Figure and background. As psychologists say, everything that a person perceives, he perceives as a figure against a background. A figure is something that is clearly, distinctly realized, that a person describes, communicating what he perceives (sees, hears, etc.). But at the same time, any figure is necessarily perceived against some background. The background is something indistinct, amorphous, unstructured. For example, we will hear our name even in a noisy company - it usually immediately stands out as a figure in the sound background. Psychology calls, however, not to limit yourself to everyday examples and to test your statements in experiments.

Upon visual presentation, as has been established, a surface with clear boundaries and a smaller area acquires the status of a figure. A figure combines such image elements that are similar in size, shape, have symmetry, move in the same direction, are located closest to each other, etc. Consciousness perceives a figure by grouping image elements according to the proximity factor. The dashes in Figure 18 are perceived as grouped in columns of two, and not just as dashes on a white background.

Rice. 18. Grouping by proximity factor

If the subject is given different messages to the left and right ears and asked to repeat one of them out loud, then the subject can easily cope with this task. But at this time he is not aware of another message, does not remember it, cannot say what was discussed there, or even what language it was spoken in. At best he can tell whether there was music or speech, or whether a female or male voice spoke. Psychologists call the unique message in such an experiment shaded; it seems to be in the shadows, in the background. Nevertheless, the subject somehow reacts to this message. For example, he is immediately aware of the appearance of his name in it. Here is one experiment confirming the perception of a shaded message. The repeated message contains sentences containing homonym words, for example: “He found the KEY in the clearing,” and the shaded message includes the word “WATER” for some subjects, and “DOOR” for other subjects. Subjects are then asked, from many sentences presented to them, to recognize the ones they repeated. Among the sentences presented are the following: “He found a spring in a clearing” and “He found a master key in a clearing.” It turned out that the first subjects confidently recognized the sentence about a spring, and the second subjects just as confidently recognized the sentence about a master key. And, of course, the subjects of both groups could not reproduce anything from the shaded message, that is, they did not remember anything about it.

The relativity of the status of figure and ground can be illustrated by the example of ambiguous drawings (they are also called dual images). In these drawings, the figure and the background can change places; something that, with a different understanding of the drawing, is understood as the background can be perceived as a figure. Turning a figure into a background and vice versa is called restructuring. Thus, in the famous drawing by the Danish psychologist E. Rubin (see Fig. 19) you can see either two black profiles on a white background, or a white vase on a black background. Note: if a person is aware of both images in such an ambiguous drawing, then, looking at the drawing, he will never be able to see both images at the same time, and if he tries to see only one of the two images (for example, a vase), then after some time time will inevitably see something different (profiles).

Rice. 19. Ruby figure: two black profiles on a white background or a white vase on a black background

As paradoxical as it may sound, when realizing what is perceived, a person always simultaneously realizes that he has perceived more than he is currently aware of. The laws of perception are experimentally established principles, according to which a conscious figure is distinguished from the multitude of stimuli received by the brain.

A figure is usually something that has some meaning for a person, something that is connected with past experiences, assumptions and expectations of the perceiving person, with his intentions and desires. This has been shown in many experimental studies, but specific results have significantly changed the view of the nature and process of perception.

The law of the aftereffect of figure and ground. Constancy of perception. A person prefers to perceive (realize) what he has already seen before. This is manifested in a series of laws. The law of the aftereffect of figure and ground states: what a person once perceived as a figure tends to have an aftereffect, that is, to be re-emerged as a figure; what was once perceived as background tends to continue to be perceived as background. Let us consider some experiments demonstrating the manifestation of this law.

The subjects were presented with meaningless black and white images. (Such images are easy for anyone to make: on a small piece of white paper you just need to draw some meaningless stripes with black ink so that the ratio of the volumes of black and white on the piece of paper was approximately the same.) In most cases, the subjects perceived the white field as a figure, and the black field as the background, i.e. they saw the image as white on black. However, with some effort, they could perceive the presented image as black figure on a white background. In the preliminary (“training”) series of the experiment, subjects were presented with several hundred such images, each for approximately 4 s. At the same time, they were told what color image (white or black) they should see as a figure. The subjects tried “with all their might” to see exactly the image as a figure that the experimenter pointed at. In the “testing” series of the experiment, carried out several days later, they were presented with both new drawings and images from the previous series, and they had to, without any effort, perceive what was presented as it is perceived by itself, and report which field - white or black – seen as a figure. It turned out that subjects tend to perceive old images in the same way as they did in the training series (although basically they did not even recognize these images), that is, to re-emphasize the same figure and not to highlight the same background.

We present the subject a set of stimuli for a split second (this can be images or words, sounds or instrument readings, etc.). Its task is to recognize the presented stimuli. He recognizes some of them unmistakably. In some he makes mistakes, i.e. he selects an incorrect (from the point of view of the instructions) figure. It turns out that when stimuli in which he had previously made a mistake are repeatedly presented, the subject makes mistakes again more often than by chance. Usually he repeats the same mistakes that he made earlier (“the figure has an aftereffect”), sometimes he makes different mistakes in a row (“the background has an aftereffect”). The phenomenon of repetition of perceptual errors found in different experiments is particularly unexpected. Indeed, in order to repeat a mistake when presenting the same stimulus, the subject must first recognize that the presented stimulus is the same, remember that in response to its presentation he has already made such and such a mistake, i.e., essentially correctly recognize and then repeat the mistake.

In some ambiguous images, a person cannot see the second image, even despite direct prompting from the experimenter. But the subjects draw a picture that includes this image, or describe in detail what they saw, or express associations that arise in connection with the picture.

In all such cases, the subjects’ responses usually contain elements associated with the meaning of the picture that they are not aware of. This manifestation of the unconscious background appears when the task or object of perception changes.

The law of constancy of perception also speaks about the influence of past experience on perception: a person views the familiar objects around him as unchanging. We move away from objects or approach them - they do not change in size in our perception. (True, if objects are far enough away, they still seem small, for example, when we look at them from an airplane window.) The mother’s face, changing depending on lighting conditions, distance, cosmetics, hats, etc., is recognizable a child as something unchangeable already in the second month of life. White paper we perceive it as white even under moonlight, although it reflects about the same amount of light as black coal in the sun. When we look at a bicycle wheel at an angle, our eye actually sees an ellipse, but we perceive this wheel as round. In people's minds, the world as a whole is more stable and stable than, apparently, it actually is.

Constancy of perception is largely a manifestation of the influence of past experience. We know that the wheels are round and the paper is white, and that's why we see them that way. When there is no knowledge about the real shapes, sizes and colors of objects, then the phenomenon of constancy does not appear. One ethnographer describes: once in Africa, he and a local resident, a pygmy, came out of the forest. Cows were grazing in the distance. The pygmy had never seen cows from afar before, and therefore, to the amazement of the ethnographer, he mistook them for ants - the constancy of perception was broken.

Influence on the perception of expectations and assumptions. Another principle of perception: a person perceives the world depending on what he expects to perceive. The process of identifying a figure is influenced by people's assumptions about what might be presented to them. Much more often than we ourselves imagine, we see what we expect to see, we hear what we expect to hear, etc. If you ask a person with his eyes closed to determine by touch what object was given to him, then the real metallic hardness of the presented object will be felt as the softness of rubber as long as the subject is convinced that the object given to him is a rubber toy. If you present an image that can equally well be understood as the number 13 or the letter B, then subjects without any doubt perceive this sign as 13 if it appears in a series of numbers, and as the letter B if it appears in a series of letters .

