these can make it difficult to focus on a single stimulus, such as a conversation you have with a friend.

We often face a similar daunting task: focusing our attention on certain things, while at the same time trying to ignore the flow of information entering the senses. When we try to counter this, we make a conscious decision about what is important to us and what is background noise. This concept is called signal detection theory because we want to focus on one thing while ignoring everything else.

Sensory adaptation

Have you ever wondered why we immediately notice some smells or sounds, and then after a while we stop noticing them, and they recede into the background? As soon as we adapt to the perfume or the ticking of a clock, we stop recognizing them. This process is called sensory adaptation: perhaps the logic of evolution here is that if the stimulus does not change, then why should we constantly feel it?

Why and how to train the senses?

If you train your senses, you will pump up significantly. As you probably know, the information that is associated with the senses is best remembered: for example, English words need to be written, made bright, maybe even "sniff". And memory, in turn, is closely related to. In short, by consciously feeling, you develop many cognitive skills.

There is one simple but very effective exercise. Its essence is to allocate five minutes for training one of the senses:

• Vision: Pay attention exclusively to what you see. Look at the object, its shape, curves, highlights.
• Smell: open the refrigerator, take out the food in turn and smell it. It is best to do this, of course, alone. Try to compare smells, analyze them. Again, try to turn off all other senses.
• Hearing: Begin to pick up all the sounds you hear. Compare them, try to switch from one to the other.
• Touch: Touch different objects - paper, table, blanket. Try to understand the difference in sensations, linger in this moment.
• Taste: Try different foods (little by little). Do not swallow it right away, try to understand all the shades of taste. Compare types of cheese, bread, or meat.

You may ask, "Why is there no training of sensations in everyday life?" The point is that we are not doing it deliberately. Sensations are only trained if you pay attention to them. Everything else seems to be "ignored."

What is perception

Now let's find out what perception is and try to understand how and how it differs from sensation.

Perception (perception) - sensory cognition of objects of the surrounding world, subjectively presented as direct, immediate. If sensation is used to detect sound waves, then perception uses the brain to interpret the sound of a guitar, for example. How we perceive our environment is what sets us apart from animals and from each other.

To consider the phenomenon of perception, we need to talk about theories that are either directly or indirectly related to it.

Gestalt principle

The German word "gestalt" roughly translates to "whole" or "form", and gestalt psychologists believe that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. According to the theory, in order to interpret what we receive with our senses, we try to organize this information into specific groups. This allows the information to be interpreted in the future without unnecessary repetition.

For example, when you see one point, you perceive it as such, but when you see five points together, you group them, saying "a series of points." Without such a tendency, our perception will regard the same series as "point, point, point, point, point". At the same time, the processing process itself will increase by about five times in time, and also reduce the perceptual ability.

Maintaining the constancy of perception

Imagine if every time an object changes in perception, we had to completely rework it. For example, when approaching a building, with each step you would have to reevaluate the size of the building because it got bigger.

Fortunately, this does not happen. Because of our ability to maintain consistency in our perception, we roughly estimate the height of a building, no matter how far from it we are. Perceptual consistency refers to our ability to see things differently without rethinking the properties of an object. Usually they talk about three constants: size, shape, brightness.

Dimensional consistency refers to our ability to see objects as maintaining the same size, even from a distance. This is true for all our senses. As we move away from the speaker, the song softens. We understand this and perceive the sound to be about the same loud.

Everyone saw the round plate. However, when we look at it from an angle, it looks more like an ellipse. The constancy of the shape allows us to perceive this plate as round, although the angle from which we look seems to distort the shape.

Luminance constancy refers to our ability to recognize that a color remains the same no matter how it looks at different levels. This navy blue shirt, which you wore on the beach, suddenly "turns" black when you walk into a dark room. Without color consistency, we will constantly reinterpret color and be amazed at the miraculous transformation that constantly “happens” in our clothes.

Perception training

To train your perception, you first need to be aware of your feelings and sensations. A list of questions is best for that. Write them down on a piece of paper and ask yourself several times a day:

• How adequate is my perception?
• Is there a lot of subjective and emotional bias in me now?
• Do I have a fear of seeing what is really happening?
• How do I perceive the world in its movements, colors, shapes and smells?
• How much information from my senses can I absorb at the same time?
• Is my perception holistic?
• Is my consciousness looking inward or sliding over the surface?

The answers to these questions that you will give every day will significantly change your attitude to perception, and therefore pump it up.

Difference between sensation and perception

These are very similar concepts, which, however, are very different. So let's find out what exactly.

We have five different sensory organs (in classical terms): eyes, nose, ears, tongue, and skin. They are responsible for perceiving the stimuli around them. The signals that we receive from the environment are called sensations... Simply put, sensations are what our senses perceive and transmit to the brain. When the brain receives a stimulus, it transforms it into feelings, taste, sound, sight, and smell. In this regard perception it can even be called a sixth sense: it is how we form an opinion about something that is happening around us.

Perception is a completely personal experience, while sensations are objective. We may be cold (sensation), but we force ourselves to believe that we are warm (perception). Perception is a psychological concept, sensation is a physiological one.

