Text 9 perception

I. Read and learn the following words:

● appropriately [ə`prəupriitli] соответственно ● to be alarmed [ə`la:md] быть обеспокоенным ● cerebral cortex [`seribrəl `k:teks] кора головного мозга ● conscious [`kn∫əs] сознание ● cognitional [kg`ni∫inəl] познавательный ● interpretation [in`tə:pri`tei∫n] интерпретация ● hypothesis [hai`pəθisis] гипотеза ● sibilant [`sibilənt] звук ● entail [in`teil] делать необходимым ● frequency [`fri:kwənsi] частота ● pattern [`pætən] образец ● gestalt форма ● effortless [`efətles] без усилия, без направления ● integrate [intə`greit] объединять ● to seek [si:k] искать ● reason [ri:zn] причина

II. Write the derivatives of the following words:

interpretation, reason, conscious, effortless, integrate

III. Do you understand all these words? Use them in the sentences of your own.

hypothesis, gestalt, cerebral cortex, cognitional, to seek, conscious

IV. Read the text and answer the question “What is perception?” perception

Take a moment to look around the room. What do you see? Now close your eyes and listen. What do you hear? Finally, sniff deeply, paying attention to any odors. What do you smell? This simple exercise tells you a lot about perception. When you looked, you sensed colors, edges, boundaries, and contrasts, but you perceived objects – perhaps a desk, a reading lamp, a vase of flowers or a dog on the lawn outside the window. When you listened, you sensed pitches and frequencies, but you perceived events – music from the radio or the barking of the dog. When you sniffed, you sensed invisible vapors in the air, but you perceived objects – the scent of carnations or the aroma of chocolate. The first lesson, then, is that we sense stimuli but we perceive objects and events.

In each case, you made no conscious attempt to transform the information picked up by your sensory receptors. The task was completed in a twinkling – automatically. But the time perception became conscious, the interpretations had already been made. Thus the second lesson is that perception is usually effortless.

When you perceive the barked dog, you integrated the sight of the dog’s moving jaws with the sounds coming from the dog’s throat. So the third lesson is that perception integrates the information picked up by all the senses.

Psychologists say that perception is multimodal, with each sense reflecting a different mode of gathering information. The multimodal nature of perception is underscored when two information modes contradict each other – as when you watch a foreign film that has been doubled in English. The movements of the actors’ mouths and the projected dialogue are clearly out of sync – sometimes so badly that it interferes with you enjoyment of the movie.

The effortless, multimodal process of perception can be defined as the brain’s attempt to describe objects and events in the world, based on sensory input and knowledge. By combining information provided by the senses with knowledge derived from past experience, the brain creates representations of objects and events.

Perception is actually part of the continuum of information processing by the central nervous system. The continuum begins with sensation, which blends into perception, which blends into attention, which blends into working memory, which blends into thought. Thus, it is often difficult to define the precise point at which one process leaves off and the next begins.