A person easily fills in the gaps in incoming information and isolates a message from the noise if he assumes or knows in advance what will be presented to him. Errors that arise in perception are very often caused by disappointed expectations. We present the subject with an image of a face without eyes for a split second - as a rule, he will see a face with eyes and will confidently prove that there really were eyes in the image. We clearly hear an illegible word in noise if it is clear from the context. In the experiment, subjects were shown slides that were so out of focus that actual image recognition was impossible. Each subsequent presentation slightly improved focusing. It turned out that subjects who, at the first presentations, put forward erroneous hypotheses about what was shown to them, could not correctly identify the image, even with such image quality, when no one makes mistakes at all. If two circles with different diameters are shown on the screen 4–5 times in a row, each time on the left with a diameter of, for example, 22 mm, and on the right with a diameter of 28 mm, and then present two equal circles with a diameter of 25 mm, then the overwhelming Most subjects already involuntarily expect to see unequal circles, and therefore do not see (do not recognize) them as equal. (This effect will manifest itself even more clearly if a person with his eyes closed is first placed in the left and right hand balls of different volume or weight, and then put equal balls.)

Georgian psychologist Z. I. Khojava presented subjects who knew German and Russian with a list of German words. At the end of this list there was a word that could be read either as a meaningless letter combination written in Latin letters, or as a meaningful word written in Cyrillic. All subjects continued to read this letter combination in German (i.e., they classified it as meaningless, but German words), without noticing at all a meaningful variant of its reading as a Russian word. American J. Bagby showed children slides through a stereoscope so that different eyes saw a different image. The subjects (Mexicans and Americans) looked at two images at once, one typical of American culture (a baseball game, a blonde girl, etc.), and the other typical of Mexican culture (a bullfight, a black-haired girl, etc.). ). The corresponding photographs were similar in shape, contour of the main masses, structure and distribution of light and shadows. Although some subjects noticed that they were presented with two pictures, most saw only one - the one that was more typical of their experience.

So, a person perceives information depending on his expectations. But if his expectations were not met, then he tries to find some kind of explanation for this, and therefore his consciousness pays the greatest attention to the new and unexpected. A sharp, unexpected sound causes the head to turn in the direction of the sound, even in newly born babies. Preschool children take longer to look at new images rather than those they were previously introduced to, or choose new toys to play with rather than those that were shown to them in advance. All people have a longer reaction time to rare and unexpected signals than to frequent and expected ones, and the time to recognize unexpected signals is also longer. Consciousness, in other words, works longer on rare and unexpected signals. New and varied environments generally increase mental stress.

Immutable information is not retained in consciousness, so a person is not able to perceive and comprehend unchanging information for a long time. Unchanged information quickly becomes expected and, even against the wishes of the subjects, escapes their consciousness. A stabilized image that does not change in brightness and color (for example, with the help of contact lenses to which a light source is attached, thus moving along with the eyes), with all the efforts of the subject, ceases to be recognized within 1–3 s after the start of presentation. A constant irritant of moderate intensity, affecting the ear (constant or strictly periodic noise) or the skin (clothing, wrist watch), very soon ceases to be noticed. When fixed for a long time, the color background loses its color and begins to look gray. Close attention to any unchanging or evenly swaying object disrupts the normal flow of consciousness and contributes to the emergence of so-called altered states - meditative and hypnotic. There is a special technique of hypnotization by fixing a point on the ceiling or wall, as well as fixing the gaze on an object located at a distance of approximately 25 cm from the subject’s eyes.

Repeated repetition of the same word or group of words leads to a subjective feeling of loss of meaning of these words. Say a word out loud many times - sometimes even a dozen repetitions are enough to create a specific feeling of losing the meaning of this word. Many mystical techniques are based on this technique: shamanic rituals, repetition of verbal formulas (“Lord, have mercy on me a sinner” in Orthodoxy, “la ilaha il-la-l-lahu” (i.e. “there is no god but Allah”) in Islam), etc. Repeated recitation of such phrases leads not only to the loss of their meaning, but also, as Eastern mystics say, to a complete “emptying of consciousness,” which contributes to the emergence of special mystical states. The continuous talking of the doctor, repeating the same formulas, contributes to hypnotic suggestion. The monotonous architectural environment has a soporific effect on people.

Automated actions (walking, reading, playing musical instruments, swimming, etc.), due to their monotony, are also not perceived by the person performing this action and are not retained in consciousness. A number of complex tasks that require the greatest precision and muscular coordination (ballet dancing, boxing, marksmanship, fast typing) are successfully performed only when they are brought to the point of automatism and therefore are practically not perceived by consciousness. A “mental satiation effect” was discovered: the subject is unable to perform a monotonous task without variations for even a short time and is forced to change – sometimes unnoticed by himself – the task he is solving.

With a paucity of external influences, a person develops phenomena similar to fatigue: erroneous actions increase, emotional tone decreases, drowsiness develops, etc. In 1956, perhaps the most famous experiment with a long-term absence of information (sensory isolation) was conducted: 20 dollars a day (which at that time was a very significant amount) volunteer subjects lay on a bed, their hands were inserted into special cardboard tubes so that there was as little tactile stimuli as possible, they were wearing special glasses that let in only diffuse light, auditory the stimuli were masked by the incessant noise of the air conditioner running. The subjects were fed and watered, they could do their toileting as needed, but the rest of the time they were as motionless as possible. The hopes of the subjects that they would have a good rest in such conditions were not justified. The participants in the experiment could not concentrate on anything - thoughts eluded them. More than 80% of the subjects became victims of visual hallucinations: the walls shook, the floor rotated, the body and consciousness split into two, the eyes became unbearably painful from bright light, etc. None of them lasted more than six days, and the majority demanded to stop the experiment after three day.

The role of meaningfulness in identifying a figure. A special role in identifying a figure is played by its meaningfulness for the perceiving person. A doctor examining an x-ray, a chess player studying a new position in an opening, a hunter recognizing birds by their flight from distances incredible for an ordinary person - they all react by no means to meaningless pictures and see in them something completely different from people who do not know how to read an x-ray. play chess or hunt. Pointless situations are difficult and painful for all people. Man tries to give meaning to everything. In general, we usually perceive only what we understand. If a person suddenly hears walls talking, then in most cases he will not believe that walls can really talk, and will look for some reasonable explanation for this: the presence of a hidden person, a tape recorder, etc., or even decide that I lost my mind myself.

Meaningful words are recognized significantly faster and more accurately than meaningless sets of letters when they are visually presented. In an experiment with a shaded message, when different texts are sent to different ears, it turned out that from two messages the person himself always chooses the one that has some kind of understandable meaning for him, and, as already mentioned, he practically does not notice the message for which he no need to follow. But the most unexpected thing: if a meaningful message is sent to one ear or the other, then the subject, despite all his efforts to strictly monitor the message sent to one specific ear, is forced turns his attention to a meaningful message, no matter what ear it comes to. This effect can be partially demonstrated when visual information is presented. Please read the following text, paying attention only to the words in bold:

parallelepiped eyes racer perceive cruise surrounding information upside down horseman. However we again and again see the world stupidity in normal table orientation gardener. If you wear automobile glasses, helicopter turning over falling jack image, mollusk then after boots long-term WORKOUT Please HUMAN astronomy CAPABLE deep sea AGAIN deftly SEE THE WORLD sail SO Friday HOW DO WE HAVE IT Thursday USED ​​TO curdled milk USUALLY root SEE.

When switching meaningful text from one font to another, as a rule, there is a feeling of failure, and sometimes an attempt to read text written in a different font.

