Perceptual Development

Meaning

            The word Perception comes from the Latin word, percipio, meaning “receiving, collecting, action of taking possession, apprehension with the mind or senses”. Eysenck (1972) defined perception as a physiological function which enables the organism to receive and process information on he state of and alteration in the environment. Perception refers to the process of taking in, organizing, and interpreting sensory information. Perception is multimodal, with multiple sensory inputs contributing to motor responses (Bertenthal 1996). It is process of knowledge extraction. It is the interpretation of stimuli as established by relating it to earlier perceptual sets which may be by way of experience, exposure or any other interaction.

Forgus (1966) suggested four stages of perception.

1.         First stage – Physical energy is absorbed by senses.

2.         Second stage – The form of physical energy is converted by neural impulse.

3.         Third stage – The nerve impulse when reaches brain produces activities.

4.         Fourth stage – This stage is related to perceptual experiences of an individual which includes verbal and physical behaviour.

Perceptual Development

            Soon after birth the process of perceptual development starts in the infant which is a lifelong process. This development gains momentum in childhood. Through perception child learns and form concepts that helps in thought process.

1.         The turning of head by an infant in response to visual, audio or touch stimulus is type of perception.

2.         At birth the visual ability is 20/400 where as it becomes 20/20 during childhood. Similarly other senses also develop during childhood.

3.         The ability to perceive pattern, contrast and form also develops rapidly during childhood.

4.         The perception being a selective process gets refined during childhood.

5.      Figure ground Perception – Children’s gains the ability of perceiving figure ground relationship.

6.         Size Perception and Constancy – Children’s size perception and size constancy develops fully almost up to 6 years of age.

7.         Colour Perception – The cones that are responsible for colour perception and differentiation among various colours are not fully developed at birth. Between the age of 4 to 8 years children are capable to perceive different colours (Hurlock & Thompson, 1954).

8.       Weight Perception – Due to under developed weight perception children tends to break things. Child perceives smaller objects lighter than bigger objects. During childhood the accuracy of weight perception also improves.

9.         Time Perception – It takes relatively longer to perceive time due to inherent complexities in the phenomena. It takes 7 years to understand the concept of ‘year’ while 9 to 10 years to see the correct time in clock. The children of 10 years can accurately understand past, present and future.

10.       Depth Perception – The ability to perceive depth is fully developed between 6 to 14 years (Gibson, 1960).

11.       Number Perception – Number perception is an important phenomena where child at the age of 6 years can count and write numbers with ease.

12.     Currency Perception – A child of 6 years can easily differentiate between currency of different denomination. Younger children even fails to perceive the role of currency. A 5 year old child knows that currency can by things but find it difficult to understand its utility.

13.       Perception of Distance – Children fails to perceive distance accurately at younger age but with age this ability develops to greater accuracy.

References:

1.         Bertenthal, B. I. 1996. “Origins and Early Development of Perception, Action and Representation,” Annual Review of Psychology, Vol. 47, 431–59.

2.         NCERT, XI Psychology Text book.

3.         https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Childhood.

4.         https://www.cde.ca.gov/sp/cd/re/itf09percmotdev .asp.

5.         http://www.kkhsou.in/main/education/childhood.html.