Two different people can have a completely opposite perception with the same sensations: the taste of food, the perception of a masterpiece of art, and so on.

In this regard, I would like to draw one lesson: your level of happiness and success in life depends on perception. It doesn't matter what life circumstances you are in now: learn to perceive them in such a way that they provoke the desire to learn and develop. Remember that when two people look through the bars, one sees dirt and the other sees stars. We are biological beings and are highly dependent on living conditions, but we have been given incredible power to change our perception in such a way that in any situation we can be satisfied with life and happy. Or it can deliberately cause a state of dissatisfaction, if it motivates us to become better.

Psychology and esoterics

The relevance of the chosen topic lies in the fact that sensing, perceiving, visualizing any object, any phenomenon, a person must somehow analyze, generalize, concretize in other words, think about what is reflected in sensations and perceptions. Therefore, without the participation of mental processes: perception and sensation, human activity is impossible. Questions considered during the lecture: General characteristics of Sensations and Perceptions Properties of perception Types of perception Properties of sensations Types of sensations General ...

Lecture on General Psychology on the topic: "Sensation and Perception"

Introduction

The topic of today's lecture is "Sensation and Perception". The relevance of the chosen topic lies in the fact that feeling, perceiving, visualizing any object, any phenomenon, a person must somehow analyze, generalize, concretize, in other words, think about what is reflected in sensations and perceptions. In order to satisfy their needs, communicate, play, study and work, a person must perceive the world, pay attention to certain moments or components of activity, imagine what he needs to do, remember, think over, express judgments. Consequently, without the participation of mental processes: perception and sensation, human activity is impossible.

Questions addressed during the lecture:

1. Perception properties
2. Perceptions
3. Properties of sensations
4. Types of sensations

General characteristics of Sensation and Perception

Perception in general psychology, the reflection of objects, situations or events in their integrity is called. It arises from the direct impact of objects on the senses. Since a whole object usually acts simultaneously on various senses, perception is a composite process. It includes in its structure a number of sensations - simple forms of reflection, into which the composite process of perception can be decomposed.

Feelings in psychology, the processes of reflection only of individual properties of objects of the surrounding world are called. The concept of sensation differs from the concept of perception not qualitatively, but quantitatively. For example, when a person holds a flower in his hands, admires it and enjoys its aroma, then the integral impression of the flower will be called perception. And separate sensations will be the scent of the flower, the visual impression of it, the tactile impression of the hand holding the stem. However, at the same time, if a person with closed eyes inhales the scent of a flower without touching it, it will still be called perception. Thus, perception consists of one or more sensations that currently create the most complete picture of the object.

Modern psychology recognizes that sensations are the primary form of human cognition of the surrounding world. It should also be noted that although sensation is an elementary process, many complex mental processes are built on the basis of sensations, from perception to thinking.

So perception is a collection of sensations. For the emergence of sensations, an object of external influence and analyzers are necessary, capable of perceiving this influence.

1. Perception properties:

1. Objectivity of perception - the ability to reflect objects and phenomena of reality not in the form of a set of sensations not related to each other, but in the form of separate objects. A visual image refers to a specific object or phenomenon in the external world. This ratio is the basis of the indicative function of our behavior and activities.

2. Integrity i.e. perception is always an integral image of an object. However, the ability of a holistic visual perception of objects is not innate.

3. Constancy of perception - thanks to it we perceive the surrounding objects as relatively constant in shape, color, size, etc. The source of the constancy of perception is the active actions of the perceptual system (the system of analyzers providing the act of perception). Multiple perception of the same objects under different conditions makes it possible to single out a relatively constant invariant structure of the perceived object. Perception constancy is not an innate property, but an acquired one.

4. Structurality of perception - perception is not a simple sum of sensations. We perceive a generalized structure actually abstracted from these sensations.

5. Meaningfulness of perception - perception is closely related to thinking with understanding the essence of objects.

6. Selectivity of perception - manifests itself in the predominant selection of some objects in comparison with others.

1. Perceptions

Perceptions are rarely found in their pure form. They usually combine to create complex perceptions. The basis of another classifier of types of perception is the forms of existence of matter: space, time and motion. In accordance with this classification, the perception of space, the perception of time, and the perception of movement are distinguished. The perception of a person by a person is highlighted separately.

Perception of the size and shape of objects. When perceiving the size and shape of objects, their image on the retina is of great importance.

In the perception of time, there is a tendency to exaggerate small and underestimate large periods of time. Perception of the length of time depends on the content of human activity. Time, filled with interesting, meaningful things, flows quickly. If the events are uninteresting, insignificant, time passes slowly. Pupils do not notice how time “flies” in the lesson when they are busy with vigorous activity. The attitude of the personality also affects the estimation of time. The anticipation of the unpleasant evokes the perception of the rapid passage of time. Conversely, while waiting for a pleasant or desired event, it seems that it does not come for a long time.

