What Is the Perceptual Cycle?
- The perceptual cycle theory is a model of perception proposed by the psychologist Ulric Neisser.
- This is why it is often called Neisser's perceptual cycle model.
- According to this theory, perception is not a passive process of receiving sensory input, but an active process of exploring the environment and constructing meaningful representations of the world.
- The theory suggests that cognition, attention, perception, and the real world interact in a cyclical manner, influencing and modifying each other.
- The perceptual cycle begins with an environmental stimulus activates and modifies a schema.
- The information is then either reinforced or altered into the schema.
- If the schema is active then it increases our perception for related stimuli.
- Then through perceptual exploration we soon notice another example of the stimuli that our schema was built off of.
- The stimuli we noticed is added to our existing schema, reinforcing it and making us notice similar information even more due to the schema directing perceptual exploration.
- For example, have you ever learned a new word? After learning a new word you might feel like it appears far more often. However the likely occurrence is that its frequency hasn't changed but you just happen to notice the word more often due to your new schema on it.
Perception and Memory
- Dissimilar schemas make people to perceive environmental objects differently. Related knowledge, skills, and attitudes may direct attention unconsciously.
- Some things you might not have a schema on don't pass the perceptual threshold. Thus things you don't know much about remain obscure to you unless you intentionally try to notice them.
- This is because perception requires attention direction. If you don't have a schema directing to attention to something, you won't notice it.
- Simply put, you need to give something attention to notice it. Schemas direct your attention to certain things.
- In addition, attention and perception are connected to memory where all perceived items are stored for later use.
- To be able to recognize and interpret sensory stimuli, we must retrieve schemas from our memory.
- Stored memories do not, however, record the reality exactly as it is. Our memory is reconstructive.
- This means that new and old information is stored to the memory according to the principles of perceptual process and must be reconstructed every time a memory is retrieved.
- This is why folk stories for example change over time, as every time a memory is retrieved it can be reconstructed a little incorrectly. Throughout decades or centuries regular small changes can lead to big differences.
- Our memories do not fully correspond with the reality; instead, they mirror what we paid attention to and how we interpreted the information.
- A memory can also be combined to the recollection of similar events and ideas, which can modify the memory and related schemas.
- Moreover, what we recall depends on the particular situation in which retrieval takes place as some schemas get activated while some aren't activated.
Related Vocabulary
- Schemas are mental structures that organize knowledge and expectations. A schema also guides the selection and interpretation of sensory information, and generates hypotheses and predictions about what to perceive next.
- Sampling is an action that directs attention to a specific aspect of the environment, such as looking, listening, touching, etc. A sampling is influenced by the current schema.
- Percepts (or perceptions) are the result of processing the sensory information obtained from the sampling. A percept may either match or mismatch the schema and its predictions. A mismatch may lead to a modification or replacement of the schema whereas a matching percept is added onto the schema.