Canadian Medical Guide > Psychiatry and Psychology > Psychological Phenomena and Processes > Mental Processes > Perception Terms and Definitions

Perception

Medical Definition:

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

Perception Categories.

	Auditory Perception - The process whereby auditory stimuli are selected, organized and interpreted by the organism; includes speech discrimination.
	Body Image - Individuals' personal concept of their bodies as objects in and bound by space, independently and apart from all other objects.
	Depth Perception - Perception of three-dimensionality.
	Differential Threshold - The smallest difference which can be discriminated between two stimuli or one which is barely above the threshold.
	Discrimination (Psychology) - Differential response to different stimuli.
	Eidetic Imagery - A visual image which is recalled in accurate detail. It is a sort of projection of an image on a mental screen.
	Field Dependence-Independence - The ability to respond to segments of the perceptual experience rather than to the whole.
	Form Perception - The sensory discrimination of a pattern shape or outline.
	Gravity Perception - Process whereby a bodily structure or organism (animal or plant) receives or detects a gravity stimulus. The sensing may be direct or indirect and may or may not initiate a reaction to the stimulus.
	Perceptual Distortion - Lack of correspondence between the way a stimulus is commonly perceived and the way an individual perceives it under given conditions.
	Sensory Deprivation - The absence or restriction of the usual external sensory stimuli to which the individual responds.
	Sensory Thresholds - The minimum amount of stimulus energy necessary to elicit a sensory response.
	Size Perception - The sensory interpretation of the dimensions of objects.
	Social Perception - The perceiving of attributes, characteristics, and behaviors of one's associates or social groups.
	Space Perception - The awareness of the spatial properties of objects; includes physical space.
	Time Perception - The ability to estimate periods of time lapsed or duration of time.
	Touch - Sensation or perception by which contact with objects, animate or inanimate, gives evidence as to certain qualities or characteristics.
	Visual Perception - The selecting and organizing of visual stimuli based on the individual's past experience.
	Weight Perception - Recognition and discrimination of the heaviness of a lifted object.

Perception Medical Definitions and Terms

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