What does perception mean?

Definitions for perception
pərˈsɛp ʃənper·cep·tion

This dictionary definitions page includes all the possible meanings, example usage and translations of the word perception.

Princeton's WordNet

  1. percept, perception, perceptual experiencenoun

    the representation of what is perceived; basic component in the formation of a concept

  2. perceptionnoun

    a way of conceiving something

    "Luther had a new perception of the Bible"

  3. perceptionnoun

    the process of perceiving

  4. perceptionnoun

    knowledge gained by perceiving

    "a man admired for the depth of his perception"

  5. sensing, perceptionnoun

    becoming aware of something via the senses

Wiktionary

  1. perceptionnoun

    Conscious understanding of something.

  2. perceptionnoun

    Vision (ability)

  3. perceptionnoun

    Acuity

  4. perceptionnoun

    (cognition) That which is detected by the five senses; not necessarily understood (imagine looking through fog, trying to understand if you see a small dog or a cat); also that which is detected within consciousness as a thought, intuition, deduction, etc.

  5. Etymology: From perception, from perceptio, from percipere, past participle perceptus; see perceive.

Samuel Johnson's Dictionary

  1. Perceptionnoun

    Etymology: perception, Fr. perceptio, Lat.

    Matter hath no life nor perception, and is not conscious of its own existence. Richard Bentley, Sermons.

    Perception is that act of the mind, or rather a passion or impression, whereby the mind becomes conscious of any thing; as when I feel hunger, thirst, cold or heat. Isaac Watts.

    By the inventors, and their followers that would seem not to come too short of the perceptions of the leaders, they are magnified. Matthew Hale, Origin of Mankind.

    Great mountains have a perception of the disposition of the air to tempests sooner than the vallies below; and therefore they say in Wales, when certain hills have their night caps on, they mean mischief. Francis Bacon.

    This experiment discovereth perception in plants to move towards that which should comfort them, though at a distance. Francis Bacon, Natural History.

Wikipedia

  1. Perception

    Perception (from Latin perceptio 'gathering, receiving') is the organization, identification, and interpretation of sensory information in order to represent and understand the presented information or environment. All perception involves signals that go through the nervous system, which in turn result from physical or chemical stimulation of the sensory system. Vision involves light striking the retina of the eye; smell is mediated by odor molecules; and hearing involves pressure waves. Perception is not only the passive receipt of these signals, but it is also shaped by the recipient's learning, memory, expectation, and attention. Sensory input is a process that transforms this low-level information to higher-level information (e.g., extracts shapes for object recognition). The process that follows connects a person's concepts and expectations (or knowledge), restorative and selective mechanisms (such as attention) that influence perception. Perception depends on complex functions of the nervous system, but subjectively seems mostly effortless because this processing happens outside conscious awareness. Since the rise of experimental psychology in the 19th century, psychology's understanding of perception has progressed by combining a variety of techniques. Psychophysics quantitatively describes the relationships between the physical qualities of the sensory input and perception. Sensory neuroscience studies the neural mechanisms underlying perception. Perceptual systems can also be studied computationally, in terms of the information they process. Perceptual issues in philosophy include the extent to which sensory qualities such as sound, smell or color exist in objective reality rather than in the mind of the perceiver.Although people traditionally viewed the senses as passive receptors, the study of illusions and ambiguous images has demonstrated that the brain's perceptual systems actively and pre-consciously attempt to make sense of their input. There is still active debate about the extent to which perception is an active process of hypothesis testing, analogous to science, or whether realistic sensory information is rich enough to make this process unnecessary.The perceptual systems of the brain enable individuals to see the world around them as stable, even though the sensory information is typically incomplete and rapidly varying. Human and other animal brains are structured in a modular way, with different areas processing different kinds of sensory information. Some of these modules take the form of sensory maps, mapping some aspect of the world across part of the brain's surface. These different modules are interconnected and influence each other. For instance, taste is strongly influenced by smell.