Perception of movement is a reflection of the direction and speed of the spatial existence of objects. It enables people and animals to navigate the relative changes in relationships and interposition of environmental objects. A person receives knowledge about the movement of objects by directly perceiving the movement

1. Properties of sensations

The intensity of sensation is its quantitative characteristic and is determined by the strength of the acting stimulus and the functional state of the receptor. The duration of the sensation is its temporal characteristic. It is also determined by the functional state of the sense organ, but mainly by the time of action of the stimulus and its intensity. When an irritant is exposed to the sensory organ, the sensation does not arise immediately, but after some time, which was called the latent (hidden) period of sensation. The latency period for different types of sensations is not the same: for tactile sensations, for example, it is 130 milliseconds, for painful sensations 370 milliseconds. The gustatory sensation occurs 50 milliseconds after a chemical irritant is applied to the surface of the tongue. Just as sensation does not arise simultaneously with the onset of the stimulus, it does not disappear simultaneously with the termination of its action. A similar phenomenon occurs in other analyzers as well. For example, auditory, temperature, pain and taste sensations also continue for some time after the action of the stimulus.

The sensations are also characterized by the spatial localization of the stimulus.

Contact sensations (tactile, painful, gustatory) are related to the part of the body that is affected by the stimulus. At the same time, the localization of pain sensations is diffuse and less accurate than tactile ones. Various sense organs that give us information about the state of the external world around us can reflect these phenomena with more or less accuracy.

1. Types of sensations

There are the following grounds for the classification of sensations:

By the presence or absence of direct contact with the stimulus causing sensation;

By the location of the receptors;

By the time of occurrence in the course of evolution;

By the modality (type) of the stimulus.

By the presence or absence of direct contact of the receptor with the stimulus causing sensation, distant and contact reception is distinguished. Sight, hearing, sense of smell, refers to distant reception. These types of sensations provide orientation in the immediate environment. Taste painful tactile sensations - contact. According to the modality of the stimulus, sensations are divided into visual auditory olfactory gustatory tactile static and kinesthetic temperature pain thirsts for hunger. Let us briefly characterize each of these types of sensations. Visual sensations. They arise as a result of the action of light rays (electromagnetic waves) on the sensitive part of our eye - the retina, which is the receptor of the visual analyzer.

Auditory sensations... These sensations also refer to distant ones and are also of great importance in a person's life. Thanks to them, a person hears speech has the ability to communicate with other people. Sound waves are irritating to the auditory sensations

Vibration sensation... Vibration sensitivity is adjacent to auditory sensations. They have a common nature of the reflected physical phenomena. The vibrational sensations reflect the vibrations of the elastic medium. This type of sensitivity is figuratively called "contact hearing".Olfactory sensations... They refer to distant sensations that reflect the smells of objects around us. The organs of smell are the olfactory cells located in the upper part of the nasal cavity. The group of contact sensations includes gustatory skin sensations (painful tactile temperature).

Taste sensations... They are caused by the action on the taste buds of substances dissolved in saliva or water. Taste buds - taste buds located on the surface of the tongue of the pharynx of the palate - distinguish between the sensations of sweet, sour, salty and bitter.

Skin sensations... There are several analyzing systems in the skin: tactile (touch sensation) temperature (cold and warm sensation) painful. The tactile sensory system is unevenly distributed throughout the body. Tactile sensitivity gives knowledge about the qualities of an object, and painful sensations signal the body about the need to move away from the stimulus and have a pronounced emotional tone. Temperature sensations - associated with the regulation of heat exchange between the body and the environment. The distribution of heat and cold receptors on the skin is uneven. The back is the least sensitive to cold - the chest.

A special place and role in human life and activity is occupied by interoceptive (organic) sensations that arise from receptors located in the internal organs and signal the functioning of the latter. These sensations form an organic feeling (well-being) of a person

Conclusion

Living and acting, solving the practical tasks facing him in the course of his life, a person perceives the environment. Perceiving, a person not only sees, but also looks, not only hears, but also listens, and sometimes he not only looks, but examines or peers, not only listens, but also listens. Perception is a form of cognition of reality. But how can we explain the fact that we all perceive the same thing? One might think that from birth, culture takes over the regulation of brain activity in such a way that the brain learns to make the same calculations that are characteristic of all members of a given group. Differences in the perception of the world, life, death, and so on in different cultures, it would seem, confirms this. Pribram is of the opinion (Godefroy J) that this approach should radically change our understanding of reality. This does not mean that old models will be discarded. They are likely to enter into a broader and richer vision of the world that will allow us to explain the universe, of which we ourselves are a part.

Thus, our perception of the environment is the result of interpreting the signals picked up by antennas tuned to the outside world. These antennas are our receptors; eyes, ears, nose, mouth and skin. We are also sensitive to signals from our inner world, to mental images and to memories stored in memory at a more or less conscious level.

Bibliography

Psychological Dictionary / Ed. V.P. Zinchenko, B.G. Meshcheryakova - M .: Steamship, 1996

Rubinshtein S.N. Rubinstein - SPb .: Alpha, 1999

Sensation- this is a reflection of individual properties of objects and phenomena that directly affect the senses at the given moment.

Perception- This is a reflection of objects and phenomena in general with their direct impact on the sense organs.

