Definition

Perception is the action of apprehending through the mind, information acquired through the senses, and making the connection between events in the external “world” (objects, people, movement, sounds and smells) and our thoughts about them. It is the second stage of Information Processing after “sensing”.

Misperception

Everything that passes through the senses is not necessarily “perceived”. We tend to perceive things that:

• we are interested in (and therefore looking for, or sensitive to),
• make a large impact on our senses (bright lights, loud noises, irregular movement), and
• are signs of potential danger; things that trigger fear.

On the contrary, we tend to perceive fewer things that do not interest us, are not making a large impact, and do not induce fear.

Also, we do not always perceive accurately the things that we focus on and think about. This occurs in two distinct ways: