VALUE OF PERCEPTION

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23204, 31 May 1937, Page 11

VALUE OF PERCEPTION

PRACTICAL PSYCHOLOGY CLUB "The Value of Perception" was the subject under consideration last week at the meeting of the Dunedin Practical Psychology Club. A sensation, it was stated, was a simple report of the senses which was received in consciousness, but perception was the thought arising from the feeling of the sensation. Perception usually combined several sensations into thought or percept. Sensation merely brought a report from outside objects, while perception, identified the report with the object which caused it, and interpreted the report. Any mental process was an activity of the organism, arid it was aroused by some stimulus, external or internal, therefore it was a reaction. A person might be aroused from sleep by a noise, which was a sensation. When the person recognised the noise as a knocking on the door, that recognition was his own doing, the result of past experience, and might be termed a perception or a perceptive response to the stimulus of the knocking. Man's perceptions enabled him to proceed from the vague and erroneous to the correct and precise. A great deal of an individual's mental activity consisted in the perception of facts. He made use of the facts, adjusting himself to them and also shaping them to suit himself. He was constantly coming to know fresh facts, and constantly doing something new with them. His life was a voyage of discovery, and at the same time a career of invention. The facts observed might not be altogether new, but at least they had always to be verified afresh. Discovery took its start with the early exoloratory activities of the child, who learned that a pin pricked and the fire burned. Perception was the end or culmination of a discovery, and consisted in recognising presented facts.

It was of the utmost importance that one should develop and train the powers of perception. Not. only was one's stock,of practical knowledge largely based upon developed perception, but one's success also depended materially upon the same faculties. In business and professional life the successful man was usually the one who developed perceptive powers, the one who had Jearned to. perceive, observe, and note. There were manv types of perception, and the power of perception differed in individuals, but could be developed with practice. Methods of developing this faculty were discussed, while the value of perceotion was well illustrated by stories related by members.