How Humans Perceive the World Around Us

            When we look at the world around us, we are able to recognize objects when given very little information. If we see a half-finished sketch of a dog, we, as humans, assume the sketch is of a dog. Human perception goes beyond what we primarily see though. While humans are intuitive and have the ability to conclude what an object may be, it is difficult to erase the concentrated image out of your mind one you see what the object or image is.

            When I think of perception, I think of walking home and smelling my mom’s apple pie, knowing the pie will be there when I go into the kitchen. I think of how badly the garbage is going to smell once I see that I am about to walk past the dumpster on campus. Humans are object-based perceivers, which helps us understand why humans know what to expect based on their past experiences. We, as humans, have pattern-recognition ability that can be processed at computer speed. This is why I know my mom’s apple pie will be waiting for me once my mind and body recognize the smell because I am primed to know that once I smell the apple and cinnamon deliciousness, the apple pie is already in the oven.  

Perception is the ability to become aware of something through the senses you possess. Every animal has different skills in regards to their senses, which reflects the diversity in strengths of perception for each animal. While humans are able to smell, hear, touch, and see, other animals may lack these advantageous abilities. Whales and bats exemplify two animals that lack the olfactory senses to smell. Perception is also a cognitive process, where objects and events are stored as internal representations that simplify over time. As objects and events are simplified through time, we have the ability to rapidly recognize and perceptualize an object rather than focusing on each minor detail and then trying to figuring out what the object is.  This makes our lives a lot easier. We instantly are able to tell that the object on your back is a backpack based on not one, unique feature, but rather the salient features of the bag in addition to our past experiences and repeated exposure of backpacks.

Here’s a fun and tricky example. Try to say the color of each word rather than the word itself.

 

            While you may originally have thought that this test would be easy, the reality is that most of you probably made mistakes in completing the task along the way. In order to be successful with this challenge, the brain has to process the word-recognition so much faster in order for the brain to also process the color-recognition. The words, in this case, act as the object the observe is attempting to process. With this activity, the brain has potential for its attention to become fatigued because it does take a lot of energy to examine the difference between the object-recognition and the color-recognition at first. There are two different forms of recognition that human brain has to perceive and then process in order to successfully complete the task.

          In order to help restore the attention and better an individual’s perception, soft fascination can be extremely beneficial. Mindfulness meditation exemplifies one activity that can be done to help become more self-aware. Engaged walking, yoga, or other non-stressful outdoor activities are great ways to help better one’s perception and restore their attention.

Perception helps animals understand the world around them. Humans have adaptive advantages amongst other animals because we have the ability to perceive objects or events at the speed in which computers are operating. In the 21st century, our world is constantly evolving and creating new technologies that can help us accomplish tasks in a faster and easier way. It will be interesting to see how our brains will adapt in the future to try and compete with the new technologies that will exist. I wonder what the future holds for human perception...will the human brain be able to match the perception abilities of the new technologies in the future?