The relationship between the processes of sensation and perception. The relationship between sensation and perception

Feeling- this is a reflection of the individual properties of objects and phenomena that directly affect the senses at a given moment.

Perception- this is a reflection of objects and phenomena as a whole with their direct impact on the senses.

Feeling- this is, for example, a picture that we see, a smell that we feel, a touch, and so on. But perception is everything. If, for example, we felt the roughness of the surface, saw a wooden structure, tapped it with our knuckles and heard a knock characteristic of wood, then these will all be sensations. And our mind, synthesizing all these sensations, perceives the entire school desk. Now I think everything is clear

Sensitivity thresholds

For a sensation to arise, it is necessary for the irritation to reach a certain strength. To understand this in practice, it is enough to pour a couple of grains of sugar into a glass of water. The dose is too small, you will not feel the sweet taste. Gradually add sugar until you finally feel a slight sweetish aftertaste. Now it is enough to calculate the ratio of the amount of water to the amount of sugar. This will be the lower threshold of sensitivity.

Lower threshold of sensitivity- This is the minimum amount of stimulus that causes a barely noticeable sensation.

Upper threshold of sensitivity- this is the greatest value of the stimulus at which this sensation is still preserved.

It will be difficult to find the upper threshold of sensitivity with the help of sugar, so I will give another example. You enter a dark, unlit room. Very, very dark. Nothing is visible at all. And then it slowly starts to light up. When you start to barely distinguish objects in the room, this will be the lower threshold. When the light blinds you so that you can no longer see anything, this will mean that the upper threshold of sensitivity has been crossed.

In addition to the upper and lower thresholds, there is also a distinction threshold.

The discrimination threshold is the minimum difference between two stimuli that causes a barely perceptible difference in sensations.

Types of sensations

I. According to the nature of the reflection and the location of the receptors, the following sensations are distinguished:

1. Exteroceptive sensations - sensations associated with receptors located on the surface of the body. These include: visual, auditory, olfactory, gustatory and skin.
2. Interoreceptive (organic) - sensations associated with receptors located in the internal organs. Organic sensations do not give precise localization, however, with their strong negative impact, they can disorganize a person's consciousness.
3. Proprioceptive sensations are kinesthetic (motor) and static sensations, the receptors of which are located in the muscles, ligaments and vestibular apparatus. Feelings of own movements and spatial position of the body.

II. Depending on the type of analyzer, the following types of sensations are distinguished: visual, auditory, skin, olfactory, gustatory, kinesthetic, static, vibrational, organic and pain. Sensations are also divided into distant, in which the sources are located at some distance from the surface of the human body (for example, visual and auditory sensations) and contact, resulting from the touch of certain objects on the surface of the human skin (for example, tactile and taste sensations).

The following types of sensory disturbances are distinguished:

1. Senestopathy is a variety of unpleasant, painful sensations in various parts of the body and in internal organs that do not have objective reasons for their occurrence. It can be pressure, murmuring, bursting, heat, cold, burning, transfusion, bursting, constriction, and so on. Senestopathies can be limited or widespread, located in one place for short-term episodes, starting from the age of 5-7 years, more often projecting into the abdominal cavity.
2. Hypesthesia - a decrease in the strength of sensations, a decrease in sensitivity to external stimuli. Sounds become muffled, the light seems dim, the brightness of colors fades.
3. Hyperesthesia - exacerbation of sensations, increased sensitivity to common stimuli. For example, hyperosmia is an acute perception of ordinary odors; hyperacusis - high sensitivity to ordinary sounds.
4. Paresthesia is a disorder in which there are sensations in the form of numbness, crawling, tingling in the absence of real stimuli.

Allocate the main perceptual properties:

1. Objectivity presupposes meaningfulness and integrity of images. Objects have not only color, shape, size, but also a certain functional value. For example, a piano is a musical instrument, a knife is a cutlery, boots are shoes.
2. Integrity. Separate components of the whole can act simultaneously or sequentially, but the object or phenomenon is perceived as a whole. So, listening to an orchestra, we perceive not individual instruments, not individual sounds, but the melody as a whole. The integrity of the image is formed on the basis of generalization of knowledge about the individual properties of the object.
3. Constancy - the relative constancy of the perceived shape, color, size of an object, regardless of significant changes in the objective conditions of perception. For example, a cat on a tree, on the ground, in the dark will still be recognized as a cat.
4. Generalization - the assignment of single objects to a certain class of objects that are homogeneous with it in some way.
5. Meaningfulness - provides awareness of what is perceived by a person, how the perceived correlates with his knowledge and past experience. Perceptual images have a certain meaning, even when he sees an unfamiliar object, he tries to catch in it a resemblance to familiar objects.
6. Selectivity - the selection of some objects in comparison with others, associated with the activity and personal experience of a person. So, the actor and any outsider will pay attention to the unfolding events in the performance in different ways.

Perception also has some other properties:

1. volume - is determined by the number of objects that a person can perceive simultaneously (or sequentially per unit of time);
2. speed (or speed) - is determined by the time required to perform certain perceptual actions: detection, discrimination and identification. It is determined by the complexity of the perceived object, the experience of its perception, the speed of sensations, the psychophysiological state of a person;
3. accuracy is the correspondence of the perceptual image that has arisen, the features of the perceived object and the task facing the person;
4. completeness - the degree of such compliance;
5. reliability is the possible duration of perception with the required accuracy and the probability of adequate perception of the object under given conditions and for a given time.

Main sensation properties, most commonly used:

• quality,
• intensity,
• duration,
• spatial localization,
• absolute threshold,
• relative threshold.

Quality of feeling

Characteristics of not only sensations, but in general all characteristics can be divided into qualitative and quantitative. For example, the title of a book or its author are qualitative characteristics; the weight of a book or its length are quantitative. The quality of sensation is a property that characterizes the basic information displayed by this sensation, which distinguishes it from other sensations. One can also say this: the quality of sensation is a property that cannot be measured with the help of numbers, compared with some kind of numerical scale.

For a visual sensation, the quality can be the color of the perceived object. For taste or smell, the chemical characteristic of an object: sweet or sour, bitter or salty, floral smell, almond smell, hydrogen sulfide smell, etc.

Sometimes the quality of sensation is understood as its modality (auditory sensation, visual or otherwise). This also makes sense, because often in a practical or theoretical sense one has to talk about sensations in general. For example, during the experiment, a psychologist can ask the subject a general question: "Tell me about your feelings during ..." And then the modality will be one of the main properties of the described sensations.

Feeling intensity

Perhaps the main quantitative characteristic of sensation is its intensity. In fact, it is of great importance for us whether we listen to quiet music or loud, it is light in the room or we can hardly see our hands.

It is important to understand that the intensity of sensation depends on two factors, which can be described as objective and subjective:

• the strength of the acting stimulus (its physical characteristics),
• the functional state of the receptor on which the stimulus acts.

The more significant the physical parameters of the stimulus, the more intense the sensation. For example, the higher the amplitude of a sound wave, the louder the sound appears to us. And the higher the sensitivity of the receptor, the more intense the sensation. For example, being in a dark room after a long stay and going out into a moderately lit room, you can "go blind" from bright light.

Duration of sensation

The duration of sensation is another important characteristic of sensation. It, as the name implies, denotes the time of existence of the sensation that has arisen. Paradoxically, but the duration of sensation is also influenced by objective and subjective factors.

The main factor, of course, is objective - the longer the action of the stimulus, the longer the sensation. However, the duration of sensation is also affected by the functional state of the sense organ, and some of its inertness.

Suppose the intensity of some stimulus first gradually increases, then gradually decreases. For example, it can be a sound signal - from zero strength it grows to a clearly audible one, and then decreases again to zero strength. We do not hear a very weak signal - it is below the threshold of our perception. Therefore, in this example, the duration of the sensation will be less than the objective duration of the signal. At the same time, if our hearing had previously perceived strong sounds for a long period and did not have time to “depart” yet, then the duration of the sensation of a weak signal will be even less, because the perception threshold is high.

After the beginning of the impact of the stimulus on the sense organ, the sensation does not occur immediately, but after some time. The latent period of different types of sensations is not the same. For tactile sensations - 130 ms, for pain - 370 ms, for taste - only 50 ms. The sensation does not arise simultaneously with the beginning of the action of the stimulus and does not disappear simultaneously with the termination of its action. This inertia of sensations is manifested in the so-called aftereffect. The visual sensation, as you know, has some inertia and does not disappear immediately after the cessation of the action of the stimulus that caused it. The trace from the stimulus remains in the form of a consistent image.

Spatial localization of sensation

A person exists in space, and the stimuli that act on the sense organs are also located at certain points in space. Therefore, it is important not only to perceive the sensation, but also to spatially localize it. The analysis carried out by the receptors gives us information about the localization of the stimulus in space, that is, we can tell where the light comes from, the heat comes from, or which part of the body is affected by the stimulus.

Absolute threshold of sensation

The absolute threshold of sensation is those minimum physical characteristics of the stimulus, starting from which a sensation arises. Stimuli, the strength of which lies below the absolute threshold of sensation, do not give sensations. By the way, this does not mean at all that they do not have any effect on the body. G. V. Gershuni's studies have shown that sound stimuli below the threshold of sensation can cause a change in the electrical activity of the brain and even dilation of the pupil. The zone of influence of irritants that do not cause sensations was called by G.V. Gershuni "subsensory area".

There is not only a lower absolute threshold, but also the so-called upper one - the value of the stimulus at which it ceases to be perceived adequately. Another name for the upper absolute threshold is the pain threshold, because when we overcome it, we experience pain: pain in the eyes when the light is too bright, pain in the ears when the sound is too loud, etc. However, there are some physical characteristics of stimuli that are not related to the intensity of exposure. Such, for example, is the frequency of sound. We do not perceive either very low frequencies or very high ones: the approximate range is from 20 to 20,000 Hz. However, ultrasound does not cause us pain.

Relative threshold of sensation

The relative threshold of sensation is also an important characteristic. Can we distinguish between the weight of a pood weight and a balloon? Can we tell the weight of two sticks of sausage that look the same in the store? It is often more important to evaluate not an absolute characteristic of a sensation, but just a relative one. This kind of sensitivity is called relative, or difference.

It is used both to compare two different sensations, and to determine changes in one sensation. Suppose we heard a musician play two notes on his instrument. Were the pitches of these notes the same? or different? Was one sound louder than the other? or was not?

