Perception: Difference between revisions

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=== Introduction ===

Perception is the sensory experience of the world<ref name="ref1"/>, the process and the subjective result of obtaining and processing information from stimuli originated in the environment and the self. Yet every individual may perceive the same situation differently, which is filtered by biological mechanisms, personal beliefs, and cultural contexts. What we perceive may be far from a direct reflection of reality. Personal interpretation is further influenced by cultural or ideological circumstances, affecting individual worldviews consistently.<ref name="ref2"/> Whether through vision, touch, hearing, taste, or smell, human perception is never purely objective. For this reason, philosophical approaches question how each person's subjective pattern recognition relates to any objective reality. Consequently, examining both the neuroscience of sensation and the philosophical implications of our perceptual construction of the world broadens our understanding of implicit and explicit frameworks of reality.

=== Visual Perception ===

Besides the gustatory cortex, taste, smell, and texture are also processed by the orbitofrontal cortex, influencing decisions about consumption behaviour. In comparison, certain tastes evoke memories being attributable to the amygdala, while the hypothalamus contributes by regulating appetite and taste preferences. However, flavour depends, as research depicts, further from genetics, ageing, and neurological conditions. This underlies that the function of taste involves numerous neural circuits ensuring that each bite resonates beyond the tongue.<ref>Trivedi, Bijal P. “Neuroscience: Hardwired for Taste.” ''Nature'', vol. 486, no. 7403, June 2012, pp. S7–S9, <nowiki>https://doi.org/10.1038/486s7a</nowiki>.</ref>

=== Dualism ===

The Beholder's Share, first introduced by Alois Riegl, later elaborated by Ernst Gombrich, highlights how each viewer actively completes an artwork. Sensory elements such as colours, patterns, shapes, or scenic details initially shape our perception of the piece. However, top-down processes, like prior expectations or learnt associations, further refine our conscious vision. Certainty, perception involves the interpretation and integration of sensory stimuli and expectations, unlike sensing relying only on raw detection of stimuli.<ref name=":3">Seth AK. From Unconscious Inference to the Beholder’s Share: Predictive Perception and Human Experience. ''European Review''. 2019;27(3):378-410. doi:10.1017/S1062798719000061</ref> For this reason, can perception be seen as an active construction of experience, while sensing as a passive reception of information. Due to the heavily influential nature of context, information about the artist's life or familiarity with their work of art can dramatically shift interpretation, illustrating that the viewer's knowledge and beliefs co-create an artwork's effect. Moreover, the artist's intentions often differ from those of the observer. This lack or conflict of context can completely redirect the emotional or intellectual experience of an artwork. Following this interplay between stimulus input and the observer's framework undermines the deeper principle that perception emphasises a projection of one's internal model onto the external features to construct meaning.<ref name=":3" /> As a result, the physical properties of the artwork itself emerge as much from the viewer's interpretive engagement.

=== Internal Perception ===