Making sense of the world has a lot to do with the use of language. Therefore, our perception of the world changes depending on what words we use to call what we see. People who speak different languages ​​perceive the world slightly differently because different languages They themselves describe this world slightly differently. It is no coincidence that Russian artists paint spring in the form of a charming girl (the word “spring” in Russian is feminine), and German artists - in the form of a handsome young man (in accordance with the gender of the word “spring” in German). Russian-speaking subjects, for example, are more likely to separate blue and cyan in their perception than English-speaking subjects, who use the same word “blue” to denote these two colors.

Perception as a process of testing hypotheses. A huge number of errors that we make in perception are not due to the fact that we see or hear something incorrectly - our senses work almost perfectly, but because we misunderstand it. However, it is precisely thanks to our ability to comprehend what we perceive that we make discoveries and perceive much more than what is perceived by our senses. Past experience and anticipation of the future expand the information received by our senses. We use this information to test hypotheses about what is in front of us. Perception – it is an active process of obtaining information to test hypotheses about the world around us.

No wonder that perception is closely related to movement and action. Obviously, movement is necessary to obtain the necessary information. Any object must be in the field of view to be seen; you need to pick it up to feel it, etc. Although the mechanisms that control such movements are very complex, we will not consider them here. However, the role of movement in perception is not only (and not even so much) this. First of all, let us note the micromovements of the sense organs. They help retain constant stimuli in consciousness, which, as we remember, tend to quickly disappear from consciousness. In a person, the points of skin sensitivity are constantly shifting: tremor of the fingers, hands, torso, which does not allow the stabilization of muscle sensations: involuntary micro-movements of the eye do not make it possible to keep the gaze on a given point, etc. All this contributes to such a change in external stimulation so that what is perceived is preserved in consciousness, but at the same time the constancy of perceived objects was not violated.

Rice. 20. The illusion of the size of a visible object: Ames’s room plan

However, the main role of action in perception is to test emerging hypotheses. Let's consider a corresponding example. The American psychologist A. Ames designed a special room (it is called the “Ames room”), the far wall of which is not located at a right angle to the side walls, as is usually the case, but at a very acute angle to one wall and, accordingly, at an obtuse angle to the other ( see Fig. 20). Thanks to the false perspective created, among other things, by the patterns on the walls, the observer sitting at the viewing device perceived this room as rectangular. If you place an object or a stranger in the far (oblique) sharp corner of such a room, they seem sharply reduced in size. This illusion persists even if the observer is informed of the true shape of the room. However, as soon as the observer performs some action in this room (touch the wall with a stick, throw a ball at the opposite wall), the illusion disappears - the room begins to be seen in accordance with its real shape. (The role of past experience is indicated by the fact that the illusion does not arise at all if the observer sees a person well known to him, for example, a husband or wife, son, etc.) So, the person forms a hypothesis about what he perceives (for example, sees or hears), and with the help of his actions verifies the validity of this hypothesis. Our actions correct our hypotheses, and with them our perceptions.

Research shows that the inability to make movements prevents us from learning to perceive the world. However, such experiments that destroy the process of perception, of course, were not carried out on children. Convenient subjects for experimenters were kittens and baby monkeys. Here is a description of one such experiment. Newborn kittens spent most of their time in the dark, where they could move freely. In the light, they were placed in special baskets that rotated like a carousel. The kitten, whose basket had holes for its paws, and which could thereby rotate the carousel, subsequently had no visual defects. The kitten, who sat passively in the basket and could not make any movements in it, subsequently made serious errors in distinguishing the shape of objects.

In this section we paid main attention to the activity of perception as a mental process. A number of important but specific issues (for example, the perception of time, movement, depth, speech, color, etc.) remained outside the scope of our consideration. Those wishing to become more familiar with the psychology of perception should refer to specialized literature.

HOW A PERSON REMEMBERS

A person is not able to retain in his consciousness even a small set of signs. He is usually able to reproduce without error after one presentation of just no more than seven numbers, letters, syllables, words, names of objects, etc. Not everyone can immediately remember even a seven-digit phone number. Why is the result of our attempts to remember something the first time so disastrous? In fact, the answer to this question has already been given: consciousness, as shown in the previous paragraph, is not capable of retaining constant information. This means that a person usually forgets information that needs to be retained unchanged in consciousness. Therefore, paradoxically, in order to retain information in consciousness, it is necessary to change it all the time.

The brain automatically remembers any information. If this information does not change, it just as automatically leaves consciousness. Therefore, when something is retained in consciousness, then, generally speaking, it occurs in violation of the normal mental process. Human activity to counteract this normal process of departure from consciousness of unchanged information includes attempts, sometimes painful, to retain information in consciousness by changing it and specific actions of the subject aimed at returning signs that have left him to consciousness.

Mnemonics. There are various mnemonic devices, which contribute to better memorization of information and allow you to increase the amount of information memorized from the first presentation. They are aimed at encouraging the subject to artificially change the stimulus material, but in such a way that these changes nevertheless do not lead to reproduction errors. Let's look at some of these techniques.

Creating images when memorizing words. When the first pair of words is presented, a visual image is created - an imaginary situation that includes both of these words. When presented with the pair of words “puppy, bicycle,” you can imagine, for example, a cheerful puppy riding a bicycle and vigorously pedaling. Let the next word be “cigar” - now in an imaginary picture the puppy is pedaling with a cigar in his teeth. A new word “geography” is introduced: a geography textbook with a world map on the cover appears on the trunk of a bicycle. “Computer” - the entire imaginary picture is placed on the display screen. “Snow Maiden” - the puppy immediately acquires a long braid and a silver fur coat of a New Year's character - etc. This method allows you to significantly increase the number of memorized words. Please note: creating images does not reduce, but increases the amount of material to be memorized. For example, the constructed image of a puppy riding a bicycle can be equally successfully applied to different pairs of words: “puppy - wheel”, “dog - bicycle”, “paw - pedal”, etc. Therefore, the subject must still remember not only the imaginary picture he created, but also the words themselves presented to him.

Mental placement of objects presented for memorization in space. Let's say you're sitting in a classroom and need to memorize a list of words. Try to place objects denoted by these words in the audience space. Important note: place them in the most unexpected places and so that during playback, looking around the audience, you could notice them (for example, it is better not to put anything in the desk). So, let the word “beefsteak” be presented to you. Where do we put it? For example, we hang it from a light bulb to keep it warm. The next word is “book”. Let's put it on top of the open door - let it fall on the one who opens the door. “Crocodile” - oh, we will have a crocodile lying on the windowsill. We’ll put the “airplane” in a corner. In another corner we will put a “cactus”, and in the middle between them we will place a “flute”, etc. Again, we will note an increase in the volume of memorization when mentally placing stimulus material in space - now you need to remember not only the stimulus material itself, but also where it is posted.

(By the way, try to remember, without re-reading, all 12 words mentioned as presented words for memorization when describing techniques for creating images and placing objects in space. Did you manage to remember at least 10?)

Recoding. The easiest way to use this technique is to memorize a large number of binary digits. If you can quickly convert binary digits (0 and 1) to octal, then memorizing 7-8 octal digits will lead to memorizing more than two dozen binary digits. When memorizing a series of decimal numbers, they can be interpreted as dates, telephone or apartment numbers known to you. For example, you need to remember the series of numbers 4125073698. Let's recode this series, say, like this: 41 – year the war began; 25 December is Catholic Christmas, and 07 January – Orthodox; 369 is 123 multiplied by 3, and at the end 8 - two cubed.