The relative sensation threshold is the minimum difference in the physical characteristics of the sensation that will be noticeable. Interestingly, for all types of sensation there is a general pattern: the relative threshold of sensation is proportional to the intensity of sensation. For example, if you need to add three grams (no less) to a load of 100 grams (no less) to feel the difference, then you need to add six grams to a load of 200 grams for the same purpose.

Studies have shown that for a particular analyzer this ratio of the relative threshold to the intensity of the stimulus is a constant. In the visual analyzer, this ratio is approximately 1/1000. In the auditory - 1/10. Tactile has 1/30.

Development of sensations

Sensations can and should develop, and this process begins immediately after the birth of a child. Experiments and simple observations show that already after a short time after birth, the child begins to respond to stimuli of all kinds.

Sensations of different modalities have different dynamics in development, the degree of their maturity in different periods is different. Immediately after birth, the child's skin sensitivity is most developed. Perhaps this is due to the fact that in the process of phylogenesis this sensitivity is the oldest.

When observing a newborn, you can notice that the baby is trembling due to the difference in the mother's body temperature and air temperature. A newborn child also reacts to simple touches. The lips and the entire area of ​​the mouth are most sensitive at this age. Obviously, this is due to the need to eat. Newborns also experience pain.

Already in the first days after birth, the child has a highly developed taste sensitivity. Newborn children react differently to the introduction of a solution of quinine or sugar into their mouth. A few days after birth, the baby distinguishes mother's milk from sweetened water, and the latter from plain water.

Olfactory sensitivity, especially related to nutrition, is very well developed in newborns. Newborn babies determine by the smell of their mother's milk whether the mother is in the room or not. If a child has been fed mother's milk for the first week, then he will turn away from cow's milk as soon as he smells it.

Olfactory sensations have a long way to go. Even at the age of four or five, a child's sense of smell is far from perfect.

Vision and hearing in their development go through a more complex path, which includes a number of stages. These bodies are much more complex, they are busy processing huge amounts of information and therefore require a high level of organization of functioning.

In fact, so to speak, people are born blind and deaf. In the first days after birth, a typical baby does not respond to sounds, even very loud ones. The ear canal of a newborn is filled with amniotic fluid, which resolves only after a few days. Usually the child begins to react to sounds during the first week, sometimes this period is delayed up to two or three weeks.

When a child begins to hear, his reactions to sound have the character of a general motor excitation, in particular:

• child throws up arms
• wiggles his legs,
• lets out a loud scream.

Sensitivity to sound gradually increases in the first weeks of life.

After two or three months, the child begins to find the direction to the source of the sound. Outwardly, this is manifested in the fact that he turns his head towards this source. Starting from the third or fourth month, some children begin to respond to singing and music.

As soon as the child begins to hear normally, he gradually develops speech hearing. He begins to distinguish his mother's voice from the voices of other people. Already in the first months of life, the cooing of the child in its timbre begins to correlate with the mother's voice.

In his explicit reactions, the child first of all begins to react to the intonation of speech. This is observed in the second month of life, when the gentle tone has a calming effect on the child.

In the future, it is possible to detect the child's reaction to the perception of the rhythmic side of speech and the general sound pattern of words.

A fairly accurate distinction between speech sounds, which creates the necessary minimum for the formation of one's own speech, occurs only by the end of the first year of life. From this moment, the development of speech hearing proper begins. The ability to distinguish vowels occurs earlier than the ability to distinguish consonants.

The child's vision develops even more slowly. The absolute sensitivity to light in newborns is very low, but increases markedly in the first days of life. From the moment the visual sensations appear, the child reacts to light with various motor reactions.

Color differentiation grows slowly. It is not until the fifth month that color discrimination usually sets in, after which the child begins to show interest in brightly chromatic objects.

Another obstacle that a child must overcome is a mismatch in eye movements. The child begins to feel light, but at first cannot see objects. One eye may look in one direction, the other in the other, or may be closed altogether. The child begins to control the movement of the eyes only by the end of the second month of life.

In the third month, the child begins to distinguish between objects and faces. At the same time, a long process of development of the perception of space, the forms of objects, their sizes and distances begins.

In the process of developing sensations of all modalities, one more circumstance is important - one must learn to distinguish between sensations. Although by the end of the first year the absolute sensitivity reaches a high level, the discrimination of sensations is improved during the school years.

It is also important to note that in the dynamics of the development of sensation, individual differences are of great importance: genetic characteristics, the health of the child, the presence of a rather rich environment for sensations. The process of developing sensations within certain (not very large) limits can be controlled: with the help of regular training, acquaintance with new stimuli. The development of hearing in infancy can be a good start for a further musical career.

The development of perception is a process of qualitative modification of the processes of perception as the organism grows and individual experience accumulates. It is typical for a person that the most significant changes in perception occur in the first years of a child's life. At the same time, the assimilation of sensory standards and techniques for examining stimuli, developed by society, plays a decisive role. Already before reaching the age of six months, in conditions of interaction with adults, active search actions arise: the child looks to see, grasps and feels objects with his hand. On this basis, intersensory connections are formed between various receptor systems (visual, auditory, tactile). So the child becomes able to perceive complex complex stimuli, recognize and differentiate them. At the age of 6–12 months, the motor system develops rapidly, and objective actions and manipulations act as the leading activity, which requires constant perception. At the same time, reproducing movements that model the features of perceived objects become the main way of perception. In the future, the development of perception occurs in the closest connection with the development of various types of children's activities (play, visual, constructive, and elements of labor and educational). After reaching the age of four, it acquires relative independence.

Physiological basis of perception

The activity of perception as a mental process is provided by the processes taking place in the sense organs, nerve fibers and the central nervous system.

Under the action of stimuli in the endings of the nerves present in the sense organs, nervous excitation occurs, which is transmitted along the conductive pathways to the nerve centers and, ultimately, to the cerebral cortex. Here, nervous excitation enters the projection (sensory) zones of the cortex, which thus represent the central projection of the nerve endings present in the sense organs. Different projection zones are associated with different sense organs, and depending on which organ the projection zone is associated with, certain sensory information is formed.

The mechanism described up to this point is the mechanism for the emergence of sensations. These sensations - almost literally - are a reflection of the surrounding reality. Just as the surrounding objects are reflected in a mirror or in a photograph, the same objects are reflected in the projection zones, only in the form of nervous excitations, from point to point.

With sensations, the process of perception only begins. Own physiological mechanisms of perception are included in the process of forming a holistic image of an object at subsequent stages, when the excitation from the projection zones is transmitted to the integrative zones of the cerebral cortex, where the formation of images of real world phenomena is completed. Therefore, the integrative zones of the cerebral cortex, which complete the process of perception, are often called perceptual zones. Their function differs significantly from the functions of the projection zones.

The difference in the work of the projection and integrative zones is found when the activity of one or another zone is disturbed in a person. If the work of the visual projection zone is disturbed, the so-called central blindness occurs, that is, if the periphery - the sense organs - is in full working order, the person is completely deprived of visual sensations, he sees nothing at all. If the integrative zone is affected (while the projection zone is preserved), the person sees separate light spots, some contours, but does not understand what he sees. He ceases to comprehend what affects him, he does not even recognize well-known objects and people.

A similar picture is observed in other modalities. In violation of the auditory integrative zones, people cease to understand human speech. Such diseases are called agnostic disorders (disorders leading to the impossibility of cognition), or agnosia,

Perception is closely related to motor activity, emotional experiences, thought processes, and this further complicates the understanding of the physiological foundations of perception. Having begun in the sense organs, nervous excitations caused by external stimuli pass to the nerve centers, where they cover various zones of the cortex and interact with other nervous excitations. This whole complex network of excitations grows. Interacting excitations widely cover different areas of the cortex.

In the process of perception, temporal neural connections are of great importance. Just as a pen and a piece of paper help to count in a column, so temporary neural connections provide the perception with the ability to make hypotheses, which are necessary for a deep analysis of the perceived situation. Temporary neural connections that provide the process of perception can be of two types:

• connections formed within the same analyzer,
• interanalyzer connections.

The first type of connections takes place when a complex stimulus of one modality is exposed to the body. For example, such an irritant is a melody, which is a kind of combination of individual sounds that affect the auditory analyzer. This whole complex acts as one complex stimulus. In this case, neural connections are formed not only in response to the stimuli themselves, but also to their relationship - temporal, spatial, etc. (the so-called reflex to the relationship). As a result, the process of integration, or complex synthesis, takes place in the cerebral cortex.

Interanalyzer nerve connections are formed under the influence of a complex stimulus. These are connections within different analyzers, the emergence of which I.M. Sechenov explained by the existence of associations (visual, kinesthetic, tactile, etc.). These associations in a person are necessarily accompanied by an auditory image of the word, due to which perception acquires a holistic character.

Thanks to the connections formed between analyzers, we reflect in perception such properties of objects or phenomena for the perception of which there are no specially adapted analyzers (for example, the size of an object, specific gravity).

Thus, the complex process of constructing a perception image is based on systems of intra-analyzer and inter-analyzer connections that provide the best conditions for seeing stimuli and taking into account the interaction of the properties of an object as a complex whole. But besides this, different parts of the brain directly and indirectly influence the process of perception. Even, for example, the frontal lobes have some participation in the processes of perception, ensuring the purposefulness of this process.

In psychopathology, sensory disorders are identified, which include: hyperesthesia, hypoesthesia, anesthesia, paresthesia and senestopathy, as well as a phantom symptom.

1. Hyperesthesia is a violation of sensitivity, which is expressed in the super-strong perception of light, sound, smell. It is typical for conditions after somatic diseases, traumatic brain injury. Patients may perceive the rustling of leaves in the wind as rumbling iron, and natural light as very bright.
2. Hypothesia - decreased sensitivity to sensory stimuli. The environment is perceived as faded, dull, indistinguishable. This phenomenon is typical of depressive disorders.
3. Anesthesia - most often the loss of tactile sensitivity, or the functional loss of the ability to perceive taste, smell, individual objects, is typical for dissociative (hysterical) disorders.
4. Paresthesia - a feeling of tingling, burning, crawling. Usually in zones corresponding to the zones of Zakharyin - Ged. Typical for somatoform mental disorders and somatic diseases. Paresthesias are due to the peculiarities of blood supply and innervation, which differ from senestopathies. The heaviness under the right hypochondrium has long been familiar to me, and occurs after fatty foods, but sometimes it spreads into pressure over the right collarbone and into the right shoulder joint.
5. Senestopathy - complex unusual sensations in the body with experiences of movement, transfusion, flow. Often frivolous and expressed in unusual metaphorical language, for example, patients talk about the tickling moving inside the brain, the transfusion of fluid from the throat to the genitals, stretching and constriction of the esophagus. I feel, says patient S., that ... as if the veins and vessels were empty, and air is being pumped through them, which must necessarily enter the heart and it will stop. Sort of like swelling under the skin. And then pushes of bubbles and boiling of blood.
6. Phantom syndrome is noted in persons with loss of limbs. The patient represses the absence of a limb and seems to feel pain or movement in the missing limb. Often such experiences arise after awakening and are supplemented by dreams in which the patient sees himself with a missing limb.

