1

The Perceptual Process and the Eye

Agustin Portillo

Psychology, San Diego State University - Imperial Valley

PSY- 388: Sensation and Perception

Joseph Pipkin

May 4, 2023
 2

The Perceptual Process and the Eye

When people can perceive and recognize something and then take some type of action in

certain situations, a whole set of steps and the work of different parts of the brain such as the

Parietal Lobe, the Occipital Lobe, and the Temporal Lobe must take place for this to be properly

done. This entire process is called the Perceptual Process. In other terms, this concept makes it

possible for us to identify and interpret specific pieces of information that we might see in our

environment such as cars, trees, animals, and lights, among many others. This is because so we

can analyze all this information that goes through our eyes into our brains and then think about a

specific type of action that we must take to know if we must either approach and/or have a closer

look at that object or not (Black J. & Bright D., 2019). As mentioned, this process consists of a

whole set of seven main steps and knowledge to be completed. These are the Distal and Proxima

Stimuli which consist of the stimulus in the environment and how light is reflected and focused,

Receptor Processes which is when rods and cones come in, Neural Processing, Behavioral

Responses which consists of perception, recognition, and action, and Knowledge. The perceptual

process is of great importance for people’s lives because if seen from a survival perspective this

helps us do things and take action more safely. Such as if a person gets lost in a forest and at

some point, that person thinks that they saw and/or perceived some type of wild animal shape far

in the distance. Because that person thinks that they saw that shape, they will act and walk in the

opposite direction, so they won't get hurt by that animal.

The Distal stimulus is when the light carries information about the specific object(s) that

the person might be trying to identify (APA, 2023), and the Proximal Stimulus is when that

information gets into the eye to start analyzing it, consist of the first two steps of the perceptual
 3

process. As mentioned, these two steps are the stimulus in the environment, which is when

people observe everything around them to find some type of stimulus such as an object, an

animal, or someone specific such as a famous person in a crowd. And the second step, which is

how the light is reflected and focused is when the light goes into the eyes, and then people can

perceive the information that was carried by the light into the eyes so then they would have the

image of that person on their retina and then send all the information into the brain to keep and

further analyzing it. The third step is called the receptor process. This is when some of the eye’s

functions start to work. These are the receptors or photoreceptors called rods and cones that are

located within the retina (Richardson Michael, 2018). These two have their function when

working, but both have the same and unique purpose in the eye: to help us with the sense of

light. Rods oversee vision when there are low levels of light such as if the famous person that

they are trying to identify in a crowd is in a dark room or if those people are outdoors and it is

already night outside therefore it would be difficult to properly see. And one important piece of

information about this type of photoreceptor is that it doesn’t perceive color. On the other hand,

cones do perceive color and they oversee vision when there are high levels of light such as if it is

daytime or if the room is bright enough for people to have a clear vision of their environment

(Kazilek CJ & Cooper K., 2010). Therefore, the way that these two photoreceptors work in the

third step of the perceptual process is that after the information that was carried by the light goes

into the eyes and just before the image of the stimulus that the person was looking at, in this

example the famous person is saved in the retina, the information goes through rods and cones to

analyze it and transform it into electrical energy that then it is transformed into an electrical

representation of the stimulus. The fourth step, neural processing, occurs after all the information

gathered through the eyes is already transformed into electrical signals. And on this step, all
 4

those signals start to travel through networks of neurons and different parts of the brain such as

the occipital lobe, the temporal lobe, and the parietal lobe. All these three brain regions are

essential to this process. The occipital lobe is a part of the brain that allows the processing of

everything that we see in the environment. Therefore, since this lobe oversees the vision, it is of

great importance for all of these to be properly completed because sight and/or vision is the main

factor of this entire process. If this region gets damaged people could have problems recognizing

things, words, colors, movement, the locating objects (Physiopedia, 2023). On the other hand,

the temporal lobe is important in this whole process since it helps in perceiving and processing

some of the visual information, but mostly it helps by processing auditory information gathered

from the environment when trying to identify a specific stimulus. The parietal lobe is also of

great importance because it is in charge of the senses and/or sensory perception such as smell,

hearing, taste, touch, and sight which is the one that the perceptual process utilizes the most. If

this part of the brain gets damaged a person would have problems focusing visual attention, and

spatial difficulties (Physiopedia, 2023). Therefore, the main objective of this step is to gather and

process all the information and/or electrical signals through their specific brain regions and get

them prepared for the next final steps. According to Goldstein E. (2016), the behavioral