Such recoding can be carried out when memorizing a set of words. Surely the reader still remembers the mnemonic rule for remembering the seven colors of the rainbow: Every Hunter Wants to Know Where the Pheasant Sits. There are similar designs for memorizing the seven notes of a musical scale. A similar technique can be used when memorizing formulas. Let, for example, you need to remember the formula:

Let's replace the letters with words, for example, like this: strangled Alas! Leading... Don't like the gloominess of this design or the lack of a minus in it? Another option please: Your thoughtfulness, dear, is amazing... Are there missing integrals in the verbal description? No problem. Add words like: interesting, intelligent. Remember the formula? Just in case: double the increase by blowing. Now you won’t be able to forget her for a long time...

Among mnemonic techniques, one stands out, which almost all people intuitively use, not only in experimental conditions, but also in everyday life. It's about repetition. Repetition is the translation of the material presented for memorization into the memorizer’s own speech, i.e., a change in the material, but one that obviously does not interfere with reproduction. Repetition contributes to better recall, but still it is not the most effective method of memorization, since repeated repetition itself, as already noted, contributes to the text slipping from consciousness.

Phenomenal memory. Psychology has described many cases where people had so-called phenomenal memory - the ability to reproduce a huge (perhaps unlimited) amount of information. Phenomenal memory is found not only in mentally retarded people (although, let me remind you, this phenomenon is most typical for them), but also in many famous personalities in history. There are legends about the unique capabilities of the memory of Julius Caesar and Napoleon, Mozart and Gauss, the chess player Alekhine and the adventurer Count Saint-Germain. One of the most striking and studied examples is the mnemonist S. D. Shereshevsky, a book about whom was written by the famous Russian psychologist A. R. Luria. Psychologists did not find any restrictions in Shereshevsky either on the volume of memorization or on the time of storing information. For example, Shereshevsky, from the first presentation, memorized a long stanza of Dante’s “Divine Comedy” in an unfamiliar Italian language, which he easily repeated during an unexpected check... 15 years later. It is not surprising that Shereshevsky was concerned with the question not of how best to remember, but how to learn to forget.

Some of the people who had phenomenal memory used mnemonic techniques when remembering. Shereshevsky, for example, demonstrating his amazing abilities in the circus, resorted to the technique placement in space along a familiar Moscow street. (It is curious that he once made a mistake: he put the object named to him in the shadow and when reproducing it, mentally walking along this street again, he did not notice it.) But usually with phenomenal preservation no work of consciousness is performed on the material to be memorized. Scottish mathematician A. Etkin in 1933 read a list of 25 unrelated words twice and... reproduced it without errors 27 years later! The famous musicologist I. I. Sollertinsky could leaf through a book and then accurately reproduce the text of any page of this book. Sollertinsky did not even read the book whose pages of text he reproduced. It is clear that such preservation cannot be explained by any mnemonic devices. In general, people with phenomenal memory, as a rule, do not carry out any transformations of information. When, at one of his public speeches, Shereshevsky was asked to remember a series of numbers: 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, etc. up to 57, he did it without even noticing the simple sequence of numbers. “If they had given me just the alphabet, I would not have noticed it and would have honestly started memorizing it,” admitted Shereshevsky.

With phenomenal memory, signs are reproduced without visible effort - with the same ease with which we, looking at a house or a tree, without any conscious effort, recognize that it is a house or a tree. The problem is that none of us knows how to consciously imprint the information we are learning into our memory. We know how to remember, but we don’t know how we can do it. Nevertheless, each of us constantly monitors the process of memorization with our consciousness: what if I make a mistake? What if I forget something important? It seems that people with phenomenal memory are distinguished primarily by the fact that they are capable, like children, of not putting the process of storing and retrieving from memory under the control of consciousness.

Figure and ground during retrieval from memory. The hero of the famous story by A.P. Chekhov remembered the “horse” surname for a long time, until he remembered - Ovsov. But at the same time, he remembered that other options (Kobylin, Zherebtsov, Loshadinin, Bulanov, etc.) were not suitable. As always, Chekhov is precise in his observation. We all know that one forgotten word or the forgotten surname of one of our acquaintances is experienced differently than another forgotten word or the forgotten surname of another acquaintance. We often remember more than we can remember. What we consciously retrieve from memory (figure) is always accompanied by something else that we are not clearly aware of (background).

Try to remember a list of 10 words from one reading and then, without looking at the text, write down on a piece of paper all the words you remember in any order:

chicken hair act news nipple bump prison jam keychain gate

Don't be surprised that you remember seven or a little more words (from five to nine) - this is usually what happens. But it is unlikely (although possible) that you were able to write down all ten words. Are you unsuccessful in your attempts to remember the remaining ones? Do you feel like you remember more?

Then read a list of 20 words, which includes 10 words you already know and 10 new ones. Add to what you have already managed to reproduce those words that you recognized in this list as words from the previous list. In the vast majority of cases, at least one word can be attributed to everyone! Let's hope you succeed too. Here's a list to check out:

prison hoof jug gate shoe pigeon nipple stupid pear jam pipe cone chicken keychain ram ambush news hair sailor deed

So, most subjects manage to recognize previously unreproduced words from the first list. This means that they remembered them even when they could not reproduce them! It is precisely what we remember, but do not reproduce, that acts in our consciousness as a background to what we manage to reproduce.

The famous memory researcher G. Ebbinghaus created a unique method for measuring the volume of what is somehow given to consciousness, but which nevertheless is not reproduced - the method of saving. As is known, a long series of characters (numbers, letters, syllables, words, etc.), far exceeding the limit of seven characters, can be memorized by the test subject only after several repetitions. However, after a long time after memorization, the subject is usually unable to reproduce any of the elements of the previously memorized series. No wonder, we say, he completely forgot it. But is it? Ebbinghaus asks subjects to re-learn the same series. And it turns out that re-learning a supposedly forgotten series often requires a significantly smaller number of presentations than if this series had not been previously learned. Even if a person is sure that he does not remember anything, in fact, he may well still store something (“save”, in Ebbinghaus’s terminology) in his memory. Even when our consciousness forgets, it actually remembers something that was forgotten, remembers what it doesn’t seem to remember.

Here is an example of one study using the savings method. The child, who was only five months old at the start of the experiment, had three passages of ancient Greek read aloud every day for three months. Every next three months three new passages were read to him. This continued until the baby was three years old. Later he never learned ancient Greek. At the ages of 8, 14, and 18, he was again presented each time with a different part of these passages to learn by heart, along with new texts he had never heard before. At 8 years old he learned old texts 30% faster than new ones, at 14 years old - 8%, although at 18 years old the differences were no longer noticeable.

When studying the process of memorization, one can also detect figure-ground aftereffects. Ebbinghaus himself established the law that now bears his name: the number of repeated presentations required to learn the entire series grows much faster than the volume of the presented series. For example: for one presentation, the subject correctly reproduces 6-7 nonsense syllables, but to reproduce 12 syllables he will need 16 presentations, and for 24 syllables - 44 presentations; If a subject remembers 8 digits from one presentation, then to memorize 9 digits he already needs 3–4 presentations. In this case (the aftereffect of the figure), during subsequent presentations, first of all those signs are reproduced that were already reproduced during the previous presentation. But this also means that previously unreproduced signs continue to persistently not be reproduced upon subsequent presentations (background aftereffect). Thus, Ebbinghaus's law is a consequence of both the aftereffect of the figure and the aftereffect of the background.

