Introduction
Reality is everything we see. But it is not true always. We see hundreds of thing in daily life but what we perceive after seeing them is important.
Once a child saw a crow, he perceived its image in his mind. After a few days, he saw a cuckoo (koyal) on the roof and told his parents that it was a crow. His parents corrected him, pointing out that the difference between them is their voice.
Now, we can understand that this is not a mistake but a misconception about a crow and a cuckoo (koyal) . The child first saw a crow, and in his understanding, all black birds are crows. This is his way of perception.
What is Perception ?
According to B. V. H. Gilmer, “Perception is the process of becoming aware of situations, of adding meaningful associations to sensations.”
Perception is the organization, identification, and interpretation of sensory information in order to represent and understand the presented information or environment.
And in psychology it can be defined as the sensory experience of the world, which includes how an individual recognizes and interpreter sensory information.
In easy way, Perception is a way in which we see, feel and understand the world around us through our senses.
Perception can be positive or negative. A child eats a mango and it tastes sour. He again cut a mango and takes a bite and again it’s taste is sour. He perceive in his mind that mango is a sour fruit. It depends on the past experiences. Perception is an important aspect for intellectual intelligence of the child.
Can Perception differ from person to person?
Yes! We all have a different way of seeing the world. For example, if you see a ‘9’ from the south direction, you’ll call it a 9 (nine). Another person who is in the north direction will call it a 6 (six). Nobody is wrong in their perspective, but both have different views on it. Many times we face the situation when we try to clear our point of view but another person has his own view of the situation and we both cannot communicate efficiently. We all have different mindset in reality which we use for perception.
A person having negative mindset we perceive everything as negative. Even, he will see good things as waste. For example – on seeing a beautiful house, a man said ” this is a full waste of money, landlord should have saved his money in bank”. In reality it was a nice house as everyone feel that a house should be calm, nice and beautiful but he didn’t think like that because of his perception. A person having a good mindset see and perceive everything in a good way. Even, if he has bad day, we will not perceive it badly.
So, we can conclude that perception can be different from person to person and situation to situation. It depends on our previous experience. We accomodate or change our perceptions whenever we got the new experience.
Difference between Perception and Perspective
As we have understood, perception is the way in which our mind explores and understands the world. Perception needs creativity in the mindset and curiosity to know more about it.
On the other hand, perspective is how we choose to view the world. Essentially, perspective is our point of view, how we see things, situations, etc. It can be nagative or positive.
When we see a frog🐸, one person may admire its body structure while another person may focus on its moist skin and walk away in disgust.
How illusion is different from perception ?
We can say that illusion is a type of perception, but perception and illusion have distinct differences. Illusion means we perceive something as real, but in reality, it is not true.
An illusion is essentially an abstract image of the world that we imagine in our minds. It’s a projection of what we expect to see, often influenced by our desires, emotions, and past experiences. On the other hand, perception serves as a reality check, showing us what the real world truly is. It clears the blurred line between what we imagined and what is the reality.
To create an illusion, our mind and senses must collaborate. Similarly, perception relies on our vision, among other senses, to interpret the world around us.
The actual difference between illusion and perception lies in their purposes. An illusion is an expectation of what our mind wants to see, whereas perception clarifies the doubt between our expectations and reality.
An example of an illusion is the water mirage that appears in the desert. Imagine being exhausted, parched, and desperate for relief. Suddenly, in the distance, you spot what appears to be a pond or water source. Your mind creates a vivid image of a refreshing oasis, and you eagerly approach it. You don’t even think of the reality.
As you draw closer, the illusion shatters, revealing nothing but the reality, sand and more sand. The disappointment is palpable. This experience illustrates how our minds can trick us into seeing what we want to see, rather than what the actually reality is. That’s why everything we see is not always true.
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