Responses consisting of the last three of the seven main steps of the perceptual process are when

all the information and electrical signals that were gathered and processed are transformed into

new experiences. These three last main steps are perception, recognition, and action. When

talking about the same example of a famous person in a crowd. In this case, perception would

take place when the person thought that they saw a famous individual among many people, but

they aren’t still one hundred percent sure about it, and for them to be completely sure they start

to approach slowly. Then, recognition would take place right after they could finally identify that
 5

was the famous person, they thought they saw since the beginning. Finally, action would be

when they would decide to come closer to that individual since they already know who that

person is because they are famous. Finally, there is knowledge. According to Goldstein, this final

step is said to come together with perception and recognition. This is because when a person

starts to analyze something that they might see in the distance such as a family member, a friend,

a similar car that the person might own, or a known famous actor. In this case, knowledge would

be all the information that the individual who is perceiving that stimuli (seeing a famous actor)

can bring out to that specific situation. There are two key factors for this final process to be

completed. These are the Bottom-up processing and the Top-down processing. In simple terms,

bottom-up is the starting data processing of all the information coming from the stimuli that the

person might be receiving. Therefore, top-down is when all the information is already processed

according to past experiences of the individual who perceived the stimuli. Using the same

example of the famous actor to these two concepts bottom-up would be when the person initially

saw another individual, then right after that, they start to think and remember that they know

someone familiar who is famous. That would be top-down.

The eye is one of the most important factors related to the perceptual process. This is

because most of the sensory information that is carried by the light goes first through the eye and

then is processed by several factors such as the already mentioned photoreceptors rods, and

cones. The biology of the eye is complex since it is made up of a total of 24 parts. All these are

the retina, cornea, optic disc, vitreous humor, ciliary body, rod cell, anterior chamber, posterior

chamber, iris, pupil, conjunctiva, macula, fovea, cone cell, ciliary muscle, uvea, lens, sclera,

optic nerve, choroid, eyelid, lacrimal gland, photoreceptor cell, and the trabecular meshwork.

When it comes to the eye parts related to the perceptual process there are just a few which are the
 6

most important for this to be completed. According to Goldstein, these are the pupil, cornea,

lens, fovea, optic nerve, and retina. The main function of the pupil is to control the amount of

light that goes through the eye by adjusting its size by either increasing or decreasing it. This

would happen in situations where there are low or high levels of light in the environment. If the

eye is in a situation where there are low levels of light the pupil is going to dilate or increase its

size. This happens so more light levels can go through it and get to the retina. On the other hand,

if the eye is in a situation where there is a lot of light in the environment the pupil is going to

reduce its size by contracting. The purpose of this is so the light that goes through doesn’t affect

and/or damage the lens and the retina (Solanki Y. & Dunn T., 2021). The cornea oversees

protecting the eye from certain harmful environmental factors such as dust. According to Sridhar

M. (2018), another important function of this is that it helps direct light onto the lens which then

goes into the retina, so it doesn’t damage the other parts of the eye and so people can see clearly.

When it comes to the lens' primary function is similar to the cornea’s since it helps

direct/transmit light to the retina so people can have clearer vision (Hejtmancik & Shiels, 2015).

The fovea oversees what is called high-acuity vision. This helps people when driving a car,

looking at their phone, and reading, among many other situations where they might need to use

their eyes as a main factor to properly do the activity they are performing. The optic nerve which

is located at the back of each eye has a direct connection with the brain. This is of great

importance because according to Cleveland Clinic (2022), one of the main and most important

functions of this nerve is to send all the electrical signals/information that was gathered and

processed when passing through the other parts such as the pupil, cornea, lens, and fovea to

finally creates an image that then people are going to be able to see at a brain level. Finally, the

retina which is connected to the optic nerve is in charge of processing and transforming all light
 7

that goes through the eyes into electrical signals. When all this information is already in the form

of electrical signals, they are then sent to the optical nerve so it creates vision and an image of

what people might be looking at. These two last parts of the eye work closely together to process

and send information to the brain. Some problems with the retina could have if it gets damaged

are blurry vision, sensitivity to light, and the person can have problems and even lose their

peripheral vision. This could cause the development of a condition called diplopia (Cleveland C.,