Perceptual disturbances in various mental illnesses have different causes and different forms of manifestation. With local lesions of the brain, one can distinguish:

1. Elementary and sensory disorders (violation of the sense of height, color perception, etc.). These disorders are associated with lesions of the subcortical levels of the analyzer systems.
2. Complex gnostic disorders, reflecting a violation of different types of perception (perception of objects, spatial relationships). These disorders are associated with damage to the cortical areas of the brain.

Gnostic disorders differ depending on the lesion of the analyzer, while they are divided into visual, auditory and tactile agnosia.

Agnosia is a disorder of recognition of objects, phenomena, parts of one's own body, their defects, while maintaining the consciousness of the outside world and self-consciousness, as well as in the absence of violations of the peripheral and conductive parts of the analyzers. Agnosia may result from the destruction of certain cortical areas (encephalitis, tumor, vascular process, etc.), as well as due to neurodynamic disorders.

Visual agnosias are divided into:

1. object agnosia (patients do not recognize objects and their images);
2. agnosia for colors and fonts;
3. optical-spatial agnosia (the understanding of the symbolism of the drawing, which reflects the spatial qualities of the drawing, is violated, the ability to convey the spatial features of the object in the drawing disappears: further, closer, more-less, top-bottom, etc.).

With auditory disorders, there is a decrease in the ability to differentiate sounds and understand speech, patients cannot remember two or more sound standards), arrhythmia (they cannot correctly assess rhythmic structures, the number of sounds and the order of alternations), a violation of the intonation side of speech (patients do not distinguish intonations and they have inexpressive speech).

Tactile agnosia is a violation of the recognition of objects when they are felt while maintaining tactile sensitivity (study with eyes closed).

3. Illusions - an erroneous, false perception of a really existing object, object or phenomenon.

Physiological - based on the normal operation of the analyzers. When we see moving clouds and the moon, it seems to us that the moon is moving and the background is stable. (Houses-street).

Physical - based on the laws of physics. Spoon in a glass. Muller-Luer illusions are directly related to the perception of a person by a person: if the observed person has his arms raised, he seems taller than the one with lowered shoulders, although their torso sizes are the same.

Illusion of Danzio (the segment in the corner seems larger)

Poggendorff illusion (A is an extension of C, but A seems to be an extension of B)

Affective - with emotional overstrain. Child-fear of the dark-cloak-man.

Interpretive - with personality and pathocharacterological disorders. In the group they say-hears their name.

Paraeidolic - visual illusions with fantastic content. In the drawing of the carpet he sees an animal.

4. Hallucinations - false perceptions that arise in the content of consciousness without external stimuli, i.e. without a real object is a delusion of perception.

Classification

• Simple: Visual (photopsy - flashing flies before the eyes); Auditory (acthemas - Door creak, noise of steps; Phonemes - simple speech hallucinations in the form of speech sounds, syllables).
• Complex: Auditory (Voices in the form of an order - imperative, insulting, laudatory); Visual (scene-like, zoopsychic); Tactile; Olfactory.
• True - in objective space, are perceived clearly, brightly, are not accompanied by a sense of danger, there is no criticism.
• False (pseudo-hallucinations) - Kandinsky described, in the subjective space, they are not perceived clearly, not brightly, muffled, accompanied by a sense of danger, there is formal criticism.
• Psychosensory disorders - distortion of the perception of objects: Metamorphopsia (doubling the object, increasing the size); Autometamorphopsia - violation of the body scheme; Violation of the perception of time (intoxication with cannabinoids).
• depersonalization - a disorder in the perception of one's own personality;
• poverty of participation - loss of perception of complex emotions;
• derealization is a distorted perception of the world around. This also includes symptoms of "already seen" (de ja vu), "never seen" (ja mais vu);

Sight is more delusional than the other senses. No wonder they say: "do not believe your eyes", "deception of sight."

 Light objects on a dark background appear enlarged against their actual size. A dark object appears smaller than a light object of the same size.

These illusions are explained by the fact that each light contour of an object is surrounded on the retina by a light border. It also increases the size of the image. In general, everything Light objects appear larger to us than dark ones. In a dark dress, people seem thinner than in a light one.

 Comparing two figures, of which one is smaller than the other, we mistakenly perceive all parts of the smaller figure as smaller, and all parts of the large figure as large. This is clearly seen in the figure: the upper segment on it seems to be longer than the lower one, although in fact they are equal.

 Look at the picture, which shows the lines - horizontal and vertical. Which one is longer? You will say that the vertical ones are longer. This is a visual error. The lines are the same length. The horizontal ones are halved by the vertical ones and therefore seem to be shorter.

 Visual illusions are well known to artists, architects, and tailors. They use them in their work. For example, a tailor sews a dress from striped fabric. If he arranges the fabric so that the stripes are horizontal, then the woman in this dress will appear taller. And if you “lay” the strips horizontally, then the hostess of the dress will seem lower and thicker.

 Changeling - a type of optical illusion, when the nature of the perceived object depends on the direction of view. One of these illusions is the "duck hare": the image can be interpreted both as an image of a duck and as an image of a hare.

 Sometimes illusions arise under the influence of strong emotions: For example, in fear, a person can mistake one thing for another (a stump in the forest is for a beast.)

^ What do you see in the picture?

Which of the central more circles?	Which of the vertical longer segments?
^ Are the lines parallel?	How many legs does an elephant have?

New concepts : perception, sensation, kinesthetic, organic, vibrational sensations, illusions of perception.

Verification questions.

1. 
   What is sensation and perception?
2. 
   What are the similarities and differences between these processes?
3. 
   What are the physiological mechanisms for the emergence of sensations?
4. 
   What types of sensations and perceptions do you know? What do they mean?

1. 
   What role do sensations and perceptions play in our lives?
2. 
   What are Perceptual Illusions? Give examples of illusions.
3. 
   Describe what sensations make up the image of perception of a pine tree.
4. 
   Why do we notice the dust on the furniture and do not feel the dust particles that fall on our face?
5. 
   Choose the correct answer.

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FEELING AND PERCEPTION

Feeling and perception are closely related. Both are so-called sensory reflections of objective reality that exists independently of consciousness and as a result of its influence on the sense organs: this is their unity. But perception- awareness of a sensual given object or phenomenon; in perception, we usually have a world of people, things, phenomena that are filled with a certain meaning for us and are involved in diverse relationships. These relationships create meaningful situations, witnesses and participants of which we are. Feeling on the other hand, it is a reflection of a separate sensory quality or undifferentiated and unobjectified impressions from the environment. In this last case sensations and perceptions are distinguished as two different forms or two different relations of consciousness to objective reality. Sensations and perceptions are thus one and different. They constitute the sensory-perceptual level of mental reflection. At the sensory-perceptual level, we are talking about those images that arise from the direct impact of objects and phenomena on the senses.

Feel

The main source of our knowledge about the external world and about our own body is sensations. They constitute the main channels through which information about the phenomena of the external world and about the states of the body reaches the brain, giving a person the opportunity to navigate in the environment and in his body. If these channels were closed and the sense organs did not bring the necessary information, no conscious life would be possible. There are known facts that a person deprived of a constant source of information falls into a sleepy state. Such cases occur when a person suddenly loses sight, hearing, smell, and when his conscious sensations are limited by some pathological process. A result close to this is achieved when a person is placed for some time in a light and soundproof chamber that isolates him from external influences. This state first induces sleep and then becomes intolerable for the subjects.

Numerous observations have shown that impaired information flow in early childhood, associated with deafness and blindness, causes severe delays in mental development. If children born deaf-deaf or deprived of hearing and sight at an early age are not taught special techniques that compensate for these defects due to touch, their mental development will become impossible and they will not develop independently.

The development of philosophical views on the nature of sensations

Sensations allow a person to perceive signals and reflect the properties and signs of things in the external world and the states of the body. They connect a person with the outside world and are both the main source of knowledge and the main condition for his mental development. However, despite the obviousness of these provisions, in the history of philosophy they have been repeatedly questioned. Philosophers-idealists often expressed the idea that the true source of our conscious life is not sensations, but the internal state of consciousness, the ability of rational thinking, inherent in nature and not dependent on the influx of information coming from the outside world. These views formed the basis of the philosophy of rationalism. Its essence was that mental processes are not the product of complex historical development, and its adherents erroneously interpreted consciousness and reason not as the result of complex historical evolution, but as a primary, further inexplicable property of the human spirit. Idealist philosophers and many psychologists who share the idealistic concept have often made attempts to reject the seemingly obvious proposition that a person's sensations connect him with the external world, and to prove the opposite, paradoxical proposition that sensations separate a person from the external world, being an insurmountable wall between him and the outside world.

This position was put forward by idealist philosophers (D. Berkeley, D. Hume, E. Mach), and psychologists Müller and G. Helmholtz formulated the theory of “specific energy of the sense organs” on its basis. According to this theory, each of the sense organs (eye, ear, skin, tongue) does not reflect the influence of the external world, does not provide information about the real processes occurring in the environment, but only receives shocks from external influences that excite their own processes. According to this theory, each sense organ has its own "specific energy" excited by any influence coming from the outside world. So, it is enough to press on the eye, to act on it with an electric current, in order to get a sensation of light; mechanical or electrical stimulation of the ear is sufficient to produce the sensation of sound. From these provisions, it was concluded that the sense organs do not reflect external influences, but are only excited by them, and a person perceives not the objective influences of the outside world, but only his own subjective states, reflecting the activity of his sense organs. In other words, this means that the sense organs do not connect a person with the outside world, but, on the contrary, separate a person from him. It is easy to see that this theory led to the statement: a person cannot perceive the objective world and the only reality is subjective processes that reflect the activity of his sense organs, which create the subjectively perceived “elements of the world”.

These conclusions formed the basis of the philosophy of subjective idealism, which boiled down to the fact that a person can only know himself and has no evidence of the existence of anything other than himself. This theory is called solipsism (from lat. Solus -- one, ipse -- myself; "There is only one I myself").

