Instances Of Perception Research Articles

HOW VISION COLLABORATES WITH THOUGHT TO BRING INFORMATION INTO THE MIND

“To gaze is to think” notes Salvador Dalí. The artist’s observation is illustrative of the tradition of representing perception as analogical with thinking. Analysing perception, Arnheim, for example, claims that there is no difference between a percept and a concept inasmuch as “perception consists in fitting stimulus material with templates,” also called “visual concepts” (Arnheim 1997 [1969]: 27-28). The question that concerns us here is – how can the same visual pattern yield different concepts for different interpreters? In an attempt to answer this question the paper examines the complex dynamics involved in the perception of one of the most controversial works in the history of art – Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci. To account for divergent interpretations of an image, we introduce a dichotomy of immediate and dynamical propositions of perception, a distinction inspired by the Peircean semiotic theory. Immediate propositions (IPs) of perception consist in the attribution of qualities to the perceived object as they are immediately present in the field of vision, as opposed to dynamical propositions (DPs) which bear on the qualities of the given object not necessarily perceived at the instance of perception but rather attributed to it in the past experience. By examining some various ways in which Leonardo’s image has been interpreted, we demonstrate how experience of prior perceptions interferes with the present perception to construct the meaning of a visual pattern. This paper falls within what is considered as the new paradigm of cognitive semiotics inasmuch as it deals with cognitive issues such as visual perception, the processing of visual information and the construction of meaning while taking a semiotic approach, notably, inspired by Charles Sanders Peirce. Our key endeavour consists in determining how the process of visual perception is accomplished. For a thorough consideration of this issue, it was divided into distinct questions as follows: what is information; how is it perceived; what are the constituent elements of perception; what is the role of thought in perception; and what exactly does the collaboration of vision and thought in the process of visual perception consist in? We throw a look at the functioning of the senses, and in particular the sense of vision, so as to determine the role of the senses, as well as the nature of their interaction with the mind in the process of perception. Keywords: vision, mind, thought, information processing, visual perception, meaning

PERCEPTION OF COMMERCIAL AND SOCIAL ADVERTISING BY GENERATION Y IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC

Advertising as the dominant tool of marketing management and marketing communication has become an inextricable part of culture and society. Its influence significantly affects its immediate surroundings. The current period, characterized by a communication boom, allows for a more aggressive application of advertising in public contexts as well as in managerial solutions. Advertising thus penetrates all aspects of life and its setup can be found in both commercial and non-commercial spheres. Thanks to perception, advertising becomes an incentive that stimulates purchase of products, services, but also ideas. Perception reflects reality through the sense organs, and each instance of perception is complemented by subjective factors, a process linked to past experiences. The study presents partial results of research that examined perception of commercial and social advertising by the Generation Y customer segment in the Czech Republic. The research used the method of data collection by questionnaire with implementation of the semantic differential method with a seven-point rating scale to find out what denotative and connotative meanings Generation Y respondents attach to the terms commercial and social advertising. The research data were processed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The resulting findings are related to perception of the terms commercial and social advertising by the examined Generation Y group in their semantic space. The findings show that the concept of commercial advertising is perceived in predominantly negative connotations for the entire research group, and to absence of distinction on their part between the terms commercial and social advertising.

Analogue Apollo: Cybernetics and the Space Age

This article re-examines some of the principal concepts of cybernetics — control, communication, feedback — and its preoccupation with the ‘coupling’ of human and machine in an increasingly automated world. Historically, the rise of cybernetics coincides with the so-called Space Age, where the kind of computerized control systems theorized in cybernetics were essential to the guidance and operation of the complex machinery required to place humans and machines in space. Taking the Apollo programme as a paradigmatic case of accelerated technological evolution, the article looks at aspects of the human-machine relationship in Apollo and more specifically at the modes of interface — ‘analogue’ and ‘digital’ — which mediated that relationship. Despite a certain humanism of control which posits the human agent as the ultimate instance of perception, decision and action, it is argued that the evolutionary tendency detectable in the Apollo programme is towards the progressive marginalization, or ‘redundancy’, of the human agent.

Summarizing Parapsychology in Psychology Textbooks: A Rejoinder to Kalat and Kohn

Responding to Kalat and Kohn (this issue), I note that new methodologies in parapsychology have produced well controlled, theory-derived, process-oriented experiments with replicability rates comparable to those in psychology. Parapsychologists are not in agreement as to whether psi anomalies constitute instances of perception without sensation. In addition, these anomalies are weak and unstable; consequently, it is not yet clear whether they violare the second law of thermodynamics. As scientists and teachers, we have a professional responsibility to be objective and to allow for discussion of data obtained by rigorous applications of the scientific method.

Definiteness and Coherence in Sense-Perception

In the present paper I shall be dealing in a preliminary and exploratory way with the epistemological significance of certain aspects of our perceptual experience. I shall attempt to show that there are two principles of which we often make use when, in everyday life, we estimate the reliability of particular instances of sense-perception. Assuming that this can be established, one would expect that the epistemological theories advanced by philosophers would, at some points, reflect their own everyday use of such principles. And this, as I shall suggest, has to some extent occurred. However, most philosophers have focussed their attention on more general problems than the reasons why, in specific cases, we reject one instance of sense-perception in favor of another; therefore the topics with which I am here concerned have not received the attention which I believe they deserve. The two principles with which I shall deal-a principle of definiteness and a principle of coherence-are to be construed as tacitly accepted rather than explicitly formulated. They should therefore not be expected to operate as premises for arguments; rather they represent psychological factors which serve as determinants when we assess the reliability of particular instances of perception. The discovery that there are such factors would not prejudge any issues concerning the reliability of sense-perception in general, as compared with other possible sources of knowledge. Nor would a formulation of these principles necessarily suggest the ways in which we can most effectively analyze perception and the status of that which is perceived. Furthermore, questions concerning the evidence which perception provides for our beliefs

Perceptions of Self and Spouse: Some Contaminating Factors

Spouse similarity or complementarity has customarily been studied via spouses' perceptions of their mates. Since perception of others is only a special instance of perception, characteristics of the measuring instrument and of the perceiver must be considered as well as the stimulus perceived. Spouse perceptions of 24 women revealed a wide range in the amount of similarity attributed to self and husband. Further analysis revealed that favorability of the self-perception was closely related to the perceived similarity of self and spouse, and suggested that differences in endorsement of social desirability have contaminated efforts to study similarity vs. complementarity.