Sensation Is, for example, a picture that we see, a smell that we feel, a touch, and so on. But perception is all together. If, for example, we felt the roughness of the surface, saw a wooden structure, knocked on it with our knuckles and heard a knock characteristic of a tree, then all this will be sensations. And our mind, synthesizing all these sensations, perceives the school desk as a whole. Now I think everything is clear

Sensitivity thresholds

For a sensation to arise, it is necessary that the irritation reaches a certain strength. To understand this in practice, it is enough to add a couple of grains of sugar with a glass of water. The dose is too small, you will not taste the sweet taste. Add sugar little by little, until you finally feel a slight sweetish aftertaste. Now it is enough to calculate the ratio of the amount of water to the amount of sugar. This will be the lower threshold of sensitivity.

Lower threshold of sensitivity Is the minimum amount of a stimulus that produces a barely noticeable sensation.

Upper threshold of sensitivity- this is the largest value of the stimulus at which this sensation is still preserved.

It will be difficult to find the upper threshold of sensitivity using sugar, so I will give another example. You enter a dark, unlit room. Very, very dark. You can't see anything at all. And then it gradually begins to brighten. When you begin to barely distinguish objects in the room, this will be the lower threshold. When the light blinds you so that you will not see anything, it will mean that the upper threshold of sensitivity has been passed.

In addition to the upper and lower thresholds, there is also a discrimination threshold.

The discrimination threshold is the minimum difference between two stimuli that produces a subtle difference in sensation.

Types of sensations

I. By the nature of the reflection and the location of the receptors, the following sensations are distinguished:

1. Exteroreceptive sensations are sensations associated with receptors located on the surface of the body. These include: visual, auditory, olfactory, gustatory and cutaneous.
2. Interoreceptive (organic) - sensations associated with receptors located in the internal organs. Organic sensations do not provide accurate localization, however, with their strong negative impact, they can disorganize a person's consciousness.
3. Proprioceptive sensations are kinesthetic (motor) and static sensations, the receptors of which are located in the muscles, ligaments and the vestibular apparatus. Feeling of own movements and spatial position of the body.

II. Depending on the type of analyzer, the following types of sensations are distinguished: visual, auditory, skin, olfactory, gustatory, kinesthetic, static, vibration, organic and pain. Sensations are also subdivided into distant, in which the sources are located at some distance from the surface of the human body (for example, visual and auditory sensations) and contact, arising from the touch of certain objects to the surface of the human skin (for example, tactile and taste sensations).

There are the following types of sensory disorders:

1. Senestopathies are a variety of unpleasant, painful sensations in various parts of the body and in internal organs that do not have objective reasons for their occurrence. It can be pressure, gurgling, bursting, heat, cold, burning, transfusion, bursting, constriction, and so on. Senestopathies can be limited or widespread, occur in one place for short-term episodes, starting from 5-7 years of age, often projecting into the abdominal cavity.
2. Hypesthesia - a decrease in the strength of sensations, a decrease in sensitivity to external stimuli. Sounds become muffled, light appears dim, colors fade.
3. Hypersthesia - exacerbation of sensations, increased sensitivity to common stimuli. For example, hyperosmia is a keen perception of ordinary odors; hyperacusis - high sensitivity to ordinary sounds.
4. Paresthesia is a disorder in which there are sensations in the form of numbness, crawling, tingling sensations in the absence of real stimuli.

Highlight the main perceptual properties:

1. Objectivity presupposes meaningfulness and integrity of images. Objects have not only color, shape, size, but also a certain functional value. For example, a piano is a musical instrument, a knife is a cutlery, boots are shoes.
2. Integrity. The individual components of the whole can act simultaneously or sequentially, but at the same time the object or phenomenon is perceived as a whole. So, listening to the orchestra, we perceive not individual instruments, not individual sounds, but the melody as a whole. The integrity of the image is formed on the basis of generalization of knowledge about the individual properties of the object.
3. Constancy - the relative constancy of the perceived form, color, size of an object, regardless of significant changes in the objective conditions of perception. For example, a cat in a tree, on the ground, in the dark will still be recognized as a cat.
4. Generalization - the attribution of single objects to a certain class of objects, homogeneous with it in some way.
5. Meaningfulness - provides awareness of what is perceived by a person, how the perceived correlates with his knowledge and past experience. Perceptual images have a certain meaning, even at the sight of an unfamiliar object, he tries to catch in it a similarity with familiar objects.
6. Selectivity - the selection of some objects in comparison with others, associated with the activity and personal experience of a person. So, the actor and any outsider will pay attention in different ways to the unfolding events in the play.

Perception is also characterized by some other properties:

1. volume - is determined by the number of objects that a person can perceive simultaneously (or sequentially per unit of time);
2. speed (or speed) - is determined by the time required to perform certain perceptual actions: detection, discrimination and identification. It is determined by the complexity of the perceived object, the experience of its perception, the speed of occurrence of sensations, the psychophysiological state of a person;
3. accuracy is the correspondence of the emerging perceptual image, the characteristics of the perceived object and the task facing the person;
4. completeness - the degree of such correspondence;
5. reliability is the possible duration of perception with the required accuracy and the probability of adequate perception of an object under given conditions and for a given time.

