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The sense of vision occupies a large space in
our brain , which is called the occipital cortex. We use the eyes to visualize
and then store information for later analysis. When we analyse information that
we see, we use our perception to extract meaning from what we see. The perception model action explored the two
parts in our brain responsible for visual perception: the dorsal stream and the
ventral stream. However, vision is not
only a biological process; it is also a form of social awareness and social
engagementSometimes what we perceive
is not what we see, i.e: the blind spot. Other studies like Taifel and Wilkes (1963) lines study or Heider and Simmel
(1944) on motion movies have shown that what we see is not what we perceive, as
our vision is very much influenced by our subjective perspective. This essay
aims to answer the question is seeing believing?(1944) on motion movies have shown that what we see is not what we perceive, as
our vision is very much influenced by our subjective perspective. This essay
aims to answer the question is seeing believing?
(1944) on motion movies have shown that what we see is not what we perceive, as
our vision is very much influenced by our subjective perspective. This essay
aims to answer the question is seeing believing?
(1944) on motion movies have shown that what we see is not what we perceive, as
our vision is very much influenced by our subjective perspective. This essay
aims to answer the question is seeing believing?
Body
A large part of the brain is dedicated to the sense of vision; the largest sensory area of the brain is the occipital cortex, but how do we see? Light enters through the pupil and depending on the amount of light, the iris changes the size of the pupil to let more or less light pass, the light then passes through the lens and the lens focuses the light onto the back of the eye, the retina. Visual information is stored for later inspection as a memory. We extract meaning and experience from what we see: seeing is a way of knowing. Perception is the process of acquiring knowledge from the environment by extracting the information emitted or reflected from objects or surfaces and making sense of these (Palmer,1999). Perception requires one to interpret that input in a way that is personally meaningful. The function of perception is to recognize objects in the world and vision is also used to know things about the world, allowing us to act reliably in the world and to know where we are with reference to the objects that surround us. The latest model exploring visual perception is called perception model action: Milner and Goodale, 2008 there are 2 parts in our brain responsible for our visual perception. The dorsal stream which is responsible for mapping near and far space as well as integrating information from different senses and the ventral stream which is responsible for functions like face and object recognition and vision for perception. The perceptual experience we have from what we see is also, in some circumstances, different from what we see, as it can change. I.e.: when we look at a bright light and then we look away, we perceive a dark patch; however, this is not what our eyes are currently seeing. Perceiving the world is therefore different to sight. A good example is the ‘blind spot’: an area of the retina where the optic nerve is formed and there are no photoreceptive cells to signal information in the visual field. Vision is not only a biological process, it is also a form of social awareness and social engagement; i.e.: we can know people’s emotions by looking at their eyes. Vision is then related to social cognition, which is the cognitive processing of social information, including perceiving, considering and explaining people, events and relationships and social issues. We use schemas, a cognitive structure that contains information relating to specific subjects, people, events or issues to make sense of our world and schematic processing to process social information based on pre-existing schemas. In the study made by Taifel and Wilkes (1963) , participants were shown lines of different lengths. The lines were either grouped or ungrouped in groups A and B. Participants underestimated and exaggerated differences between the lines just by the mere fact that they were categorized. The perception of the physical world is the therefore distorted by categorization.Heider and Simmel (1944), asked participants to watch movies of shapes in motion. After watching the movie, they asked the participants to write what they saw. Participants personified the shapes; they brought them to life by attributing personality traits and intentions to them. The participants were attempting to make their response meaningful by structuring it using familiar ideas. That shows that we build our explanations of the world from a subjective point of view.
Those two studies are an example of top-down processing, a process that focuses on the importance and the role of internal representations upon our perceptual experience. Another example of how we perceive the world from a subjective point of view is the case of James Bulger, the toddler taken away and murdered by 2 10-year-old-boys. As many people saw how the child was taken away by the two boys, no one stopped them, but why? It was found out that witnesses had chosen not to intervene because they assumed that the boys were brothers. This can be attributed to what is called the fundamental attribution error: the tendency to ascribe other people’s behavior to internal rather than external factors.