ENVIRONMENTAL INFLUENCES ON PERCEPTION

ORDINARY INEVITABLE SENSORIMOTOR

* EXPERIENCES DURING INFANCY*

Sensorimotor experiences refer to the opportunities to move about & take

information through vision, hearing, smell, taste & other perpetual systems.

1) Light – essential for the growth of numerous visual skills

2) Patterned visual experiences
3) Active movements

* SENSORY DEPRIVATION AFTER INFANCY*

DONALD HEBB - psychologist

- he made a study regarding this topic.
- he paid $75 a day to each of his participants & he let them stay
in a lighted cubicle w/ a foam rubber pillow on a comfortable
bed.
- the only sound that they will hear is the humming of exhaust
fan.
- there only break from their routine was eaten their meals &
going to the toilet.
- after 2 to 3 days in this situation they suffered temporary
perpetual distortion. Some of them saw images such as flashes,
of light, dots & geometrical patterns.

* STATES OF MIND*

It is personal motives, emotions, goals, values, interests, expectations, needs &

other mental influences affect what people perceive. A proof of this is an experiment
conducted between 2 groups of children; one group came from poor family and the other
from wealthy family. They’re asked to estimate the diff. sizes of coins. The wealthy
family were more accurate in estimation because of their acquainted in handling money
compared to the group of poor family.

* CULTURE*

It plays a vital role in perception. Individuals from diff. races & nationalities
perceive things differently depending on what or where they are used to.
EXTRASENSORY PERCEPTION (ESP)

Awareness w/out mediation of known sense organs.

• Precognition – is the ability to foretell future events

• Clairvoyance – is the ability to perceive object or events that do not directly
stimulate our sensory organs.

• Telepathy - involves the direct transmission of thought from one person to

another. Another phenomenon associated w/ ESP is psycho kinesis is the ability
to affect the physical world purely through thought.

Psychologists remain skeptical about the existence of ESP:

First, the most important reason for doubting its existences, is the repeated failure
to replicate instances of ESP; that is certain procedures yield evidence for ESP at one
time but not at others.

Second reason for doubting its existence is the present day scientific
understanding which states that all aspects of our behavior must ultimately stem from
biochemical events.

Third reason for doubting the existence of ESP is that much of the support for
ESP has been obtained by persons already deeply convinced of its existence.
MICHELLE P. ENTIENZA
BSIE-HE/2B

PROF. MANALASTAS