The main properties of sensations most commonly used:

• quality,
• intensity,
• duration,
• spatial localization,
• absolute threshold,
• relative threshold.

Feeling quality

The characteristics of not only sensations, but in general all characteristics can be divided into qualitative and quantitative. For example, the title of a book or its author - qualitative characteristics; the weight of the book or its length are quantitative. The quality of sensation is a property that characterizes the basic information displayed by this sensation, which distinguishes it from other sensations. You can also say this: the quality of sensation is a property that cannot be measured with help in numbers, compared with some kind of numerical scale.

For the visual sensation, the quality can be the color of the perceived object. For taste or smell, the chemical characteristic of an object: sweet or sour, bitter or salty, floral odor, almond odor, hydrogen sulfide odor, etc.

Sometimes the quality of sensation is referred to as its modality (auditory sensation, visual or otherwise). This also makes sense, because often, in a practical or theoretical sense, one has to talk about sensations in general. For example, during the experiment, a psychologist can ask the subject a general question: "Tell us about your feelings during ..." And then the modality will be one of the main properties of the described sensations.

Intensity of sensation

Perhaps the main quantitative characteristic of a sensation is its intensity. Indeed, for us it is of great importance whether we listen to quiet music or loud, it is light in the room, or we can barely see our hands.

It is important to understand that the intensity of the sensation depends on two factors, which can be described as objective and subjective:

• the strength of the acting stimulus (its physical characteristics),
• the functional state of the receptor on which this stimulus acts.

The more significant the physical parameters of the stimulus, the more intense the sensation. For example, the higher the amplitude of the sound wave, the louder the sound appears to us. And the higher the sensitivity of the receptor, the more intense the sensation. For example, after being in a dark room for a long time and going out into a moderately lit room, you can be "blinded" by the bright light.

Duration of sensation

Duration of sensation is another important characteristic of sensation. It, as the name suggests, denotes the lifetime of the sensation that has arisen. Paradoxically, objective and subjective factors also affect the duration of the sensation.

The main factor, of course, is objective - the longer the action of the stimulus, the longer the sensation. However, the duration of the sensation is also influenced by the functional state of the sense organ and its certain inertia.

Suppose the intensity of a certain stimulus first gradually increases, then gradually decreases. For example, it can be a sound signal - from zero strength, it grows to clearly audible, and then decreases again to zero strength. We do not hear a very weak signal - it is below the threshold of our perception. Therefore, in this example, the duration of the sensation will be less than the objective duration of the signal. At the same time, if our hearing previously perceived strong sounds for a long period and has not yet had time to "move away", then the duration of the sensation of a weak signal will be even shorter, because the perception threshold is high.

After the stimulus begins to affect the sensory organ, the sensation does not arise immediately, but after a while. The latency period for different types of sensations is not the same. For tactile sensations - 130 ms, for painful sensations - 370 ms, for gustatory sensations - only 50 ms. The sensation does not arise simultaneously with the onset of the stimulus action and does not disappear simultaneously with the termination of its action. This inertia of sensations manifests itself in the so-called aftereffect. The visual sensation, as you know, has some inertia and does not disappear immediately after the cessation of the action of the stimulus that caused it. The trail from the stimulus remains in the form of a consistent image.

Spatial localization of sensation

A person exists in space, and stimuli that act on the senses are also located at certain points in space. Therefore, it is important not only to perceive the sensation, but also to spatially localize it. The analysis carried out by the receptors gives us information about the localization of the stimulus in space, that is, we can tell where the light comes from, the heat comes from, or which part of the body is affected by the stimulus.

Absolute threshold of sensation

The absolute threshold of sensation is those minimal physical characteristics of the stimulus, starting from which sensation arises. Stimuli, the strength of which lies below the absolute threshold of sensation, do not give sensations. By the way, this does not mean at all that they have no effect on the body. Studies by G.V. Gershuni have shown that sound stimuli that lie below the threshold of sensation can cause changes in the electrical activity of the brain and even dilation of the pupil. The zone of influence of stimuli that do not cause sensations was named by GV Gershuni "sub-sensory area".

There is not only a lower absolute threshold, but also the so-called upper one - the value of the stimulus at which it ceases to be perceived adequately. Another name for the upper absolute threshold is pain threshold, because when we overcome it, we experience pain: pain in the eyes when the light is too bright, pain in the ears when the sound is too loud, etc. However, there are some physical characteristics of stimuli that are not related to the intensity of exposure. This is, for example, the frequency of sound. We do not perceive very low frequencies, nor very high frequencies: the approximate range is from 20 to 20,000 Hz. However, ultrasound does not make us painful.

Relative threshold of sensation

The relative threshold of sensation is also an important characteristic. Can we distinguish between the weight of a pound kettlebell and a balloon? Can we tell the difference in the store the weight of two sticks of sausage that look the same? It is often more important to evaluate not an absolute characteristic of a sensation, but just a relative one. This kind of sensitivity is called relative, or differential.

