Wellness Blog

What is Perception and Where Does it Come From?

Learn about perception and how it makes all our experiences unique.

Our brains are constantly bombarded by a barrage of sensory data. For example, while you’re sitting at a computer reading this article, your brain is receiving tactile information from receptors in your skin activated by the sensation of clothing and the pressure on your body from sitting in a chair, auditory information conveying any music or ambient noise that is currently tickling the hair cells in your ears, visual information from the light hitting your retina produced by your computer or phone, proprioceptive information about the relative position of your body parts with respect to one another, and much more. Perception is the translation of all of this sense data into the coherent experience of reading an article.

Put simply, perception is the process by which the brain interprets and organizes sensory information from the environment to produce a meaningful experience of the world.

The act of perceiving involves various cognitive processes such as attention, sensation, and memory, that allow us to recognize, understand, and interpret our surroundings. Perception can be influenced by personal experiences, emotions, motivations, and expectations, and can sometimes lead to perceptual illusions and misinterpretations of reality.

Examples

There are many kinds of sensory data that our brain organizes into a perceptual experience. Below are just a few examples.

• Visual perception: The ability to interpret and make sense of visual information, such as shape, color, and movement.
• Auditory perception: The ability to interpret and make sense of auditory information, such as sound, pitch, and rhythm.
• Touch perception: The ability to interpret and make sense of touch information, such as pressure, temperature, and texture.
• Taste perception: The ability to interpret and make sense of taste information, such as sweet, sour, salty, and bitter.
• Smell perception: Also called olfaction, this is the ability to interpret and make sense of smell information, such as the scent of perfume, flowers, or food.
• Time perception: The subjective experience of the passage of time. For example, perceiving that time passes quickly during an exciting event, but slowly during a boring one.
• Pain perception: This is the experience of both bodily pain transmitted from sense receptors in your body and psychological pain that is created from external experiences, such as rejection, but experienced internally (Eisenberger & Lieberman, 2004).
• Proprioception: Proprioception refers to the way in which our bodies interpret sensory signals from our muscles to understand the position of our bodies or where our limbs are with respect to the rest of our bodies.

Perception of Self and Others

​Perception of self may also refer to your perception of the way you are in the world or the way others see you. That is, self-perception would include your perception of your abilities, personality traits, behaviors, appearance, and other character traits (Kleinke, 1978). While interoception is largely informed by internal experiences, this form of self-perception is shaped by a combination of personal experiences, cultural and social expectations, and feedback from others.

Much of our perception of others is influenced by the way we perceive ourselves. That is, we can use ourselves as a reference point from which to make inferences (Markus et al., 1985). For example, we know that when we sneeze it is an involuntary behavior so we assume that the same is true of other people. We also may project our own traits onto others (Mikulincer & Horesh, 1999). For example, if we are commonly deceitful, we will see others as deceitful as well. Or if we are generous and kind, we may tend to see others as generous and kind as well.

Perception of Reality and Time

Our perception of reality can be influenced by several factors such as prior expectations, emotional state, and a group of different chemicals commonly referred to as psychedelics. Though the question of whether or not one true reality exists has not been answered, we generally share a common reality that we can mostly agree on (sometimes). We say that someone is existing in an altered reality when their perception of reality deviates substantially from the norm. For example, we might say that someone experiencing visual hallucinations after ingesting psilocybin are existing in an altered reality or altered state of consciousness.

Perception of time is particularly fascinating considering there is no sense organ through which our brains receive time information. That is, light receptors in our retinas give rise to vision, the vibration of hair cells in our ears creates the sensation of sound, and activation of receptors on our tongues creates the experience of taste, but we do not have time receptors that transmit the sensation of time. Despite its mysterious origin, time is a fundamental feature of human existence.

Our experience of time is influenced by a variety of cognitive and physical factors. For example, we perceive time as moving faster when we are having fun and when we are afraid and time seems to slow down when we are bored, depressed, or disgusted (Droit-Volet, 2013). Similarly, we experience time as passing more slowly when we are in pain (Rey et al., 2017).

While the exact mechanisms of time perception are still unknown, it is thought that the motor system is at least one of the major contributors to the experience of time. In other words, the same brain regions that make us move help us process time.

In Summary

Perception is an interesting cognitive phenomenon. It is multifaceted and can vary between people, even when they are ostensibly perceiving the same object. Our perceptions can be affected by several factors, and we should be wary of when they may be manipulated to suit the purposes of others.

References

• Droit-Volet, S. (2013). Time perception, emotions and mood disorders. Journal of Physiology-Paris, 107(4), 255-264.
• Eisenberger, N. I., & Lieberman, M. D. (2004). Why rejection hurts: a common neural alarm system for physical and social pain. Trends in cognitive sciences, 8(7), 294-300.
• Kleinke, C. L. (1978). Self-perception: The psychology of personal awareness. W. H. Freeman & Co.
• Markus, H., Smith, J., & Moreland, R. L. (1985). Role of the self-concept in the perception of others. Journal of Personality and social Psychology, 49(6), 1494.
• Mikulincer, M., & Horesh, N. (1999). Adult attachment style and the perception of others: The role of projective mechanisms. Journal of personality and social psychology, 76(6), 1022.
• Rey, A. E., Michael, G. A., Dondas, C., Thar, M., Garcia-Larrea, L., & Mazza, S. (2017). Pain dilates time perception. Scientific reports, 7(1), 1-6.