Let the person reproduce after one presentation a series of 10–14 characters. He will reproduce some signs of this series correctly, but he will miss some and “will not remember.” After this, he is presented with the next row, containing both new signs and signs from the previous row (correctly reproduced and omitted). It turns out that figure-ground aftereffects are also observed in this case. A person will remember first of all those signs that he has just correctly reproduced (the probability of reproducing these signs is greater than the probability of reproducing new signs). He will remember worst of all those signs that he just forgot when presented with the previous series (the probability of reproducing previously missed characters is less than the probability of reproducing new characters). The replacement error is also repeated, when instead of one sign another is consistently reproduced. All this looks incredible: after all, in order to repeat the mistake of omission, one must be able to recognize previously missed signs. In other words, in order not to reproduce some signs again, they must be remembered! But the most amazing thing: if the subject did not reproduce one of the signs, and this sign is in the next row was not presented to him, then the subject will more often than not mistakenly reproduce this previously missed sign. Similarly: a forgotten “horse name” comes into our consciousness not when we are intensely remembering it, but at the moment when we are not thinking about it at all.

The process of retrieval from memory is very similar to the process of perception. Of the huge amount of data stored in the brain, when remembering, it is necessary to realize only a small part of this data - the figure, retaining the rest of the information as a poorly distinguishable background. It is not surprising that the main factors influencing the perception of a figure also influence its retrieval from memory.

The actual manifested world itself is the same, regardless of how different life forms perceive it. But all types of creatures and even individual individuals, except for the basis of this world, which is the same for all forms of life, perceive predominantly those of its facets that correspond to their aspirations and needs. If we are talking about a person, then we must take into account his worldview, which largely determines not only the range of preferential perception of some facets of the reality of the world, but also his attitude towards these facets. At the same time, a person is confident that his perception of the world and attitude towards this world are adequate to the circumstances. And even if you try to explain to him that he perceives reality distortedly, then, most likely, nothing will come of it - he will not accept the explanation, because it does not fit into his ideological logic. Thus, the main reason lies in his worldview, which each person has his own map for assessing the significance of the world. The fact is that each significance, for the person who perceives it, has its own individual sound, hence the worldview, which includes the reflected significances of this world, can be compared to an orchestra, which for each person is not only different in the instruments included in it, but also in its individual works that he prefers to perform. And, besides, the same significance for different people does not have the same value, which is in many ways also connected with worldview. From this we can conclude: the same manifested world, which has certain significance, is perceived and assessed differently by different people. And depending on the goals to which they devote their lives, the same objects or the relationships between them will be perceived and evaluated differently by people. And, in addition, the worldview can be compared to puzzles that contain elements that have certain colors and shapes, then each person’s worldview is their own individual puzzle, which is put together into its own individual picture.

Each significance of a worldview sounds at its own frequency and a person, depending on this, strives mainly for what is consonant with him. He will perceive the reality of the world from the side that is consonant with his worldview, and will act in the external world as his inner sound allows him. Therefore, every person has his own truth, even a criminal. And not all criminals will agree that their truth is wrong and that they are criminals. In order for them to see that their truth is defective, there must be a part of their worldview that is free or independent of their truth. And only from the position of this free part can they realize that they are wrong. But this small part can be so insignificant that a person, even knowing that he is doing something destructive, will not be able to resist his individual destructive truth. But more often it happens that a person realizes the destructiveness of his truth from the position of a mind that knows generally accepted assessments of the significance of the world and can even talk convincingly about their values ​​for listeners, but when the time comes to act, the person finds himself at the mercy of his worldview. Thus, a worldview is not the sum of information perceived by the mind as a result of training, or notations, or soul-saving conversations held with a person, because a worldview has roots in the subconscious. Then how is a worldview formed? First, a worldview must have a genetic basis, and when this is not enough, the idea of ​​exclusivity can be taken as a basis. Every person, if not explicitly, openly, then on a deeper level, considers himself or wants to be exceptional, even if not in everything, then at least in something. Well, then a myth unfolds that confirms his exclusivity, which asserts either the exclusivity of the idea that a person follows, or the exclusivity of the goal to which a person devotes his entire life, or the exclusivity of the person himself, for example, in connection with his social status.

When we talk about the genetic basis of a worldview, then in this case we are talking about a person’s hereditary predispositions, on the basis of which ideas that bear the meaning of his life can subsequently be formed. A person’s worldview always has its own history and its own heroes, who, when forming a worldview, are an example of both relationships with external reality and attitude towards oneself. This story usually consists of two parts - his personal and the history of his people. And its truthfulness or bias is not at all important; what is important is that it instills in a person a certain significance, which represents him as a non-trivial personality.

The history of any nation, and each person’s own personal history, is multifaceted. But very often, when describing their history, historians take its best facet and even exaggerate it, and present the still life they received as real history. And if it lacks the necessary greatness and heroism, then myths, for example, the biblical Old Testament, come to the rescue. At the same time, when describing the stories of other peoples, they consider them based on all sorts of negative examples, and also exaggerate them, and an example of this can be the times of the reign of Ivan the Terrible and Peter the Great, and many other examples.

A formed worldview is not only the glasses through which a person looks at the reality of the world and his place in it, but it also determines the configuration of a person’s personality, his creative capabilities and the possibilities of his spiritual growth.

Have you ever thought about how we see things? How do we pick them out from the entire visual diversity of the environment with the help of sensory stimuli? And how do we interpret what we see?

Visual processing is the ability to make sense of images, allowing humans (and even animals) to process and interpret the meaning of the information we receive through our vision.

Visual perception plays an important role in everyday life, helping with learning and communicating with others. At first glance it seems as if perception occurs easily. In fact, behind the supposed ease lies a complex process. Understanding how we interpret what we see helps us design visual information.

A balanced infographic involves the proper use of visual representation (for example, charts, graphs, icons, images), an appropriate choice of colors and fonts, a suitable layout and site map, etc. And we must not forget about the data, its sources and topics, which is no less important. But today we will not talk about them. We will focus on the visual side of information design.

Psychologist Richard Gregory (1970) was convinced that visual perception depends on top-down processing.

Top-down processing, or conceptually driven processing, occurs when we form a picture of the big picture from small details. We make assumptions about what we see based on expectations, beliefs, prior knowledge, and previous experiences. In other words, we are making an educated guess.

Gregory's theory is supported by numerous evidence and experiments. One of the most famous examples is the hollow mask effect:

When the mask is turned to the hollow side, you see a normal face

Gregory used Charlie Chaplin's rotating mask to explain how we perceive the hollow surface of a mask as bulges based on our beliefs about the world. According to our previous knowledge of facial structure, the nose should protrude. As a result, we subconsciously reconstruct the hollow face and see a normal one.

How do we perceive visual information according to Gregory's theory?

1. Almost 90% of information received through the eyes does not reach the brain. Thus, the brain uses previous experience or existing knowledge to construct reality.

2. The visual information that we perceive is combined with previously stored information about the world that we have acquired through experience.

3. Based on various examples of top-down information processing theory, it follows that pattern recognition is based on contextual information.

Information Design Tip #1, based on Gregory's Visual Inference Theory: Enhance the data with an appropriate theme and design; use a meaningful headline to set key expectations; Support your visuals with expressive text.

2. Sanoka and Sulman's experiment on color relationships

According to numerous psychological studies, combinations of homogeneous colors are more harmonious and pleasant. While contrasting colors are usually associated with chaos and aggression.

In 2011, Thomas Sanocki and Noah Sulman conducted an experiment to study how color combinations affect short term memory- our ability to remember what we just saw.