The theory of subjective idealism is completely opposed to materialistic ideas about the possibility of an objective reflection of the external world. A careful study of the evolution of the sense organs convincingly shows that in the process of long historical development, the following were formed: special perceiving organs (sense organs or receptors) that specialized in reflecting special types of objectively existing forms of motion of matter (or energy); skin receptors that reflect sound vibrations; visual receptors that reflect certain ranges of electromagnetic oscillations; etc. The study of the evolution of organisms shows that in fact we have not “specific energies of the sense organs themselves”, but specific organs that objectively reflect various types of energy. The fact that when the eye or ear is exposed to irritants that are inadequate to these organs, a “specific” (visual or auditory) sensation arises, speaks only of the high specialization of these perceiving devices and the inability to reflect those influences for which they are not specialized.

As will be described below, the high specialization of various sense organs is based not only on the structural features of the peripheral part of the analyzer - "receptors", but also on the highest specialization of neurons that make up the central nervous apparatus, which reach the signals perceived by the peripheral sense organs.

The reflex nature of sensations

So, sensations are the initial source of all our knowledge about the world. Objects and phenomena of reality that affect our sense organs are called stimuli, and the effect of stimuli on the sense organs is called irritation. Irritation, in turn, causes excitation in the nervous tissue. Sensation arises as a reaction of the nervous system to a particular stimulus and, like any mental phenomenon, has a reflex character.

The physiological mechanism of sensations is the activity of special nervous apparatuses called analyzers. Each analyzer consists of three parts: 1) a peripheral section called the receptor (the receptor is the perceiving part of the analyzer, its main function is the transformation of external energy into a nervous process); 2) afferent or sensory nerves (centripetal), conducting excitation to the nerve centers (the central section of the analyzer); 3) the cortical sections of the analyzer, in which the processing of nerve impulses coming from the peripheral sections takes place. The cortical part of each analyzer includes an area that is a projection of the periphery in the cerebral cortex, since certain areas of the cortical cells correspond to certain cells of the periphery (receptors). For a sensation to arise, the work of the entire analyzer as a whole is necessary. The analyzer is not a passive energy receiver. This is an organ that reflexively rebuilds under the influence of stimuli.

Physiological studies show that sensation is not at all a passive process, it always includes motor components in its composition. So, observations with a microscope of a skin area, carried out by the American psychologist D. Neff, made it possible to make sure that when it is irritated with a needle, the moment the sensation occurs is accompanied by reflex motor reactions of this skin area. Subsequently, numerous studies found that each sensation includes movement, sometimes in the form of a vegetative reaction (vasoconstriction, galvanic skin reflex), sometimes in the form of muscle reactions (eye rotation, neck muscle tension, hand motor reactions, etc. .). Thus, sensations are not passive processes at all - they are active. The indication of the active character of all these processes constitutes the reflex theory of sensations.

Classification of sensations

It has long been customary to distinguish five main types (modalities) of sensations: smell, taste, touch, sight and hearing. This classification of sensations according to the main modalities is correct, although not exhaustive. A.R. Luria believes that the classification of sensations can be carried out according to at least two basic principles - systematic and genetic (in other words, according to the principle of modality, on the one hand, and according to the principle of complexity or level of their construction, on the other).

Systematic classification sensations. Singling out the largest and most significant groups of sensations, they can be divided into three main types: interoceptive, proprioceptive and exteroceptive sensations. The former combine signals that reach us from the internal environment of the body; the latter provide information about the position of the body in space and the position of the musculoskeletal system, provide regulation of our movements; finally, others provide signals from the outside world and provide the basis for our conscious behavior. Consider the main types of sensations separately.

Interoceptive sensations, signaling the state of the internal processes of the body, bring to the brain irritations from the walls of the stomach and intestines, the heart and circulatory system and other internal organs. This is the oldest and most elementary group of sensations. Interoceptive sensations are among the least conscious and most diffuse forms of sensation and always retain their proximity to emotional states;

Proprioceptive sensations provide signals about the position of the body in space and form the afferent basis of human movements, playing a decisive role in their regulation. Peripheral receptors for proprioceptive sensitivity are found in muscles and joints (tendons, ligaments) and have the form of special nerve bodies (Paccini bodies). The excitations that arise in these bodies reflect the sensations that occur when muscles are stretched and the position of the joints changes. In modern physiology and psychophysiology, the role of proprioception as the afferent basis of movements in animals was studied in detail by A.L. Orbeli, P.K. Anokhin, and in humans - N. A. Bernstein. The described group of sensations includes a specific type of sensitivity, called a sense of balance, or a static sensation. Their peripheral receptors are located in the semicircular canals of the inner ear.

The third and largest group of sensations are exteroceptive sensations. They bring information from the outside world to a person and are the main group of sensations that connects a person with the external environment. The whole group of exteroceptive sensations is conventionally divided into two subgroups: contact and distant sensations.

Contact sensations are caused by an impact directly applied to the surface of the body and the corresponding perceived organ. Taste and touch are examples of contact sensation.

Distant sensations are caused by stimuli acting on the sense organs at some distance. These senses include the sense of smell and especially hearing. and vision.

Genetic classification allows us to distinguish two types of sensitivity: 1) protopathic (more primitive, affective, less differentiated and localized), which includes organic feelings (hunger, thirst, etc.); 2) epicritical (more subtly differentiating, objectified and rational), which includes the main human senses.

Epicritical sensitivity is genetically younger and controls protopathic sensitivity.

General properties of sensations

Different types of sensations are characterized not only by specificity, but also by properties common to them. These properties include: quality, intensity, duration and spatial localization.

Quality is the main feature of a given sensation, distinguishing it from other types of sensations and varying within a given type of sensation. The qualitative variety of sensations reflects the infinite variety of forms of motion of matter.

The intensity of sensation is its quantitative characteristic and is determined by the strength of the acting stimulus and the functional state of the receptor.

The duration of sensation is its temporal characteristic. It is also determined by the functional state of the sense organ, but mainly by the time of action of the stimulus and its intensity. When exposed to an irritant feelings sensation does not occur immediately, but after a while - the so-called latent (hidden) period of sensation. The latent period of various types of sensations is not the same: for example, for tactile sensations it is 130 ms, for pain - 370.

Just as a sensation does not arise simultaneously with the beginning of the action of the stimulus, it does not disappear simultaneously with the termination of its action. This inertia of sensations is manifested in the so-called aftereffect. A visual sensation, for example, has a certain inertia and does not disappear immediately after the cessation of the action of the stimulus that caused it. The trace from the stimulus remains in the form of a consistent image. Distinguish between positive and negative sequential images. A positive consistent image in terms of lightness and color corresponds to the initial stimulus, consists in the preservation of a trace of light stimulus of the same quality as the acting stimulus. If in complete darkness we light a bright lamp for a while and then turn it off, then after that we see the bright light of the lamp against a dark background for some time. The presence of positive successive images explains why we do not notice the breaks between successive frames of the film: they are filled with traces of the frames that acted before - successive images from them. The sequential image changes in time, the positive image is replaced by a negative one. With colored light sources, the sequential image turns into a complementary color.

I. Goethe wrote in his “Essay on the Doctrine of Color”: “When one evening I went into a hotel and a tall girl with a dazzlingly white face, black hair and a bright red bodice came into my room, I gazed at her, standing in the semi-darkness at some distance from me. After she left there, I saw on the light wall opposite me a black face, surrounded by a bright glow, while the clothes of a completely clear figure seemed to me the beautiful color of a sea wave.

The occurrence of negative consecutive images is explained by a decrease in the sensitivity of a given area of ​​the retina to a certain color. Under normal conditions, we do not notice successive images, since the eye makes continuous movements and therefore no significant fatigue is observed in any one part of the retina.

And, finally, sensations are characterized by the spatial localization of the stimulus. The analysis carried out by spatial receptors gives us information about the localization of the stimulus in space. Contact sensations are related to the part of the body that is affected by the stimulus.

Threshold of sensations. Sensitivity

So far, we have been talking about the qualitative difference between the types of sensations. However, quantitative research, in other words, their measurement, is equally important. The human sense organs are wonderfully delicate apparatuses. So, the human eye can distinguish a light signal of 1/1000 of a candle at a distance of a kilometer. The energy of this stimulation is so small that it would take 60,000 years to heat 1 cm3 of water per gram with its help.

However, not every irritation causes a sensation. For a sensation to arise, the stimulus must reach a certain magnitude. The minimum value of the stimulus at which a sensation first occurs is called the absolute threshold of sensation. Stimuli that do not reach it lie below the threshold of sensation. So, we do not feel individual dust particles and small particles descending on our skin. Light stimuli below a certain brightness limit do not cause visual sensations.

The value of the absolute threshold characterizes the absolute sensitivity of the sense organs. The weaker the stimuli that cause sensations (i.e., the lower the absolute threshold value), the higher the ability of the senses to respond to these influences. Thus, absolute sensitivity is numerically equal to a value inversely proportional to the absolute threshold of sensations. If the absolute sensitivity is denoted by the letter E, and the value of the absolute threshold R, then the relationship between absolute sensitivity and absolute threshold can be expressed by the formula

E=1/R.

Different analyzers have different sensitivities. The threshold of one human olfactory cell for the corresponding odorous substances does not exceed 8 molecules. It takes at least 25,000 times as many molecules to produce a taste sensation as it does to produce an olfactory sensation. A person has a very high sensitivity of visual and auditory analyzers

The absolute sensitivity of the analyzer is limited not only by the lower, but also by the upper threshold of sensation. The upper absolute threshold of sensitivity is the maximum strength of the stimulus at which a sensation adequate to the acting stimulus still arises. A further increase in the strength of stimuli acting on our receptors causes a painful sensation (super-loud sound, blinding brightness). The value of absolute thresholds, both lower and upper, varies depending on various conditions: the nature of the activity and age of the person, the functional state of the receptor, the strength and duration of the action of irritation, etc.

It is necessary to distinguish relative, or difference, sensitivity from absolute sensitivity, i.e. sensitivity to a change in stimulus. In the first half of the XIX century. German scientist M. Weber, investigating the sensation of heaviness, came to the conclusion that when comparing objects and observing the differences between them, we perceive not the differences between the objects, but the ratio of the difference to the size of the compared objects. Similarly, we notice changes in the illumination of a room depending on the initial level of illumination. If the initial illumination is 100 lux (lux), then the increase in illumination, which we first notice, should be at least 1 lux. If the illumination is 1000 lux, then the increase should be at least 10 lux. The same applies to auditory, motor, and other sensations.