2022). This causes the person who suffers from it to have a blurry-double vision. Such as if

someone is looking at a car and have this condition, that person instead of only seeing one car as

it should be, they will be seeing two cars instead. All the parts of the eye are of great importance

for several things, but when talking about the perceptual process, these six are the main parts that

make it possible.

There are many factors that help people see, analyze, recognize, and take specific actions

according to the situation. Thanks to the perceptual process and several parts of the human body

such as the eyes and certain parts of it, and different brain regions such as the mentioned Parietal

Lobe, the Occipital Lobe, and the Temporal Lobe this is possible. Therefore, this concept is of

great importance because this is something that occurs in every people’s life at all moments of

their day. This is because this process is the one that helps people see and recognize other

persons or any type of object in their environment. The whole process could be very complex

when barely learning how it works, but once it is learned is very amazing. And from a personal

point of view, it is very important to know and learn this since it can change someone’s

knowledge about how they used to see the world and their environment and start to notice

everything that certain parts of the human body amazingly do in a matter of seconds so we can

be able to go through life. As mentioned, if this whole process is seen from a survival
 8

manner/perspective it is very helpful since it could help us take an important decision that could

either save or change our lives. Therefore, it is important to learn the advantages and some of the

effects that could be developed if certain parts that are required in this process get damaged. This

is so people can be aware if they might need to go to the doctor or with a professional who can

help them fix those issues so they can have and live a proper life.
 9

References

APA. (2023). Distal stimulus. American Psychological Association. https://dictionary.apa.org/distal-

stimulus

Black J., Bright D. (2019). Organizational behavior. OpenStax.

https://openstax.org/books/organizational-behavior/pages/3-1-the-perceptual-process

Cleveland C. (2022). Optic nerve. https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/body/22261-optic-

nerve#:~:text=The%20optic%20nerves%20relay%20messages,in%20one%20or%20both%20eye

s.

Cleveland C. (2022). Retina. https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/body/22694-retina-

eye#:~:text=The%20retina%20converts%20light%20that,creates%20the%20images%20you%20

see.

Goldstein E. (2016). Sensation and perception. Cengage Learning, 10th edition. ISBN-10: 130558029X.

ISBN-13: 978-1305580299.

Hejtmancik JF, Shiels A. (2015). Overview of the lens. Prog Mol Biol Transl Sci, 134, 119-27.

doi: 10.1016/bs.pmbts.2015.04.006

Kazilek CJ, Cooper K. (2010). Rods and cones. Arizona State University School of Life Sciences Ask A

Biologist. https://askabiologist.asu.edu/rods-and-cones
 10

Physiopedia. (2023). Occipital lobe. https://www.physio-

pedia.com/Occipital_Lobe#:~:text=The%20occipital%20lobe%20is%20the,to%20and%20reme

mber%20visual%20perceptions.

Physiopedia. (2023). Parietal lobe. https://www.physio-

pedia.com/Parietal_Lobe#:~:text=The%20parietal%20lobe%20is%20vital,sight%2C%20touch%

2C%20and%20smell.

Richardson M. (2018). Rods and cones. BrainFacts/SfN. https://www.brainfacts.org/thinking-sensing-

and-behaving/vision/2018/rods-and-cones-

061518#:~:text=Rods%20and%20cones%20are%20the,processing%20center%20of%20t

he%20brain.

Solanki Y., Dunn T. (2021). Pupil function, anatomy & size | what does the pupil of the eye do? Study.

https://study.com/learn/lesson/pupil-function-anatomy-

size.html#:~:text=The%20pupil%27s%20function%20is%20to,of%20light%20entering%20the%

20eye.

Sridhar M. (2018). Anatomy of cornea and ocular surface. Indian J Ophthalmol, 66(2), 190-194.

doi: 10.4103/ijo.IJO_646_17