Four different experiments were conducted using harmonious and disharmonious color palettes. In each trial, participants were shown two palettes: first one, then a second, which had to be compared with the first. The palettes were shown at a certain time interval and several times in random combinations. The subjects had to determine whether the palettes were the same or different. Also, the experiment participants had to evaluate the harmony of the palette - a pleasant/unpleasant combination of colors.

Below are 4 examples of palettes that were shown to participants in the experiment:

How do colors affect our visual perception according to Sanocki and Sulman's theory?

1. People remember better those palettes in which the colors are combined with each other.
2. People remember palettes that contain a combination of only three or fewer colors better than those that contain four or more colors.
3. The contrast of adjacent colors affects how well a person remembers a color scheme. In other words, this means that the color difference between context and background can enhance our ability to focus on the context.
4. We can remember quite a large number of color combinations at the same time.

Thus, the results of the experiment indicate that people are better able to absorb and remember more information when perceiving images with a contrasting but harmonious color scheme, preferably with a combination of three or fewer colors.

Information Design Tip #2 Based on Sanoka and Sulman's Experiment: Use as little as possible various colors in complex content; increase the contrast between the visual information and the background; choose themes with a harmonious combination of shades; use disharmonious color combinations wisely.

Binocular rivalry occurs when we see two different images at the same location. One of them dominates, and the second is suppressed. Dominance alternates at certain intervals. So, instead of seeing a combination of two pictures at the same time, we perceive them in turn, as two images competing for dominance.

In a 1998 experiment, Frank Tong, Ken Nakayama, J. Thomas Vaughan, and Nancy Kanwisher concluded that if you look at two different images at the same time, the effect of binocular rivalry occurs.

Four trained people took part in the experiment. As stimuli, they were shown images of a face and a house through glasses with red and green filters. During the perception process, there was an irregular alternation of signals from the two eyes. The subjects' stimulus-specific responses were monitored using functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

How do we perceive visual information according to Tong's experiment?

1. According to MRI data, all subjects showed active binocular rivalry when they were shown dissimilar pictures.
2. In our visual system, the binocular rivalry effect occurs during visual processing. In other words, during the short period of time when the eyes are looking at two dissimilar images located close to each other, we are not able to determine what we are actually seeing.

David Carmel, Michael Arcaro, Sabine Kastner and Uri Hasson conducted a separate experiment and found that binocular rivalry can be manipulated using stimulus parameters such as color, brightness, contrast , shape, size, spatial frequency or speed.

Manipulating contrast in the example below causes the left eye to perceive a dominant image, while the right eye perceives a suppressed image:

How does contrast affect our visual perception according to the experiment?

1. Manipulating contrast causes the stronger stimulus to be dominant for a greater amount of time.
2. We will see a fusion of the dominant image and part of the suppressed one until the effect of binocular rivalry arises.

Information Design Tip #3 Based on the Binocular Rivalry Effect: n Don’t overload the content; use themed icons; highlight key points.

4. The influence of typography and aesthetics on the reading process

Did you know that typography can influence a person's mood and ability to make decisions?

Typography is the design and use of type as a means of visual communication. Nowadays, typography has moved from the field of book printing into the digital sphere. Summarizing all possible definitions of the term, we can say that the purpose of typography is to improve the visual perception of text.

In an experiment, Kevin Larson (Microsoft) and Rosalind Picard (MIT) found out how typography affects a reader's mood and problem-solving ability.

They conducted two studies, each involving 20 people. Participants were divided into two equal groups and given 20 minutes to read an issue of The New Yorker magazine on a tablet. One group received a text with bad typography, the other - with good typography (examples are given below):

During the experiment, participants were interrupted and asked how much time they thought had passed since the start of the experiment. According to psychological research (Weybrew, 1984), people who find their activities enjoyable and are in a positive mood report spending significantly less time reading.

After reading the texts, the experiment participants were asked to solve the candle problem. They had to attach the candle to the wall so that the wax would not drip, using push pins.

How do we perceive good typography and its impact?

1. Both groups of participants misestimated the time spent reading. This means that reading was a fun activity for them.
2. Participants who were presented with text with good typography significantly underestimated their reading time compared to participants who were presented with text with poor typography. This means that they found the first text more interesting.
3. None of the participants who read the text with poor typography were able to solve the candle problem. While less than half of the second group completed the task. Thus, good typography influenced the ability to solve problems.

Information design tip #4, based on Larsen and Picard's experiment on the influence of typography: Use readable fonts; separate text from images; do not overlay pictures or icons on the text; leave enough white space between paragraphs.

5. Perception of the essence of the scene according to Castellano and Henderson

Have you ever wondered what the expression “a picture says a thousand words” really means? Or why do we perceive images better than text?

This does not mean that the image tells us all the information we need. A person simply has the ability to grasp the main elements of a scene at one glance. When we fix our gaze on an object or objects, we form a general idea and recognize the meaning of the scene.

What is scene perception? According to Nissan Research & Development researcher Ronald A. Rensink:

“Scene gist, or scene perception, is the visual perception of the environment as an observer at any given time. It includes not only the perception of individual objects, but also such parameters as their relative positions, as well as the idea that other types of objects are encountered."

Imagine that you see certain objects that represent two signs with symbols, and a diagram that symbolizes a fork and indicates two different paths. Most likely, the following scene appeared in front of you - you are in the middle of the jungle/forest/highway and there are two paths ahead that lead to two different destinations. Based on this scene, we know that a decision must be made and one path must be chosen.

In 2008, Monica S. Castelhano of the University of Massachusetts Amherst and John M. Henderson of the University of Edinburgh studied the effect of color on the ability to perceive the essence of a scene.

The experiment included three different trials. Students were shown several hundred photographs (natural or man-made objects) under different conditions for each test. Each image was shown in a specific sequence and time point. Participants were asked to respond “yes” or “no” when they saw details that matched the scene.

Normal and blurred photographs were presented with color and monochrome photographs, respectively.

To determine the role of colors in the perception of the essence of a scene, anomalous colors were used for the following example photographs:

How do we perceive visual information based on Castellano and Henderson's findings?

1. The subjects grasped the essence of the scene and the target object within seconds. This means that people can quickly understand the meaning of a normal scene.
2. The subjects were faster at matching color pictures than black and white ones. Thus, color helps us understand a picture better.
3. In general, colors determine the structure of objects. The better a color matches the way we typically perceive the world, the easier it is for us to understand the meaning of the image.

Information Design Tip #5 Based on Castellano and Henderson's Scene Perception Research: Use appropriate icons or pictures to represent data; arrange content in the correct sequence; use familiar colors for important objects.

conclusions

Understanding how people perceive visual information helps improve infographics. Summarizing the conclusions of the experiments reviewed, we bring to your attention key tips for visual information design:

1. Layout and design

• The theme and design should be consistent with the information.
• Don't overcrowd your page's infographics.
• Use themed icons.
• Arrange content in proper sequence.
• Use headings to set key expectations.

2. Video sequence

• Visuals should accompany the text.
• Show important numbers in graphs and charts.
• Use the right pictures and icons to represent your data.

• Reduce the number of colors for complex content.
• Make the contrast higher between important visual information and the background.
• Use harmonious theme colors.
• Use disharmonious colors wisely.
• Use regular colors for important objects.

4. Typography

• Choose readable fonts.
• Leave plenty of white space between the title and the text or image.
• Do not overlay pictures or icons on text.
• Provide sufficient spaces between characters.

Now that you know the ins and outs of creating beautiful and compelling infographics, it's up to you!

Since childhood, encountering funny pictures - upside-down drawings in which you can see either the face of an ancient old woman or a young lady, still pictures in which, despite being static, you can feel movement, we are accustomed to the fact that our vision is easy to deceive. But a sense of time? Are we really being deceived here too? It turns out that the perception of time also leaves many questions and opens up a large field for experimentation.