The minimum difference between two stimuli that causes a barely perceptible difference in sensations is called the discrimination threshold, or difference threshold. As already mentioned, the difference sensitivity is a relative value, not an absolute one. This means that the ratio of the additional stimulus to the main stimulus must be a constant value. At the same time, the greater the value of the initial stimulus, the greater should be the increase to it.

The discrimination threshold is characterized by a relative value that is constant for a given analyzer. For the visual analyzer, this ratio is approximately 1/1000, for the auditory - 1/10, for the tactile - 1/30.

Based on the experimental data of Weber, another German scientist, G. Fechner, expressed the dependence of the intensity of sensations on the strength of the stimulus by the formula

S = K lg j+ C,

(where S -- intensity of sensation; j - the strength of the stimulus; To and FROM-- constants). According to this provision, which is called the basic psychophysical law, the intensity of sensation is proportional to the logarithm of the strength of the stimulus. In other words, with an increase in the strength of the stimulus exponentially, the intensity of sensation increases in an arithmetic progression (Weber-Fechner law).

Difference sensitivity, or discrimination sensitivity, is also inversely related to the difference threshold value: the higher the discrimination threshold, the lower the difference sensitivity.

The phenomenon of adaptation

It would be wrong to think that both the absolute and relative sensitivity of our sense organs remains unchanged and its thresholds are expressed in constant numbers. Studies show that the sensitivity of our senses can vary, and within very large limits. So, it is known that in the dark our vision becomes sharper, and in strong light its sensitivity decreases. This can be observed when you move from a dark room to light or from a brightly lit room to darkness. In the first case, a person's eyes begin to experience pain, the person temporarily "blinds", it takes some time for the eyes to adapt to bright lighting. In the second case, the opposite occurs. A person who has moved from a brightly lit room or an open place with sunlight into a dark room does not see anything at first, and it takes 20-30 minutes for him to become sufficiently well oriented in the dark. This suggests that, depending on the environment (illumination), the visual sensitivity of a person changes dramatically. As studies have shown, this change is very large and the sensitivity of the eye during the transition from bright light to darkness is aggravated by 200,000 times.

The described changes in sensitivity, which depend on environmental conditions and are called the adaptation of the sense organs to environmental conditions, exist both in the auditory sphere and in the sphere of smell, touch, and taste. The change in sensitivity, which occurs according to the type of adaptation, does not occur immediately, it requires a certain time and has its own temporal characteristics. It is essential that these temporal characteristics are different for different sense organs. So, in order for vision in a dark room to acquire the necessary sensitivity, about 30 minutes should pass. Only after that a person acquires the ability to navigate well in the dark. The adaptation of the auditory organs is much faster. Human hearing adapts to the surrounding background after 15 seconds. Just as quickly, there is a change in sensitivity in touch (a slight touch on the skin ceases to be perceived after a few seconds).

The phenomena of thermal adaptation (getting used to temperature changes) are well known. However, these phenomena are clearly expressed only in the middle range, and getting used to intense cold or intense heat, as well as to pain stimuli, almost does not take place. The phenomena of adaptation to smells are also known. In the textbook edited by A.V. Petrovsky distinguishes three varieties of the phenomenon of adaptation.

1. Adaptation as the complete disappearance of sensation during prolonged action of the stimulus.

2. Adaptation as a dulling of sensation under the influence of a strong stimulus.

(These two types of adaptation are combined by the term "negative adaptation", since as a result of it the sensitivity of the analyzers decreases.)

3. Adaptation is also called an increase in sensitivity under the influence of a weak stimulus. This type of adaptation is defined as positive adaptation. In the visual analyzer, the dark adaptation of the eye, when its sensitivity increases under the influence of darkness, is a positive adaptation. A similar form of auditory adaptation is silence adaptation.

The phenomenon of adaptation is explained by peripheral changes in the functioning of the receptor or prolonged exposure to a stimulus. So, for example, it is known that under the influence of light, visual purple, located in the rods of the retina, decomposes (fades). In the dark, on the contrary, visual purple is restored, which leads to an increase in sensitivity. The phenomenon of adaptation is also explained by the processes taking place in the central sections of the analyzers. With prolonged stimulation, the cerebral cortex responds with internal protective inhibition, which reduces sensitivity. The development of inhibition causes increased excitation of other foci, contributing to an increase in sensitivity in new conditions. In general, adaptation is one of the most important types of changes in sensitivity, indicating a greater plasticity of the organism in its adaptation to environmental conditions.

Interaction of sensations

The intensity of sensations depends not only on the strength of the stimulus and the level of adaptation of the receptor, but also on the stimuli currently affecting other sense organs. A change in the sensitivity of the analyzer under the influence of irritation of other sense organs is called the interaction of sensations.

Research carried out by S.V. Kravkov showed that no sense organ can work without affecting the functioning of other organs. So, it turned out that sound stimulation (for example, whistling) can sharpen the work of visual sensation, increasing its sensitivity to light stimuli. In the same way, some odors also affect, increasing or decreasing light and auditory sensitivity. All our analyzer systems are capable of influencing each other to a greater or lesser extent. At the same time, the interaction of sensations, like adaptation, manifests itself in two opposite processes - an increase and a decrease in sensitivity. The general pattern is that weak stimuli increase and strong ones decrease the sensitivity of the analyzers during their interaction.

An increase in sensitivity as a result of the interaction of analyzers and exercise is called sensitization. A.R. Luria distinguishes two sides of increased sensitivity according to the type of sensitization: the first is long-term, permanent and depends mainly on stable changes occurring in the body; the second is temporary in nature and depends on emergency effects on the state of the subject - physiological and psychological. The age of the subject is clearly related to the change in sensitivity. Studies have shown that the acuteness of the sensitivity of the sense organs increases with age, reaching a maximum by the age of 20-30 in order to gradually decrease in the future.

The close interaction of individual forms of sensations opens the way for a more complex conditioned reflex increase in sensitivity. Domestic scientists conducted experiments showing this possibility. So, if the metronome is first turned on for the subject, its sound does not significantly affect the change in light sensitivity; however, if this sound is combined several times in a row with light directed into the eyes, after a while the sound of the metronome alone will cause a decrease in sensitivity. It is characteristic that such changes in sensitivity are also observed when a word is used as a conditioned stimulus. This effect is especially evident if, before the test of the sensitivity of the eye, one pronounces a word associated in the subject's past experience with the meaning of the word. It was experimentally proved that a change in sensitivity occurred when the subject uttered the word “flame” before measuring the sensitivity, but such an effect did not occur if the subject pronounced a word close in sound, but distant in meaning (for example, “tribe”).

In another experiment, the facts of changes in the electrical sensitivity of the eyes and tongue were obtained in response to the presentation of the words "sour as a lemon" to the subjects. These changes were similar to those observed when the tongue was actually irritated with lemon juice. Knowing the patterns of changes in the sensitivity of the sense organs, it is possible, by selecting side stimuli, to sensitize one or another receptor, i.e. increase its sensitivity. Sensitization can also be achieved through exercise. It is known, for example, how pitch hearing develops in children who study music.

The interaction of sensations is also manifested in a phenomenon called synesthesia - the appearance under the influence of irritation of one analyzer of a sensation characteristic of other analyzers. In psychology, the facts of “colored hearing” are well known, which occurs in many people, and especially in many musicians (for example, in Scriabin). So, it is widely known that we regard high sounds as “light”, and low ones as “dark”.

It is characteristic that the phenomenon of synesthesia is not distributed equally among all people. In some cases, the phenomena of synesthesia are manifested with exceptional clarity. One of these subjects with an exceptional severity of synesthesia, the famous mnemonist Sh., was studied in detail by A.R. Luria. This person perceived all voices as colored and often said that the voice of a person addressing him, for example, was “yellow and crumbly.” The tones he heard caused him visual sensations of various shades (from bright yellow to purple). Perceived colors were perceived by him as "sonorous" or "deaf", as "salty" or "crunchy". Similar phenomena in more obliterated forms occur quite often in the form of a direct tendency to "color" numbers, days of the week, names of months in different colors.

The phenomena of synesthesia are yet another evidence of the constant interconnection of the analyzer systems of the human body, the integrity of the sensory reflection of the objective world.

Improvement of sensations in the course of exercises

We have already mentioned that sensitization of the sense organs is possible through exercise. Two ways usually lead to such sensitization: firstly, the need to compensate for sensory defects (blindness, deafness); secondly, the specific requirements of certain professions. Thus, the loss of sight or hearing is compensated to a certain extent by the development of other types of sensitivity. There are cases when people deprived of sight were engaged in sculpture, which indicates a highly developed sense of touch. The development of vibrational sensations in the deaf belongs to the same group of phenomena. Some deaf people develop vibrational sensitivity to such an extent that they can even hear music. To do this, they put their hand on the instrument or turn their backs to the orchestra. The deaf-blind O. Skorokhodova, holding her hand to the throat of the speaking interlocutor, could thus recognize him by his voice and understand what he was talking about. Many deaf-blind and blind people have a well-developed olfactory sensitivity. They can recognize people they know by smell.

The phenomena of sensitization of the sense organs are observed in persons who have been engaged in certain special professions for a long time. So, it has been established that dyers can distinguish up to 50-60 shades of black; steelmakers distinguish the finest shades of a hot metal stream, indicating the presence of impurities. It is well known what subtleties can be achieved by the taste nuances of tasters, or the ability of musicians to detect differences in tones that are completely unperceivable to the average listener.

All these facts show that under the conditions of the development of complex forms of conscious activity, the sharpness of absolute and difference sensitivity can change significantly, and that the inclusion of one or another feature in a person's conscious activity can change the sharpness of this sensitivity to a significant extent.

Perception

When we talked about sensations, we saw that their content does not go beyond the elementary forms of reflection. However, the real processes of reflection of the external world go far beyond the most elementary forms. A person does not live in a world of isolated light or color spots, sounds or touches, he lives in a world of things, objects and forms, in a world of complex situations, i.e. no matter what a person perceives, he invariably deals not with individual sensations, but with whole images. The reflection of these images goes beyond isolated sensations, relying on the joint work of the senses, the synthesis of individual sensations into complex complex systems. This synthesis can proceed both within one modality (when looking at a picture, we combine individual visual impressions into a whole image), and within several modalities (perceiving an orange, we actually combine visual, tactile, taste impressions, add to them our knowledge of him). Only as a result of such a combination, isolated sensations turn into a holistic perception, move from the reflection of individual features to the reflection of entire objects or situations.

