Effects of perceptual processes on the judgement of others in interpersonal encounters

Perception is the process whereby the brain makes sense of the information coming through the senses. These senses are seeing, smelling, touching, tasting and hearing. The sensation is the primary process of data collection from the environment and is necessary for perception to occur. Perception is the secondary process of interpreting the data. The brain may use memory or try to rationalise what it believes it should be seeing (Malim et al 1998).

To understand the world around us we need to know how to perceive it to prevent chaos and confusion. Patterns of light which arrive from all over the environment are projected to our two-dimensional retinas where we achieve object detection, depth perception and pattern or object recognition where perception constancies occur such as size, shape, colour and brightness helps distinguish between objects.

Psychologists distinguish between two types of processes in pattern recognition: bottom-up processing and top-down processing.

J.J.Gibson’s (1979) bottom-up process is data-driven perception. It is direct perception which means that sensory information is analysed in one direction: All the required information enters the eye and perception occurs by using all the information as a whole. An optic array contains all the visual information from the environment to the eye. The information takes three forms: optic flow patterns, texture gradient and affordances (Hill 2009).
Gibson attempted to give pilots training in depth perception during the Second World War, and this work led him to the view that our perception of surfaces was more important than depth/space perception. Surfaces contain features sufficient to distinguish different objects from each other. In addition, perception involves identifying the function of the object: whether it can be thrown or grasped, or whether it can be sat on (Gross 2009).

Gregory’s (1972) top-down theory also referred to as a constructivist theory, which takes the view that the process of perception is active. Data received from the senses result in a perceptual hypothesis where experience of the world and expectations provide a means to test the hypothesis. For example, past experience suggests more distant objects appear smaller. Gregory points out that not all information required is available and therefore must indirectly make use of past knowledge, expectations to complete the picture (Hill 2009).
Gregory’s theory accounts for visual illusions. Gregory states that perception is active and involves selection, inference and interpretation and is relevant to perceptual set, the intuition model and inference model.
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The Perceptual set is the expectation of a person to see or perceive something based on prior experience motivation and emotion.
Bruner & Minturn, (1955) showed how expectation could influence perceptual set by showing participants an ambiguous figure 13 set in the context of letters or numbers. There is an expectation to see a letter in the context of other letters of the alphabet, whereas we expect to see numbers in the context of other numbers. Perceptual set is a tendency to perceive or notice some aspects of the available sensory data and ignore others (Gross 2009).

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The Inference model provides us with a means to interpret stimuli, but also the context within the stimuli. Inferences allow us to make judgments about people and about social events. When meeting someone for the first time we develop a first impression within seconds of meeting. For example someone who speaks in a posh accent may be associated as spoilt, upper class and snob. This is a stereotype and prejudice which may have been influenced by past experiences or by what we are told. The schemata allow us to fill in gaps in information which we acquire in social encounters which helps us build up a rapid and more complete picture of the context in which an encounter occurs. (Malim et al 1998).

The intuition model refers to global perception and how we form overall impressions. We perceive people as whole entities and not as a collection of different traits or characteristics.
Central traits and peripheral traits are used to give an overall impression of an individual. The central traits represented the whole impression while the peripheral traits were less important when forming an impression. It is easier to regard someone with all good or all bad traits than having a mixture of both. This is the Halo effect when we hold one positive good trait or characteristic and associate similar traits to them.

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Asch (1946) gave two groups each a list of adjectives. The only difference between the list was that one contained the word warm the other contained cold. The warm group saw the character in a positive way using words such as generous, sociable, popular the cold group used negative words. It was concluded that warm/cold were central dimensions implying likes/dislikes the other words represented peripheral dimensions Source.

Another explanation of global perception concentrates on the order in which we learn things about a person. The primacy effect refers to the greater impact of what we learn first about someone. The recency effect refers to the greater impact on what we learn later (Gross 2009).

Perceptual sets influence how and what we perceive. Going for a job interview would affect our behaviour if we are either confident or not confident, had no experience or had experience on job interviews. The impression you make on the interviewer will be important as they will make a first impression about you before the interview begins. The interviewer will have inferred traits and characteristics on you which also depend on gender. Inference and the induced model are used in the workplace where women are perceived on attractiveness and not on ability.

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Stereotyping people because of their dress sense and where certain traits have been inferred to that group or individual, For example the term hoodies are perceived to be worn by thugs, however, not all people who wear hoodies are thugs, The stereotype has formed by inference and intuition where central traits have been used to form this overall view.

Foreign people are perceived to be taking jobs and housing away from the locals. This is has been created either by past experiences that was negative or through influences by other people’s prejudice.
Before making snap decisions and judgements, we should require more information, as to get a better understanding of the person or social situation. Having a good awareness of your own self, experiences and prejudices can help avoid distorted perceptions and prevent you being let down.

References
Gross, R (2009). Psychology, The Science of Mind and Behaviour. London: Hodder Arnold.
Gross, R (2009). Themes, Issues and Debates in Psychology. London: Hodder Arnold.
Hill, G (2009). AS & A Level Psychology Through Diagrams. Oxford:Oxford University Press.
Malim T and Birch A (1998). Introductory Psychology. London: Macmillan.
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