Optical illusions teach us that from the point of view of human existence, it is not only what really is that is important, but also how we interpret this reality. Moreover, it is advisable to go a little ahead of reality, predict the development of events, and plan your own actions. The brain has technologies that allow it to do this based on sensory data and quite quickly, but speed is sometimes achieved at the cost of delusions: we see something that is not there. Illusions related to time are less well known, but they also show the same effect: the corrective work of the brain when processing data received from the sensory organs leads to the emergence of rather strange sensations.

Frozen arrow

Can time stop? For the human psyche - absolutely. This phenomenon is called the Greek term “chronostasis,” which, in fact, is translated as “stopping time.” As an illustration, the example of the second hand is usually given. This effect has long been noticed: if a person’s gaze accidentally falls on a watch dial, then the second hand seems to freeze in place for some time, and its subsequent “tick” seems longer than all the others. Whatever physicists say about the nature of time, for humans it is, first of all, not a theoretical concept, but a sensation. Science explains the phenomenon of chronostasis by the peculiarities of human vision. The fact is that our eyes constantly make saccades - small, quick movements, as if scanning the world. But we hardly feel them. To verify this, it is enough to conduct a small experiment - go to the mirror and first focus your gaze on, say, your right eye, and then on your left. Or vice versa. Here's a miracle: in the mirror the eyes remain motionless! Where is the movement with which we moved our gaze from one eye to the other? And it is hidden from us (although an outside observer will confirm that the eyes moved). If we perceived visual reality as a video camera perceives it, that is, continuously, non-discretely, then the world around us would appear blurry. Instead, the brain suppresses the information received by the optic nerve during the saccade, prolonging in time the clear image that was received before the saccade began. Chronostasis is another way to sense this feature of vision. Having encountered some new movement (in this case, the movement of the second hand), the brain takes a freeze frame for us, and then quickly returns the sense of time to normal.

A similar effect, already tested in laboratories, can be observed in experiments with alien images. For example, with a certain frequency for a certain equal period of time we are shown an image of an apple. And suddenly, among these pictures, a drawing with a shoe appears, and it is shown to us exactly as much as the apple is shown. But at the same time there is a clear feeling that the shoe was shown longer. The brain clings to something new and gives us the opportunity to consider a foreign inclusion. The myth about the 25th frame, which supposedly cannot be seen when watching a movie, but which only affects the subconscious, has long been debunked. And although the inertia of human vision is such that we really do not see individual frames, but only a smoothly moving picture at a speed of 24 frames/s, the inserted single frame is read, and not subconsciously.

Does fear stop time?

There is a common belief that the brain increases the resolution of time perception in critical, dangerous situations. Everyone has probably heard stories about soldiers who saw a shell explode slowly, right before their eyes, or about victims of car accidents in front of whom the scene of the accident unfolded in slow motion, “in rapid motion,” as filmmakers say.

To test the hypothesis about the feeling of time slowing down at a moment of danger, two American neurophysiologists - Chess Stetson and David Eagleman - conducted an interesting experiment in 2007 (see sidebar “Will time slow down?”). For the experiment, they rented a tower in an amusement park, from a 31-meter height you can fall without being harmed: there is a safety net at the bottom. The results of the experiment did not confirm the hypothesis. True, the question remains: does participation in the attraction really create the required level of stress, because the subjects knew in advance that nothing threatened their life and health. However, of course, no one will dare to send people to meet real mortal danger.

Will time slow down?

Subjects in the Stetson and Eagleman experiment were given special wrist displays with a rough resolution: one depicted number fit into a field of 8x8 luminous dots. The number was shown alternately in a negative and then in a positive image, and thus all the dots lit up in due time. Experimentally, the frequency of display was brought to a threshold at which the subject ceased to distinguish between individual displays, and saw in front of him, due to the inertia of vision, only a luminous display. Stetson and Eagleman's idea was that while the subject was flying from the tower, he would experience stress and then perhaps be able to see the alternating images of numbers on the screen again.

Light from the past

But the same Stetson and Eagleman managed to do work that significantly advanced science towards understanding temporary illusions. To explain its meaning, we first need to remember that a person receives information through different sensory channels and not all of these channels work with the same speed and efficiency. For example, in poor lighting conditions, vision deteriorates and the processing of visual information slows down. And in normal light, tactile data travels along the nerve channels longer than visual data. Chess Stetson gave the following example: a man walks through the forest, steps on a twig and hears a crunch. Did this crunch really come from the twig he himself had trampled? Or did someone large and predatory crunch a twig nearby? It was important for a person to know this for survival, and therefore, according to Stetson, the brain developed a mechanism for synchronizing sensory channels and motor skills in order Homo sapiens clearly understood the connection of his actions with the results seen, or heard, or identified through touch. An American neurophysiologist called this mechanism recalibrating - in its process, the brain shifts in time information about the action closer to information about the result, and thus all our conscious activity lies, as it were, a little in the past. We act before we realize it. If we return to the analogy with the twig, then first the person stepped on it, and only then, after a few milliseconds, the twig crunched. And the thing is perceived as if a crunch is heard simultaneously with the movement of the leg. However, you can try to slightly deceive such a mechanism, and then you get interesting illusions of time perception.

Stetson and Eagleman's experiment was incredibly simple. They asked subjects to press a button, after which a light bulb would light up with a lag of 100 milliseconds. This happened many times, but by the end of the experiment the light began to light up without any lag, but immediately after pressing the button. At this moment, the subjects had the feeling that the light bulb was lighting up even before the button was pressed. Thus, the brain, having brought motor skills closer in time to information from vision, did not have time to reorganize when the lag decreased and took the data about the result into the past in comparison with the data about the action.

Galloping rabbits

So, the sense of time cannot be considered absolute - we perceive time only in the aggregate and in connection with other factors of the surrounding world. This is confirmed by another temporary illusion - the so-called kappa effect. It is observed during a very simple experiment. Two light sources are placed in front of the subject. At some point, one light bulb comes on, and after a period of time, another. Now, if the light bulbs are moved further apart from each other and then lit sequentially with the same period of time, then the subject will subjectively evaluate the second period as longer. One proposed explanation for the effect is called the constant velocity hypothesis, which assumes that motion judgment plays a role in the perception of spatiotemporal parameters. In a more complex version of the experiment, light sources of more than two flashed sequentially along an imaginary line. And although the distance between the flashes was not the same, the bulbs were lit at the same intervals. Human brain obviously, he perceives this sequence as manifestations of one object in motion. And naturally, if we assume that it moves at the same speed, then it should cover unequal distances between different flashes. different time. But even if this is not the case, the illusion remains. A non-temporary, but essentially similar illusion is called the “cutaneous rabbit”. If you touch your wrist at short intervals, and then the elbow bend, you will feel a sensation of some kind of touch all over. inside elbow - as if a rabbit had galloped. That is, here too we observe the brain’s desire to combine successive and spatially separated events into a certain trajectory.

Every day, every person is bombarded with a huge amount of information. We encounter new situations, objects, phenomena. Some people cope with this flow of knowledge without problems and successfully use it to their advantage. Others have difficulty remembering anything. This situation is largely explained by a person’s belonging to a certain type in terms of the way they perceive information. If it is served in a form that is inconvenient for humans, then its processing will be extremely difficult.

What is information?