It would be deeply erroneous to think that such a process (from relatively simple sensations to complex perceptions) is a simple summation of individual sensations or, as psychologists often said, the result of simple associations of individual features. In fact, the perception (or reflection) of whole objects or situations is much more complicated. It requires the selection of the main leading features from the whole complex of influencing features (color, shape, tactile properties, weight, taste, etc.) with simultaneous distraction (abstraction) from non-essential ones. It requires combining a group of basic essential features and comparing the perceived set of features with previous knowledge about the subject. If, in such a comparison, the hypothesis about the proposed object coincides with the incoming information, the recognition of the object occurs and its perception occurs. If the hypothesis does not agree with the information actually reaching the subject, the search for the desired solution continues until the subject finds it, i.e. until he recognizes the item or assigns it to a particular category.

When perceiving familiar objects (a glass, a table), their recognition occurs very quickly - it is enough for a person to combine two or three perceived signs in order to come to the desired decision. When perceiving new or unfamiliar objects, their recognition is much more difficult and proceeds in much more developed forms. The complete perception of such objects arises as a result of complex analytic-synthetic work, highlighting some essential features, inhibiting Other, non-essential ones and combining the perceived details into one meaningful whole.

There are theories about the process of pattern recognition. In these theories, the main attention is paid to the question: how are external signals that act on the senses transformed into meaningful perceptual impressions? As a rule, we recognize the objects and events around us easily and quickly; therefore, one may get the impression that the operations associated with recognition are simple and straightforward. The experience of engineers shows that such a representation is very far from the truth. There are no machines that would be able to recognize the symbols and sounds common to our environment. The perceptual systems of animals, even the most primitive ones, are far ahead of such machines in terms of their capabilities.

Perception is a very complex and active process that requires significant analytical and synthetic work. This complex, active nature of perception is manifested in a number of features that require special consideration. First of all, the process of information is by no means the result of a simple stimulation of the sense organs and bringing to the cerebral cortex of excitations from peripherally perceiving organs. The process of perception always includes motor components (feeling objects and moving the eyes, highlighting the most informative points; singing or pronouncing the corresponding sounds that play a significant role in determining the most significant features of the sound stream). Therefore, perception is most correctly designated as the perceiving (perceptual) activity of the subject.

Further, perception is closely connected with the revival of traces of past experience: the comparison of the information reaching the subject with previously formed ideas; comparing actual effects with them; highlighting essential features; creating hypotheses about the intended meaning of the information reaching him; the synthesis of perceived features into whole complexes by “making a decision” about which category the perceived object belongs to. In other words, the perceived (perceptual) activity of the subject is close to the processes of visual thinking, and this proximity is the more obvious, the newer and more complex the perceived object.

It is natural, therefore, that the perceiving activity is almost never limited to the limits of one modality, but is formed in the joint work of several sense organs (analyzers), the result of which are the representations formed in the subject. Finally, it is also important that the perception of an object is never carried out at the elementary level: it captures the highest levels of mental activity, in particular speech. A person does not just look at objects and passively react to their signs. Highlighting and combining the most significant of them, he always designates perceived objects with a word, thereby deeper knowing their properties, and refers them to certain categories. Perceiving watches and mentally calling them by this name, he is distracted from such insignificant features as their color, size, shape, and singles out the main feature - the function of indicating time. At the same time, he refers the perceived object to a certain category, separates it from other objects that are similar in appearance, but belong to other categories (for example, a barometer). All this once again confirms that the perceiving activity of the subject in its psychological structure can approach visual thinking. The complex and active nature of man's perceiving activity determines a number of his features, equally related to all his forms.

So, perception is a visual-figurative reflection of the objects and phenomena of reality acting at the moment on the sense organs in the aggregate of their various properties and parts.

Perceptual Properties

The objectivity of perception is expressed in the so-called act of objectification, i.e. in referring information received from the outside world to this world. Objectivity, not being an innate quality, performs an orienting and regulating function in practical activity. THEM. Sechenov said that objectivity is formed on the basis of processes that, in the end, are always outwardly moving, ensuring contact with the object itself. Without the participation of movement, our perceptions would not have the quality of objectivity, i.e. relation to objects in the external world.

Objectivity as a quality of perception plays a special role in the regulation of behavior. Usually we define objects not by their appearance, but according to their practical purpose or their main property.

Integrity. Unlike sensation, which reflects the individual properties of an object, perception gives a holistic image of it. It is formed on the basis of generalization of knowledge about the individual properties and qualities of an object, obtained in the form of various sensations.

The components of sensation are so strongly interconnected that a single complex image of an object arises even when only individual properties or individual parts of the object (velvet, marble) directly affect a person. These impressions arise as a conditioned reflex due to the connection formed in life experience between visual and tactile stimuli.

With the integrity of perception is connected and its structure. Perception to a large extent does not correspond to our instantaneous sensations and is not a simple sum of them. We perceive a generalized structure actually abstracted from these sensations, which is formed over a period of time.

If a person listens to a melody, then the previously heard notes still continue to sound in his mind when a new note arrives. Usually the listener understands the piece of music, i.e. perceives its structure as a whole. It is obvious that the last of the heard notes in itself cannot be the basis for such an understanding - the whole structure of the melody with various interconnections of its elements continues to sound in the mind of the listener. The process of perceiving rhythm is similar.

The sources of integrity and structure of perception lie in the features of the reflected objects themselves.

The constancy of perception is the relative constancy of certain properties of objects when its conditions change. Due to the property of constancy, which consists in the ability of the perceptual system (a set of analyzers that provide a given act of perception) to compensate for these changes, we perceive the objects around us as relatively constant. To the greatest extent, constancy is observed in the visual perception of the color, size and shape of objects.

The constancy of color perception is the relative invariance of the visible color when the lighting changes (a piece of coal on a sunny summer afternoon sends about 8-9 times more light than chalk at dusk). The phenomenon of color constancy is due to the combined effect of a number of reasons, among which adaptation to the general level of brightness of the visual field, lightness contrast, as well as ideas about the actual color of objects and their illumination conditions are of great importance.

The constancy of perception of the size of objects is the relative constancy of the apparent size of objects at their different (but not very large) distances. For example, the dimensions of a person from a distance of 3.5 and 10 m are reflected by the retina in the same way, although the image on it changes, its apparent size remains almost unchanged. This is explained by the fact that at relatively small distances of objects, the perception of their size is determined not only by the size of the image on the retina, but also by the action of a number of additional factors, among which the tension of the eye muscles, which adapt to fixing the object at different distances, is of particular importance.

The constancy of the perception of the shape of objects lies in the relative invariance of its perception when their position changes in relation to the line of sight of the observer. With each change in the position of an object relative to the eyes, the shape of its image on the retina changes (looks straight, sideways) due to the movement of the eyes along the contour lines of objects and the selection of characteristic combinations of contour lines known to us from past experience.

What is the origin of the constancy of perception? Maybe it's an innate mechanism?

In a study of the perception of people living in a dense forest who did not see objects at a great distance, it was found that they perceive them as small, not as distant. Builders, on the other hand, constantly see objects located below, without distorting their size.

The real source of constancy of perception is the active actions of the perceptual system. Repeated perception of the same objects under different conditions ensures the constancy (invariance - an unchanged structure) of the perceptual image in relation to changing conditions, as well as the movements of the receptor apparatus itself. Thus, the property of constancy is explained by the fact that perception is a kind of self-regulating action that has a feedback mechanism and adapts to the characteristics of the perceived object and the conditions of its existence. Without the constancy of perception, a person would not be able to navigate in an infinitely diverse and changeable world.

Meaningfulness of perception. Although perception arises from the direct action of a stimulus on the sense organs, perceptual images always have a certain semantic meaning. Perception in humans is closely related to thinking. To consciously perceive an object means to mentally name it, i.e. attribute to a specific group, class, generalize it into a word. Even when we see an unfamiliar object, we try to establish in it a resemblance to familiar ones.

Perception is not determined simply by a set of stimuli affecting the sense organs, but is a constant search for the best interpretation of the available data.

Apperception. Perception depends not only on the stimulus, but also on the subject himself. It is not the eye and the ear that perceive, but a specific living person, and therefore the characteristics of a person’s personality always affect perception. The dependence of perception on the content of a person's mental life, on the characteristics of his personality, is called apperception.

When subjects are presented with unfamiliar figures, already in the first phases of perception, they are looking for standards to which the perceived object could be attributed. In the process of perception, hypotheses about the belonging of an object to a particular category are put forward and tested. Thus, in perception, traces of past experience will be activated. Therefore, the same object can be perceived differently by different people.

The content of perception is determined both by the task set before a person and by the motives of his activity; its process involves attitudes, emotions that can change the content of perception. This is a necessary condition for the orientation of a person in the environment.

Physiological basis of perception

Perception, like sensation, is a reflex process. Pavlov showed that perception is based on conditioned reflexes, temporary nerve connections formed in the cerebral cortex of the brain when objects or phenomena of the surrounding world act on the receptors. The latter act as complex stimuli. In the nuclei of the cortical sections of the analyzers, a complex analysis and synthesis of these complex stimuli proceed. I.P. Pavlov writes about this: “In harmony with the continuously and diversely fluctuating nature, agents as conditioned stimuli were either allocated by the hemispheres for the organism in the form of extremely small elements (analyzed), then merged into diverse complexes (synthesized).” The analysis ensures the selection of the object of perception from the background, on its basis all the properties of the object of perception are combined into a holistic image.

Compared with sensations, perception is the highest form of analytical and synthetic activity of the brain. Without analysis, meaningful perception is impossible. So, unfamiliar foreign speech is perceived as a continuous sound stream. For meaningful speech perception, i.e. understanding it, it is necessary to divide speech into separate phrases, words with their meanings. This means that when perceiving speech, synthesis takes place simultaneously with analysis, due to which we perceive not separate, disparate sounds, but words and phrases. Synthesis is based on the establishment of temporary neural connections. Perception is based on two types of neural connections: those formed within one analyzer, and interanalyzer connections. The first type occurs when the body is exposed to a complex stimulus of one modality. For example, such an irritant is a melody, which is a kind of combination of individual sounds that affect the auditory analyzer. This whole complex acts as one complex stimulus. In this case, nerve connections are formed not only in response to the stimuli themselves, but also to their relationship - temporal, spatial, etc. (the so-called reflex to the relationship). As a result, an integration process, a complex synthesis, takes place in the cerebral cortex.

The second type of neural connections formed under the influence of a complex stimulus are connections within different analyzers. Sechenov explained the perception of objects or space by associations of visual, kinesthetic, tactile and other sensations. To these associations, a person necessarily joins the auditory image of the word, which denotes a given object or spatial relationship. In the act of vision, when perceiving the size of objects, their distance, and other visual sensations, they are always associated with muscular ones. The action of certain medicinal substances can cause some disruption of these connections by strengthening or weakening the eye muscles. In this case, macronia (apparent increase in objects) or micronia (apparent decrease in the size of objects) is observed.

Temporary neural connections underlying perception are formed on the basis of objective connections of the properties of objects or phenomena of the external world. Thanks to the connections formed between analyzers, we reflect in perception such properties of objects or phenomena for which there are no specially adapted analyzers (for example, the size of an object, specific gravity, etc.). Therefore, in perception we know the world more deeply than in sensations.

Thus, the complex process of constructing a perception image is based on systems of intra-analyzer and inter-analyzer connections that provide the best conditions for seeing stimuli and taking into account the interaction of the properties of an object as a complex whole.

Classification of perceptions

The classification of perception, as well as sensations, is based on differences in the analyzers involved in perception. In accordance with which analyzer plays the predominant role in perception, there are visual, auditory, tactile, kinesthetic, olfactory and gustatory perceptions.

Usually perception is the result of the interaction of a number of analyzers. Motor sensations, to one degree or another, are involved in all types of perceptions. An example is tactile perception, which involves tactile and kinesthetic analyzers. Similarly, the motor analyzer also participates in auditory and visual perceptions. Different types of perception are rarely found in their pure form; usually they are combined, and as a result, complex types of perceptions arise. Thus, the student's perception of the text in the lesson includes visual, auditory and kinesthetic perception.

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The concept of perception as a form of analytical and synthetic activity of the brain. Ordering and combining individual sensations into integral images of things and events in the process of perception. Physiological bases of perception, its properties. The main types of neural connections.

Perception in general psychology is called the reflection of objects, situations or events in their integrity. It arises from the direct impact of objects on the senses. Since an integral object usually acts simultaneously on various senses, perception is a complex process. It includes in its structure a number of sensations - simple forms of reflection into which the composite process of perception can be decomposed.

Feelings in psychology, processes of reflection of only individual properties of objects of the surrounding world are called. The concept of sensation differs from the concept of perception not qualitatively, but quantitatively. For example, when a person holds a flower in his hands, admires it and enjoys its fragrance, then the holistic impression of the flower will be called perception. And separate sensations will be the aroma of a flower, the visual impression of it, the tactile impression of the hand holding the stem. However, at the same time, if a person with closed eyes inhales the fragrance of a flower without touching it, it will still be called perception. Thus, perception consists of one or more sensations that create the most complete idea of ​​the object at the moment.

Modern psychology recognizes that sensations are the primary form of human cognition of the surrounding world. It should also be noted that although sensation is an elementary process, many complex mental processes are built on the basis of sensations, starting with perception and ending with thinking.

So, perception is a collection of sensations. For the emergence of sensations, an object of external influence and analyzers capable of perceiving this influence are necessary.

The concept of an analyzer(an apparatus that performs the function of distinguishing external stimuli) was introduced by Academician I.P. Pavlov. He also studied the structure of the analyzers and came to the conclusion that they consist of three parts.

The first, peripheral part is the receptors. These are nerve endings located in our sense organs, directly perceiving external stimuli.

The second part is the conductive paths along which excitation is transmitted from the periphery to the center.

The third part is the central part of the analyzer. These are areas of the brain responsible for recognizing the appropriate stimulus (visual, gustatory, olfactory, etc.). It is here that the impact of the stimulus is transformed into a mental process, which in psychology is called sensation.

So, the classification of sensations is built on the basis of a list of receptors, with the help of which these sensations become available.

Analyzers distinguish between two types of receptors: exteroreceptors that analyze signals coming from the outside world, and interoreceptors that analyze internal information such as hunger, thirst, pain, etc.

Exteroreceptors are the basis of perception, since they provide an objective view of the outside world.

As you know, a person has five senses. There are one more types of external sensations, since motor skills do not have a separate sense organ, but they also cause sensations. Therefore, a person can experience six types of external sensations: visual, auditory, olfactory, tactile (tactile), gustatory and kinesthetic sensations.

The main source of information about the outside world is the visual analyzer. With its help, a person receives up to 80% of the total amount of information. The organ of visual sensation is the eye. At the level of sensations, he perceives information about light and color. Colors perceived by a person are divided into chromatic and achromatic. The first include the colors that make up the spectrum of the rainbow (i.e., the splitting of light - the well-known "Every hunter wants to know where the pheasant is sitting"). To the second - black, white and gray colors. Color shades containing about 150 smooth transitions from one to another are perceived by the eye depending on the parameters of the light wave.

The auditory analyzer is next in importance in obtaining information. Sensations of sounds are usually divided into musical and noise. Their difference lies in the fact that musical sounds are created by periodic rhythmic vibrations of sound waves, and noises are created by non-rhythmic and irregular vibrations.

Many people have an interesting feature - the combination of sound and visual sensations into one general sensation. In psychology, this phenomenon is called synesthesia. These are stable associations that arise between the objects of auditory perception, such as melodies, and color sensations. Often people can tell "what color" a given melody or word is.

Slightly less common is synesthesia, based on the association of color and smell. It is often inherent in people with a developed sense of smell. Such people can be found among tasters of perfumery products - not only a developed olfactory analyzer is important for them, but also synesthetic associations that allow the complex language of smells to be translated into a more universal language of color. In general, the olfactory analyzer, unfortunately, most often people are not very well developed. People like the hero of Patrick Suskind's novel The Perfumer are a rare and unique phenomenon.

Of great importance in people's lives is the development of the kinesthetic (motor) analyzer. Kinesthetic sensations, as mentioned above, do not have a special sense organ. They are caused by irritation of nerve endings in muscles, joints, ligaments, bones. These irritations occur when the body moves in space, during physical exertion, when performing movements associated with fine motor skills (drawing, writing, embroidery, etc.). A developed kinesthetic analyzer is important, of course, for all people. But it is especially necessary for those whose profession or hobby is connected with the performance of complex movements, when it is very important not to make a mistake. These are ballet dancers, figure skaters, climbers, circus performers and many more people in whose lives there is movement as the main factor in life.

This is followed by skin sensations, sometimes they are divided into two types: tactile (tactile) and temperature. Sometimes collectively they are called tactile. For general erudition, consider the first option. Tactile sensations allow us to distinguish the relief and surface structure of objects with which our skin comes into contact, temperature sensations allow us to feel heat or cold. This analyzer performs a compensatory function for visually impaired or blind people, as well as auditory. In addition, the tactile analyzer is the only way to communicate for deaf-blind-mute people. A learning system and language have long been developed that allow such people to fully develop their consciousness and communicate with others. This language is created on the basis of touching the skin. Every touch has its own meaning. It is roughly similar to the language of hieroglyphs.

It would seem that the taste analyzer, given to us by evolution, is useless for survival and it is not known why. This is a kind of luxury against the background of other vital sensations (moreover, the taste analyzer is much more developed in people than the olfactory one). But nature is wiser than us, we can only state, but not always analyze its quirks and unexpected generosity. So, the organs of taste sensations are the tongue and the soft part of the palate. There are zones of recognition of sweet, bitter, sour, salty. Well, a full flavor bouquet is made up of these simple sensations in the brain.

Psychophysics called a branch of psychology that studies the quantitative relationship between the strength of the stimulus and the magnitude of the sensation that occurs. This section was founded by the German psychologist Gustav Fechner. It includes two groups of problems: measuring the threshold of sensations and building psychophysical scales. The threshold of sensations is the magnitude of the stimulus that causes sensations or changes their quantitative characteristics. The minimum amount of stimulus that causes sensation is called the absolute lower threshold. The maximum value, the excess of which causes the disappearance of sensation, is called the absolute upper threshold. As an explanation, we can cite auditory stimuli that are beyond the threshold zone: infrasounds (frequency below 16 Hz) are below the threshold of sensitivity and are not yet audible, ultrasounds (frequency more than 20 kHz) go beyond the upper threshold and are no longer audible.

Adaptation of the sense organs to the stimuli acting on them is called adaptation. An increase in sensitivity with a weak action of the stimulus is called positive adaptation. Accordingly, negative adaptation is a decrease in sensitivity under the action of strong stimuli. The easiest way is visual adaptation (for example, when moving from light to dark and vice versa). It is much more difficult for a person to adapt to auditory and pain stimuli.

The magnitude of the stimulus that causes the minimum analyzable change in sensation is called differential. The dependence of the strength of sensation on the magnitude of the stimulus is described in the Weber-Fechner law. According to this law, the dependence is logarithmic. But this is not the only psychophysical view of the quantitative ratio of stimulus and sensation.

On the basis of sensations and perception in general, images are formed. In psychology, the concept of an image is ambiguous and is interpreted both in a broader and in a narrower framework. In the context of ideas about sensations and perception, an image can be defined as a product of the functioning of the human brain, which makes up a subjective picture of a particular object of the surrounding world based on objective sensations. In other words, sensation is an objective reaction of the organism, which is the basic element of reflection. Perception is not a mechanical sum of sensations, but their totality, where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. After all, we perceive the object as a whole, without dissecting it into individual properties. The image is even more complex and subjective. It includes not only a holistic view of the object, but also all kinds of characteristics that depend on the individual experience of each person. For example, snakes cause disgust or fear in someone, and someone keeps a serpentarium at home. Or, seeing a fern bush in the forest, one person imagines how well this specimen will fit into his herbarium, another thinks about arranging the bouquet, the third thinks about the mystical property of this plant one night a year to indicate the location of the treasure.

The ability to create images determines the fact that the process of perception underlies the formation of the basic mental functions of a person: thinking, memory, attention, emotional sphere. It should be noted here that in perception there are both innate and acquired qualities. Innate are the properties of analyzers given to man by nature. However, these properties can change over the course of life, both for better and for worse. For example, kinesthetics can develop if a person leads an active lifestyle, or lose their accuracy if a person moves little or leads an unhealthy lifestyle. Vision, hearing, smell can change their sharpness depending on the life situation. So, in a person who has lost his sight, feelings are aggravated that compensate for this loss. Accordingly, the perception as a whole and, as a result, the images of objects change.

The process of perception is closely related to the process learning- acquisition of individual experience. There is a two-way relationship between these two processes. The child begins to experience life through perception. In an adult, experience affects the perception and formation of images.

