VISUAL PERCEPTION:

THE WAY WE SEE

LOOKING AND SEEING

SEEING IS MORE THAN LOOKING

Looking is how our eyes build an image of things.

Seeing is looking with attention. All the people see things in a different way.

The way everyone sees is called PERCEPTION.

What’s PERCEPTION?To percept is to interpret what we see. Our eyes receive information, and our brain

interprets that information. This interpretation depends on the things we have learned before about the object we are seeing.

So, perception depends on our culture and our memory.

PERCEPTION = SENSE INFORMATION + CULTURE

PERCEPTIONIf we don’t know

anything about astronomy, we aren’t able to read the stars in the sky.

Astronomers know the name of the stars and planets. They see the sky in a different way than people who doesn’t know.

CULTURE AND PERCEPTIONSome people percept in a different way

although they are looking at the same thing.That is because perception depends on

culture, society and personal experience.For example, before America was discovered,

the american indians never had seen a man riding a horse. When they saw spanish soldiers riding horses, indians were scared because they thought that spanish were monsters. Indians didn’t have any experience about men riding horses, so that was very strange for them.

SENSE AND PERCEPTIONSometimes, our brain builds an image

different from the real one: sight is deceiving us.

Is really there the number 1 in this logo?

OPTICAL ILLUSIONSOptical Illusions are images percept in a

different way that they really are.

Are these vertical lines parallel?

OPTICAL ILLUSIONSWhich is longer?

OPTICAL ILLUSIONSWhich of the internal circles is bigger?

Ambiguous shapes/formsWhat do you see?

Ambiguous shapes/formsA duck or a rabbit?

IMPOSSIBLE FIGURESAlways upstairs... Or downstairs!

IMPOSSIBLE FIGURESCan you find them in the real world?

ART AND IMPOSSIBLE FIGURESMaurits Cornelis Escher (1898-1972) was a dutch

artist. In his drawings, he created a fantastic and magical world full of impossible figures.