It is used both to compare two different sensations and to determine changes in one sensation. Suppose we heard a musician play two notes on his instrument. Was the pitch of these notes the same? or different? Was one sound louder than the other? or was it not?

The relative threshold of sensation is the minimum difference in the physical characteristic of the sensation that will be noticeable. Interestingly, for all types of sensation, there is a general pattern: the relative threshold of sensation is proportional to the intensity of sensation. For example, if you need to add three grams (at least) to a weight of 100 grams to feel the difference, then to a weight of 200 grams you need to add six grams for the same purpose.

Studies have shown that for a particular analyzer, this ratio of the relative threshold to the intensity of the stimulus is constant. With a visual analyzer, this ratio is approximately 1/1000. The auditory has 1/10. The tactile one has 1/30.

Development of sensations

Sensations can and should develop, and this process begins immediately after the birth of the child. Experiments and simple observations show that already a short time after birth, the child begins to respond to stimuli of all kinds.

The sensations of different modalities have different dynamics in development, the degree of their maturity in different periods is different. Immediately after birth, the child's skin sensitivity is most developed. Perhaps this is due to the fact that this sensitivity is the oldest in the process of phylogenesis.

When observing a newborn, you will notice that the baby is trembling due to the difference in the mother's body temperature and the air temperature. A newborn baby reacts to just touching. The lips and the entire mouth area are most sensitive at this age. Obviously, this is due to the need to eat. Newborns also experience pain.

Already in the first days after birth, the child has a rather highly developed gustatory sensitivity. Newborn babies react differently to the introduction of a solution of quinine or sugar into their mouth. A few days after birth, the baby distinguishes the mother's milk from sweetened water, and the latter from plain water.

Olfactory sensitivity is very well developed in newborns, especially associated with nutrition. Newborn babies use the smell of their mother's milk to determine whether the mother is in the room or not. If the baby ate mother's milk for the first week, then he will turn away from the cow's milk, as soon as he smells it.

Olfactory sensations have a long way to go. Even at the age of four or five, a child's sense of smell is far from perfect.

Sight and hearing in their development go through a more complex path, which includes a number of stages. These bodies are much more complex, they are busy processing huge amounts of information and therefore require a high organization of functioning.

In fact, so to speak, people are born blind and deaf. In the first days after birth, a typical baby does not respond to sounds, even very loud ones. The ear canal of a newborn is filled with amniotic fluid, which dissolves only after a few days. Usually, the child begins to respond to sounds within the first week, sometimes this period is delayed up to two to three weeks.

When a child begins to hear, his reactions to sound have the character of general motor arousal, in particular:

• the child throws up his hands,
• moves his legs,
• makes a loud cry.

Sound sensitivity gradually increases in the first weeks of life.

After two to three months, the child begins to find a direction to the source of the sound. Outwardly, this is manifested in the fact that he turns his head towards this source. From the third to fourth months, some babies begin to respond to singing and music.

As soon as the child begins to hear normally, he gradually develops a verbal hearing. He begins to distinguish the voice of the mother from the voices of other people. Already in the first months of life, the humming of the child in its own timbre begins to correlate with the mother's voice.

In his explicit reactions, the child first of all begins to react to the intonation of speech. This is observed in the second month of life, when an affectionate tone has a calming effect on the child.

In the future, you can find the child's reaction to the perception of the rhythmic side of speech and the general sound pattern of words.

A fairly accurate distinction between the sounds of speech, which creates the necessary minimum for the formation of one's own speech, occurs only by the end of the first year of life. From this moment, the development of the actual speech hearing begins. The ability to distinguish between vowels occurs before the ability to distinguish between consonants.

The child's vision develops even more slowly. The absolute sensitivity to light in newborns is very low, but increases markedly in the first days of life. From the moment the visual sensations appear, the child reacts to light with various motor reactions.

Color discrimination grows slowly. Only by the fifth month, color discrimination usually begins, after which the child begins to show interest in bright chromatic objects.

Another obstacle that a child needs to overcome is a mismatch in eye movements. The child begins to feel light, but at first he cannot see objects. One eye can look in one direction, the other in the other, or it can be closed altogether. The child begins to control eye movement only by the end of the second month of life.

In the third month, the child begins to distinguish between objects and faces. At the same time, a long process of development of the perception of space, forms of objects, their sizes and removal begins.

In the process of developing sensations of all modalities, one more circumstance is important - one must learn to distinguish between sensations. Although by the end of the first year the absolute sensitivity reaches a high level, the discrimination of sensations improves during the school years.

It is also important to note that in the dynamics of the development of sensation, individual differences are of great importance: genetic characteristics, the health of the child, the presence of a rather rich environment in sensations. The process of developing sensations in some (not very large) limits can be controlled: with the help of regular training, getting to know new stimuli. Developing hearing during infancy can provide a good start for a future musical career.