The concept of “information” has an abstract meaning and its definition largely depends on the context. Translated from Latin, this word means “clarification”, “presentation”, “familiarization”. Most often, the term “information” refers to new facts that are perceived and understood by a person, and also found useful. In the process of processing this information received for the first time, people gain certain knowledge.

How is information received?

The perception of information by a person is an acquaintance with phenomena and objects through their impact on various senses. By analyzing the result of the impact of a particular object or situation on the organs of vision, hearing, smell, taste and touch, the individual receives a certain idea about them. Thus, the basis in the process of perceiving information is our five senses. In this case, a person’s past experience and previously acquired knowledge are actively involved. By referring to them, you can attribute the information received to already known phenomena or separate them from the general mass into a separate category. Methods of perceiving information are based on some processes associated with the human psyche:

• thinking (having seen or heard an object or phenomenon, a person, starting to think, realizes what he is faced with);
• speech (the ability to name the object of perception);
• feelings ( different kinds reactions to objects of perception);
• the will to organize the process of perception).

Presentation of information

According to this parameter, information can be divided into the following types:

• Text. It is represented in the form of all kinds of symbols, which, when combined with each other, make it possible to obtain words, phrases, sentences in any language.
• Numeric. This is information represented by numbers and signs that express a certain mathematical operation.
• Sound. This is directly oral speech, thanks to which information from one person is transmitted to another, and various audio recordings.
• Graphic. It includes diagrams, graphs, drawings and other images.

Perception and presentation of information are inextricably linked. Each person tries to choose exactly the option for presenting data that will ensure the best understanding of it.

Ways of human perception of information

A person has several such methods at his disposal. They are determined by the five senses: vision, hearing, touch, taste and smell. In this regard, there is a certain classification of information according to the method of perception:

• visual;
• sound;
• tactile;
• taste;
• olfactory.

Visual information is perceived through the eyes. Thanks to them, various visual images, which are then processed there. Hearing is necessary for the perception of information coming in the form of sounds (speech, noise, music, signals). are responsible for the possibility of perception. Receptors located on the skin make it possible to estimate the temperature of the object under study, the type of its surface, and shape. Taste information enters the brain from receptors on the tongue and is converted into a signal by which a person understands what product it is: sour, sweet, bitter or salty. The sense of smell also helps us understand the world around us, allowing us to distinguish and identify all kinds of smells. Vision plays the main role in the perception of information. It accounts for about 90% of the knowledge gained. The sound way of perceiving information (radio broadcast, for example) makes up about 9%, and the other senses are responsible for only 1%.

Types of perception

The same information, obtained in any particular way, is perceived differently by each person. Someone, after reading one of the pages of a book for a minute, can easily retell its contents, while others will remember practically nothing. But if such a person reads the same text out loud, he will easily reproduce in his memory what he heard. Such differences determine the characteristics of people’s perception of information, each of which is inherent in a certain type. There are four in total:

• Visuals.
• Auditory learners.
• Kinesthetics.
• Discrete.

It is often very important to know what type of information perception is dominant for a person and how it is characterized. This significantly improves mutual understanding between people and makes it possible to convey the necessary information to your interlocutor as quickly and completely as possible.

Visuals

These are people for whom vision is the main sense organ in the process of learning about the world around them and perceiving information. They remember new material well if they see it in the form of text, pictures, diagrams and graphs. In the speech of visual learners, there are often words that are somehow related to the characteristics of objects by their external signs, the function of vision itself (“let’s see”, “light”, “bright”, “will be visible”, “it seems to me”). Such people usually speak loudly, quickly, and gesticulate actively. Visual people pay great attention to their appearance and surrounding environment.

Audials

For auditory learners, it is much easier to learn something that they have heard once, rather than seen a hundred times. The peculiarities of such people’s perception of information lie in their ability to listen and remember well what is said, both in a conversation with colleagues or relatives, and at a lecture at an institute or at a work seminar. Auditory learners have a large vocabulary and are pleasant to communicate with. Such people know how to perfectly convince their interlocutor in a conversation with him. They prefer quiet activities to active pastimes; they like to listen to music.

Kinesthetics

Touch, smell and taste play an important role in the process of kinesthetic perception of information. They strive to touch, feel, taste an object. Motor activity is also significant for kinesthetic learners. In the speech of such people there are often words that describe sensations (“soft”, “according to my feelings”, “grab”). A kinesthetic child needs physical contact with loved ones. Hugs and kisses, comfortable clothes, a soft and clean bed are important to him.

Discrete

The ways of perceiving information are directly related to the human senses. The majority of people use vision, hearing, touch, smell and taste. However, types of information perception include those that are primarily associated with thinking. People who perceive the world around them in this way are called discretes. There are quite a few of them, and they are found only among adults, since logic is not sufficiently developed in children. At a young age, the main ways of perceiving information in discretes are visual and auditory. And only with age do they begin to actively think about what they saw and heard, while discovering new knowledge for themselves.

Type of perception and learning ability

The ways people perceive information largely determine the form of learning that will be most effective for them. Of course, there are no people who would receive new knowledge entirely with the help of one sense organ or a group of them, for example, touch and smell. All of them act as means of perceiving information. However, knowing which sense organs are dominant in a particular person allows others to quickly convey the necessary information to him, and allows the person himself to effectively organize the process of self-education.

Visual learners, for example, need to present all new information in a readable form, in pictures and diagrams. In this case, they remember it much better. Visual people usually excel in the exact sciences. Even in childhood, they are excellent at putting together puzzles, know many geometric shapes, are good at drawing, sketching, and building with cubes or construction sets.

Auditory learners, on the contrary, more easily perceive information received from it. This could be a conversation with someone, a lecture, an audio recording. When teaching a foreign language for auditory learners, audio courses are preferable to a printed tutorial. If you still need to remember the written text, it is better to speak it out loud.

Kinesthetic learners are very mobile. They find it difficult to concentrate on anything for long periods of time. Such people find it difficult to learn material learned at a lecture or from a textbook. The memorization process will go faster if kinesthetic learners learn to connect theory and practice. It is easier for them to learn sciences such as physics, chemistry, biology, in which a specific scientific term or law can be represented as the result of an experiment carried out in a laboratory.

Discrete people take a little longer than other people to take new information into account. They must first comprehend it and relate it to their past experience. Such people can, for example, record a teacher’s lecture on a dictaphone and subsequently listen to it a second time. Among the discretes there are many people of science, since rationality and logic are above all else for them. Therefore, in the process of studying, they will be closest to those subjects in which accuracy determines the perception of information - computer science, for example.

Role in communication

The types of information perception also influence how you communicate with him so that he listens to you. For visual learners, the appearance of the interlocutor is very important. The slightest carelessness in clothing can turn him off, after which it will not matter at all what he says. When talking with a visual person, you need to pay attention to your facial expressions, speak quickly using gestures, and support the conversation with schematic drawings.

In a conversation with an auditory learner, there should be words that are close to him (“listen to me”, “sounds tempting”, “this says a lot”). The perception of information by an auditory person depends largely on how the interlocutor speaks. should be calm and pleasant. It is better to postpone an important conversation with an auditory person if you have a severe cold. Such people also cannot tolerate shrill notes in their voices.

Negotiations with a kinesthetic person should be carried out in a room with a comfortable air temperature and a pleasant smell. Such people sometimes need to touch the interlocutor, so they better understand what they heard or saw. You shouldn’t expect a kinesthetic learner to make a quick decision immediately after the conversation. He needs time to listen to his feelings and understand that he is doing everything right.

Dialogue with discrete people must be built on the principle of rationality. It is best to operate with strict rules. For discrete data, the language of numbers is more understandable.