ChatGPT

  1. perception

    Perception is the process by which individuals interpret and organize sensory information to understand their environment. It involves the recognition and interpretation of sensory stimuli based primarily on memory and is also influenced by various factors such as attention, expectation, emotion, and motivation. Perception can occur through any of the five senses - sight, hearing, smell, touch, and taste.

Webster Dictionary

  1. Perceptionnoun

    the act of perceiving; cognizance by the senses or intellect; apperhension by the bodily organs, or by the mind, of what is presented to them; discernment; apperhension; cognition

  2. Perceptionnoun

    the faculty of perceiving; the faculty, or peculiar part, of man's constitution by which he has knowledge through the medium or instrumentality of the bodily organs; the act of apperhending material objects or qualities through the senses; -- distinguished from conception

  3. Perceptionnoun

    the quality, state, or capability, of being affected by something external; sensation; sensibility

  4. Perceptionnoun

    an idea; a notion

  5. Etymology: [L. perceptio: cf. F. perception. See Perceive.]

Wikidata

  1. Perception

    Perception is the organization, identification, and interpretation of sensory information in order to represent and understand the environment. All perception involves signals in the nervous system, which in turn result from physical stimulation of the sense organs. For example, vision involves light striking the retinas of the eyes, smell is mediated by odor molecules and hearing involves pressure waves. Perception is not the passive receipt of these signals, but can be shaped by learning, memory, and expectation. Perception involves these "top-down" effects as well as the "bottom-up" process of processing sensory input. The "bottom-up" processing is basically low-level information that's used to build up higher-level information. The "top-down" processing refers to a person's concept and expectations that influence perception. Perception depends on complex functions of the nervous system, but subjectively seems mostly effortless because this processing happens outside conscious awareness. Since the rise of experimental psychology in the late 19th Century, psychology's understanding of perception has progressed by combining a variety of techniques. Psychophysics measures the effect on perception of varying the physical qualities of the input. Sensory neuroscience studies the brain mechanisms underlying perception. Perceptual systems can also be studied computationally, in terms of the information they process. Perceptual issues in philosophy include the extent to which sensory qualities such as sounds, smells or colors exist in objective reality rather than the mind of the perceiver.

U.S. National Library of Medicine

  1. Perception

    The process by which the nature and meaning of sensory stimuli are recognized and interpreted.

Editors Contribution

  1. perception

    To perceive with the senses.

    She was well able to shift her perception as she navigated her way through life.


    Submitted by MaryC on January 19, 2020  

British National Corpus

  1. Spoken Corpus Frequency

    Rank popularity for the word 'perception' in Spoken Corpus Frequency: #4237

  2. Written Corpus Frequency

    Rank popularity for the word 'perception' in Written Corpus Frequency: #4370

  3. Nouns Frequency

    Rank popularity for the word 'perception' in Nouns Frequency: #1302

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Numerology

  1. Chaldean Numerology

    The numerical value of perception in Chaldean Numerology is: 3

  2. Pythagorean Numerology

    The numerical value of perception in Pythagorean Numerology is: 4

Examples of perception in a Sentence

  1. Stephen Breyer:

    Structural alteration motivated by the perception of political influence can only feed that latter perception, further eroding that trust.

  2. Debasish Mridha, M.D.:

    Fear is a perception to dare but not to scare.

  3. Jamie Cameron:

    The perception that the current government is pushing rights-diminishing legislation through without apparent regard to the Charter may well be effectively forcing the Court to be more liberal, more activist, and more protectionist.

  4. Hamdullah Mohib:

    The perception in Afghanistan and people in government think that perhaps, perhaps all this talk is to create a caretaker government of which he will then become the viceroy.

  5. Stephen Schwarz:

    The downgrade reflects months of ongoing conflict environment which are testing the 'one country, two systems' framework and which have inflicted damage to the international perception of the quality and effectiveness of Hong Kong's governance and rule of law as well as the stability of its business environment.

Popularity rank by frequency of use

perception#1#7094#10000

Translations for perception

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"perception." Definitions.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 19 Mar. 2024. <https://www.definitions.net/definition/perception>.

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