The development of perception is a process of qualitative modification of the processes of perception as the body grows and the accumulation of individual experience. It is typical for a person that the most significant changes in perception occur in the first years of a child's life. In this case, the decisive role is played by the assimilation of the sensory standards and methods of examining stimuli developed by society. Already before reaching the age of six months, in conditions of interaction with adults, active search actions arise: the child looks to see, grasps and feels objects with his hand. On this basis, intersensory connections are formed between various receptor systems (visual, auditory, tactile). So the child becomes able to perceive complex complex stimuli, recognize and differentiate them. At the age of 6–12 months, the motor system develops rapidly, and object actions and manipulations act as the leading activity, which requires constancy of perception. In this case, reproducing movements that simulate the features of perceived objects become the main way of perception. In the future, the development of perception occurs in the closest connection with the development of various types of children's activities (play, visual, constructive, and elements of work and learning). After reaching the age of four, it acquires relative independence.

Physiological bases of perception

The activity of perception as a mental process is provided by the processes taking place in the sense organs, nerve fibers and the central nervous system.

Under the influence of stimuli at the endings of the nerves present in the sensory organs, nervous excitement arises, which is transmitted along the pathways to the nerve centers and, ultimately, to the cerebral cortex. Here, nervous excitement enters the projection (sensory) zones of the cortex, which thus represent the central projection of the nerve endings present in the sense organs. Different projection zones are associated with different sensory organs, and depending on which organ the projection zone is associated with, certain sensory information is generated.

The mechanism described up to this point is the mechanism for the emergence of sensations. These sensations - almost literally - are a reflection of the surrounding reality. As in a mirror or in a photograph, surrounding objects are reflected, so in the projection zones these same objects are reflected, only in the form of nervous excitations, from point to point.

The process of perception only begins with sensations. Own physiological mechanisms of perception are included in the process of forming a holistic image of an object at subsequent stages, when excitation from the projection zones is transmitted to the integrative zones of the cerebral cortex, where the formation of images of the phenomena of the real world is completed. Therefore, the integrative zones of the cerebral cortex that complete the process of perception are often called perceptual zones. Their function differs significantly from that of projection zones.

The difference in the work of projection and integrative zones is revealed when the activity of a particular zone is disturbed in a person. If the work of the visual projection zone is disrupted, the so-called central blindness occurs, that is, when the periphery - the sensory organs - is fully operational, a person completely loses visual sensations, he does not see anything at all. If the integrative zone is affected (while the projection zone is preserved), the person sees separate light spots, some contours, but does not understand what he sees. He ceases to comprehend what affects him, does not even recognize well-known objects and people.

In other modalities, a similar picture is observed. With a violation of the auditory integrative zones, people cease to understand human speech. Such diseases are called agnostic disorders (disorders leading to the impossibility of cognition), or agnosia,

Perception is closely related to motor activity, emotional experiences, thought processes, and this further complicates the understanding of the physiological foundations of perception. Starting in the sense organs, nervous excitations caused by external stimuli pass to the nerve centers, where they cover various zones of the cortex, interact with other nervous excitations. This whole complex network of excitements grows. Interacting excitations widely cover different zones of the cortex.

In the process of perception, temporary neural connections are of great importance. Just as a pen and a piece of paper help to count with a column, temporary neural connections provide perception with the ability to make hypotheses that are necessary for in-depth analysis of the perceived situation. Temporary neural connections that provide the process of perception can be of two types:

• links formed within one analyzer,
• inter-analyzer connections.

The first type of connections takes place when the body is exposed to a complex stimulus of one modality. For example, such an irritant is a melody, which is a peculiar combination of individual sounds that affect the auditory analyzer. This whole complex acts as one complex stimulus. In this case, nerve connections are formed not only in response to the stimuli themselves, but also to their relationship - temporal, spatial, etc. (the so-called reflex to the attitude). As a result, the process of integration, or complex synthesis, takes place in the cerebral cortex.

Interanalyzer nerve connections are formed when exposed to a complex stimulus. These are connections within different analyzers, the emergence of which I.M.Sechenov explained by the existence of associations (visual, kinesthetic, tactile, etc.). These associations in humans are necessarily accompanied by the auditory image of the word, thanks to which the perception acquires a holistic character.

Thanks to the connections formed between analyzers, we reflect in perception such properties of objects or phenomena for the perception of which there are no specially adapted analyzers (for example, the size of an object, specific gravity).

Thus, the complex process of constructing an image of perception is based on systems of intraanalyzer and interanalyzer connections that provide the best conditions for seeing stimuli and taking into account the interaction of the properties of an object as a complex whole. But besides this, different parts of the brain directly and indirectly influence the perception process. Even, for example, the frontal lobes have some participation in the processes of perception, ensuring the purposefulness of this process.

In psychopathology, sensory disorders are identified, which include: hyperesthesia, hyposthesia, anesthesia, paresthesia and senestopathy, as well as a phantom symptom.