Perception is divided into different types. They may depend on the predominance of one or another type of analyzers included in the reflective process. For example, when listening to a piece of music, auditory perception predominates. Similarly, other types of perception may predominate, which are based on any one of the sensations.

In addition, there are more complex types of perception based on several sensations. For example, when watching a movie, visual and auditory analyzers are involved.

In addition to classification based on the prevailing analyzers, there is also a classification according to the types of perceived objects themselves. This concerns the perception of space, time, movement, the perception of one person by another. Such types of perception are usually called social perception.

Under the perception of space understand the perception of the forms of objects, their spatial values ​​and relationships in three dimensions. Distinguish the perception of space with the help of vision, touch and kinesthetic apparatus. Vision gives an idea of ​​the shape, volume and size of objects. Touch forms the perception of the position and size of small objects with which a person can directly come into contact. The kinesthetic apparatus complements tactile and visual perception and makes it possible to perceive the spatial forms of relations and sizes of both small and large objects in three dimensions.

Next comes the perception of time. It reflects the duration and sequence of phenomena or events and depends on the speed of change of mental processes. Thus, the perception of time for each person is individual, since it depends on the subjective characteristics of the psyche.

The perception of movement is inseparable from spatio-temporal perception, since any movement, i.e., the movement of objects, occurs precisely in these dimensions.

It is customary to distinguish between the perception of movement relative and irrelative. The first includes the simultaneous perception of both a moving object and a certain fixed point, relative to which this object moves. The second is the perception of a moving object, isolated from the perception of other objects. For example, if a person watches the movement of a soccer ball or players across the field, this is a relative perception of movement, since his vision captures the fixed boundaries of the field. If a person sailing on the sea on a yacht watches the splash of waves or how the wind drives clouds across the sky, such a perception of movement will be irrelevant - there is no fixed point.

In addition, there are concepts such as objectivity and constancy perception. Objectivity means that a specific object is always perceived. Abstract ideas do not refer to the process of perception, but to the process of thinking or imagining. From the point of view of the modern theory of reflection, the objectivity of perception is revealed as an objective quality, due to the peculiarities of the impact of objects in the external world.

Constancy of perception means that the perceived object does not change its characteristics when it moves away from a person or approaches him, is drawn in a picture or shown on a screen. For example, the visual image of an elephant, due to the adequacy of consciousness, will be an image of a large animal, regardless of whether the elephant is in close proximity to a person, it is removed at some distance, or a person sees it on TV. (Of course, in this case we are talking about an adult person who in his experience has a visual image of an elephant. A small child who does not have sufficient experience of perception, seeing an elephant and a mouse in pictures of the same size, will not form an adequate representation without additional information.) If not there is a violation of consciousness, then the visual (in this case) analyzer will correctly assess the perspective, the background on which the object is located, and the brain will give an adequate idea of ​​it. With a disorder of perception, constancy may disappear. This happens, for example, with hallucinations. In addition, distorted perception may occur. This happens with the deliberate creation of illusions - a technique used by illusionists using mirrors, appropriate lighting and other things, or with spontaneously arising illusions, when in obscure lighting a stump can be mistaken for an animal, or in a drowsy state, thunder can be perceived as gun salvos. The emergence of spontaneous perception illusions depends on many factors: personal experience, cultural traditions, social environment, the prevailing natural landscape in the area where a person lives. For example, the illusions of Europeans and Africans or urban and rural residents will differ significantly due to the above factors.

At the end of the lecture, we will review the existing theories of perception. The emergence of the first views on the nature of perception dates back to ancient times. For example, Plato believed that all objects are the materialization of the ideas of the Creator. And the perception of objects and the appearance of their images are the memory of the immortal soul, which before its incarnation was also in the world of these ideas. The idealistic approach of the ancient thinker to the views on the psyche and the process of perception subsequently did not find development in psychological science.

In the process of the formation of psychology, the associationist approach to perception began to prevail. Associative psychology is one of the main trends in the psychology of the 17th–19th centuries. The main explanatory principle of mental life was the concept of association. This term was introduced by John Locke. It means a connection that occurs under certain conditions between two or more mental formations (sensations, motor acts, perceptions, ideas, etc.). Various interpretations of associative psychology have been given by David Hartley, George Berkeley and David Hume.

At the beginning of the XX century. in contrast to the mechanistic associative approach to the psyche and perception as its basic function, the Gestalt psychology school was formed. The concept of gestalt - a holistic image - formed the basis of the views of this school. But the concept of this school regarding the process of perception also turned out to be unviable, although it played a big role in overcoming the mechanistic nature of the associative approach. Gestalt psychology ascribes to perception the ability to transform the action of material stimuli in the external environment. Thus, according to the views of this school, consciousness is not an objective function of the psyche, based on an adequate reflection of the surrounding world. Perception is detached from the external world, perceived as a category of subjective idealism. It loses any objectivity whatsoever.

Another step in overcoming associationism was made by M. I. Sechenov. Thanks to him, in parallel with the development of the Gestalt concept, the reflex concept of the psyche developed, which is currently accepted as the basis by many foreign psychological schools. The reflex concept of reflection is a compromise between the mechanistic materialism of the associationists and the subjective idealism of the representatives of Gestalt psychology. According to her, perception is not a mechanical process, but also is not a process completely divorced from the objective realities of the world. Perception is a creative process in its own way. It combines the real properties of the perceived object and the individual characteristics of the perceiving subject. In his book “Reflexes of the Brain”, I. M. Sechenov provided a theoretical justification for the integrity of the relationship between the organism and the external environment. And in his work “Elements of Thought”, he wrote about the process of perception as follows: “An organism without its external environment that supports existence is impossible, therefore, the environment that influences it must also be included in the scientific definition of an organism.”

In the middle of the last century in Russian psychology was formulated activity approach to the study of the psyche. One of its main authors was Academician A. N. Leontiev. This approach is characterized by the fact that each mental phenomenon is considered in connection with human activity. The process of perception is inextricably linked with activity. At each stage of ontogenesis (individual development), a person has a leading type of activity. The process of perception is directly involved in the formation of any type of activity at each age stage. In addition, with the expansion of areas of activity, perception changes qualitatively. This mutual influence is similar to the mutual influence of perception and learning. Here it is necessary to separate two concepts. In psychology, there are two terms that are synonymous with the term "perception". They are taken from the Latin language and introduced into the terminological apparatus of psychology precisely in order to emphasize the difference between the two types of perception. These are the terms "perception" and "apperception". Perception is the direct perception of objects in the surrounding world. Apperception is a perception that depends on the past experience of a person, on the content of his mental activity and his individual characteristics. Distinguish stable apperception, depending on the formed personality traits, such as worldview, beliefs or beliefs, education, and temporary apperception, depending on the situational mental state.

As a result of the occurrence of sensation, some sensation is generated, for example, brightness, sweetness or loudness. Perception forms a complete image in our head, which consists of puzzles of sensations. In order to learn to perceive information well, it is necessary to be able to recognize, synthesize and analyze the signs of a material object. Thus, the individual perceived details are combined into a whole, which serves as the source of our experience. Violation of sensations and perception lies in the threshold of sensitivity. It can be low or high in relation to the norm. Neuropathologists are engaged in the treatment of such phenomena.

Every living being is endowed with the ability to feel from birth. But only some animals and people have perception. The ability to perceive improves over time. This helps us better understand certain processes, so it is important to work on our development and improve our perception.

15. Presentation

Performance- the process of mental reconstruction of images of objects and phenomena that at the moment do not affect the human senses. The term "representation" has two meanings. One of them denotes the image of an object or phenomenon that was previously perceived by the analyzers, but at the moment does not affect the senses (“the name of the result of the process”, deverbative). The second meaning of this term describes the very process of reproduction of images (“the name of the process”, a substantiated infinitive).

Representations as mental phenomena have both similarities and differences with such mental phenomena as perception, pseudohallucinations and hallucinations.

The physiological basis of representations is formed by "traces" in the cerebral cortex of the brain, remaining after real excitations of the central nervous system during perception. These "traces" are preserved due to the known "plasticity" of the central nervous system.

There are various ways to classify views.

By leading analyzers (by modality)

In accordance with the division of representations into representative systems (according to the modality of the leading analyzer), the following types of representations are distinguished:

· visual(image of a person, place, landscape);

· auditory(playback of a musical melody);

· olfactory(representation of some characteristic smell - for example, cucumber or perfume);

· taste(ideas about the taste of food - sweet, bitter, etc.)

· tactile(the idea of ​​smoothness, roughness, softness, hardness of the object);

· temperature(the notion of cold and heat).

Nevertheless, often several parsers are involved in the formation of representations at once. Thus, imagining a cucumber in the mind, a person simultaneously imagines its green color and pimply surface, its hardness, characteristic taste and smell. Representations are formed in the process of human activity, therefore, depending on the profession, one type of representation develops predominantly: for an artist - visual, for a composer - auditory, for an athlete and ballerina - motor, for a chemist - olfactory, etc.

By degree of generalization]

Representations also differ in the degree of generalization. In this case, one speaks of singular, general, and schematized representations (as opposed to perceptions, which are always singular).

· Single representations- these are representations based on the perception of one specific object or phenomenon. Often they are accompanied by emotions. These representations underlie such a phenomenon of memory as recognition.

· General representations- representations that generally reflect a number of similar objects. This type of representation is most often formed with the participation of the second signal system and verbal concepts.

· Schematized Views describe objects or phenomena in the form of conditional figures, graphic images, pictograms, etc. An example is diagrams or graphs that display economic or demographic processes.

Origin]

The third classification of representations is by origin. Within the framework of this typology, they are divided into representations that have arisen on the basis of sensations, perceptions.

Thinking and imagination.

· Based on perception. Most of a person's ideas are images that arise on the basis of perception - that is, the primary sensory reflection of reality. From these images in the process of individual life, a picture of the world is gradually formed and corrected.

Every single person.

· Based on thinking. Representations formed on the basis of thinking are highly abstract and may have few concrete features. So most people have representations of such concepts as "justice" or "happiness", but it is difficult for them to fill these images with specific features.*

· Based on imagination. Representations can also be formed on the basis of imagination, and this type of representation forms the basis of creativity - both artistic and scientific.

According to the degree of volitional effort[

Representations also differ in the degree of manifestation of volitional efforts. In this case, they are divided into involuntary and arbitrary.

Involuntary ideas are ideas that arise spontaneously, without activating the will and memory of a person, for example - dreams.

Arbitrary ideas are ideas that arise in a person under the influence of will, in the interests of the goal set by him. These representations are controlled consciousness person and play an important role in his professional activity.