Perception and Optical Illusions by Angelica Miller

     According to OpenStax (2014, p. 151), “Perception is a psychological process that refers to the way sensory information is organized, interpreted, and consciously experienced. Perception involves both bottom-up and top-down processing. Bottom-up processing refers to perceptions built from sensory input. While, top-down processing refers to how sensations are interpreted. The interpretations can vary based off our knowledge, our past experiences, as well as our thoughts, beliefs, values, and expectations.” Our perceptions are built from our sensations in that if we smell (sensation) a sugar cookie wax warmer than we might remember making sugar cookies on Christmas morning with our family (perception).

     However, not all sensations are automatically a perception. For example, if you constantly hear the same sound, like music playing in a store, you might notice at first, but not necessarily later on because you become immune to the sound. This example is defined as sensory adaptation. According to OpenStax (2014, p. 178), “sensory adaptation is defined as not perceiving stimuli that remains relatively constant, over prolonged periods of time.         

     Motivation can also influence perception. For example, if you are expecting a phone call from a friend, you might hear the phone ring when it actually does not.” According to Carbon (2014, p.1), “Illusions, in a scientific context are not mainly created to reveal the failures of our perception or the dysfunctions of our apparatus, but instead point to the specific power of human perception.” Often times, illusions are used in magic tricks and our perception believes the trick actually happened, when in reality, a totally different thing occurred. For instance, a common magic trick is when a woman is cut in half. To the audience, the woman appears to have been sliced in half because of their perception, when in reality the woman was never harmed or divided. Through arranging colors, lines, shapes, and patterns, our brain can be tricked into seeing something that isn’t really happening, thus an illusion.

References

Carbon, C. C. (2014) Understanding human perception by human-made illusions.           

            Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 8(566), 1-7.

OpenStax College. (2014). Psychology. Houston, TX: Rice University. Retrieved

            from http://cnx.org/content/col1629/latest/.