1. Hyperesthesia is a violation of sensitivity, which is expressed in super-strong perception of light, sound, smell. It is typical for conditions after suffering somatic diseases, traumatic brain injury. Patients may perceive the rustling of leaves in the wind as like a thundering iron, and natural light as very bright.
2. Hyposthesia is a decrease in sensitivity to sensory stimuli. The environment is perceived as faded, dull, indistinguishable. This phenomenon is typical of depressive disorders.
3. Anesthesia is a loss of most often tactile sensitivity, or functional loss of the ability to perceive taste, smell, individual objects, typical of dissociative (hysterical) disorders.
4. Paresthesia is a tingling sensation, burning sensation, crawling creeps. Usually in the zones corresponding to the Zakharyin-Ged zones. Typical for somatoform mental disorders and somatic diseases. Paresthesias are caused by the peculiarities of blood supply and innervation, which differ from senestopathies. The heaviness under the right hypochondrium has long been familiar to me, and occurs after fatty foods, but sometimes it spreads into pressure over the right collarbone and into the right shoulder joint.
5. Senestopathies are complex unusual sensations in the body with experiences of movement, transfusion, overflow. Often fanciful and expressed in unusual metaphorical language, for example, patients talk about tickling movement inside the brain, transfusion of fluid from the throat to the genitals, stretching and compression of the esophagus. I feel, says patient S., that ... as if the veins and blood vessels are empty, and air is being pumped through them, which must necessarily enter the heart and it will stop. Something like a bursting under the skin. And then bubble shocks and blood boil.
6. Phantom syndrome occurs in individuals with loss of limbs. The patient displaces the absence of a limb and, as it were, feels pain or movement in the missing limb. Often such experiences arise after awakening and are supplemented by dreams in which the patient sees himself with a missing limb.

Perceptual disorders in various mental illnesses have different causes and different forms of manifestation. With local lesions of the brain, one can distinguish:

1. Elementary and sensory disorders (violation of the sense of height, color perception, etc.). These disorders are associated with lesions of the subcortical levels of the analytic systems.
2. Complex gnostic disorders, reflecting a violation of different types of perception (perception of objects, spatial relationships). These disorders are associated with damage to the cortical areas of the brain.

Gnostic disorders differ depending on the lesion of the analyzer, and are divided into visual, auditory and tactile agnosias.

Agnosia is a disorder of recognizing objects, phenomena, parts of one's own body, their defects, while the consciousness of the external world and self-consciousness are preserved, as well as in the absence of disturbances in the peripheral and conductive parts of the analyzers. Agnosia can occur as a result of the destruction of certain cortical zones (encephalitis, tumor, vascular process, etc.), as well as due to neurodynamic disorders.

Visual agnosias are divided into:

1. subject agnosia (patients do not recognize objects and their images);
2. agnosia for colors and fonts;
3. Optical-spatial agnosia (the understanding of the symbolism of the drawing, which reflects the spatial qualities of the drawing, is broken, the ability to convey the spatial features of the object in the drawing is lost: farther, closer, more-less, top-bottom, etc.).

With auditory disorders, there is a decrease in the ability to differentiate sounds and understand speech, patients cannot remember two or more sound standards), arrhythmia (they cannot correctly assess the rhythmic structures, the number of sounds and the order of alternation), violation of the intonation side of speech (patients do not distinguish intonations and they expressionless speech).

Tactile agnosia - impaired recognition of objects when touching them while maintaining tactile sensitivity (examination with closed eyes).

3. Illusions - erroneous, false perception of a really existing object, object or phenomenon.

Physiological - based on the normal operation of the analyzers. When we see the moving clouds and the moon, it seems to us that the moon is moving, and the background is stable. (House-street).

Physical - based on the laws of physics. A spoon in a glass. The Mueller-Luer illusions are directly related to the perception of a person by a person: if the observed person's arms are raised, he seems taller than the one with lowered shoulders, although the sizes of their bodies are the same.

Danzio's illusion (the segment in the corner seems larger)

Poggendorf's illusion (A is an extension of C, but A appears to be an extension of B)

Affective - with emotional overstrain. Child-fear of the dark-cloak-man.

Interpretive - for personality and pathocharacterological disorders. The group speaks - hears his name.

Para-idolic - visual illusions with fantastic content. He sees an animal in the carpet drawing.

4. Hallucinations - false perceptions that arise in the content of consciousness without external stimuli, ie. without a real object, it is a delusion of perception.

Classification

• Simple: Visual (photopsies - flashing of flies in front of the eyes); Auditory (achemes - door creak, noise of footsteps; phonemes - simple speech hallucinations in the form of speech sounds, syllables).
• Difficult: Auditory (Voices in the form of an order - imperative, offensive, laudatory); Visual (scene-like, zoopsychic); Tactile; Olfactory.
• True - in objective space, perceived clearly, brightly, not accompanied by a sense of danger, there is no criticism.
• False (pseudo-hallucinations) - described by Kandinsky, in the subjective space, are not perceived clearly, not bright, muffled, accompanied by a sense of danger, there is formal criticism.
• Psychosensory disorders - distortion of the perception of objects: Metamorphopsia (doubling the object, increasing the size); Autometamorphopsias - violation of the body scheme; Impaired time perception (kanabioid intoxication).
• depersonalization - disorder of self-perception;
• poverty of participation - loss of perception of complex emotions;
• derealization is a distorted perception of the surrounding world. This also includes the symptoms of "already seen" (de ja vu), "never seen" (ja mais vu);