This document discusses environmental perception and related concepts. It covers several perspectives on perception (constructivist, structuralist, functionalist) and defines environmental perception as the process of apprehending features of the immediate physical environment through sensory input. Adaptation and the perception of change over time are also addressed, including how the Weber-Fechner law explains perceiving changes in stimulus intensity.

1. ENVIRONMENTAL
PERCEPTION
EFFORTS BY:
KRISHNA MEHRA
B.A.(H) APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY

2. INTRODUCTION
● Human behavior is strongly embedded in the ecological context. We perform
a range of activities in the physical environment.
● For example, the students may feel that they are not able to perform well
because their home is located close to busy and noisy shopping complex.
● The physical features of the setting affect our behavior.
● The range of activities is largely dependent on our accuracy with which we
perceive the various environmental attributes
● Environmental perception involves the properties of the environment and the
characteristics of the person.
● Some of the explanations regarding differential perceptual experiences lies
within the individual and some within the environment..

3. CONVENTIONAL APPROACHES TO PERCEPTION
● If any passing source of physical energy activates our sense organs, the
energy external to the individual is stimulus.
● A stimulus produces a response in the sense organ.
● When the stimulus is strong enough to activate the receptor cells, which are
specific to specific form of energy (light, heat, sound) the process is called
sensation.
● Perception represents a step beyond sensation. The primary difference is that
sensation can be thought of an organism’s first encounter with a raw stimulus.
In contrast, when mediational processes in the brain integrate various types
of sensations so that we recognize, organize, interpret and analyze a pattern
out of these sensations, the process is called perception.

4. PERSPECTIVES OF PERCEPTION
THERE ARE THREE TRADITIONAL PERSPECTIVES :
1. CONSTRUCTIVIST
2. STRUCTURALISM
3. FUNCTIONALISM

5. CONSTRUCTIVIST
● It emphasizes that perceptions are constructed from sensations and
from long term memory with similar sensations.
● Perception consists of the information processed on the basis of
present sensations and memory of similar sensation
● Based on texture, size, color and pattern we are able to recognize
various objects like table, chairs.

6. STRUCTURALISM
● This perspective is based on the role of physiological structures in the brain
responsible for producing perceptions.
● The viewpoint is criticized because it fails to incorporate the cognitive
processes that are involved in perceptions.
● The process involved in perception is based on comparison of our past
memory with newly experienced stimuli.

7. FUNCTIONALISM
● It is based on the notion that the perceptual processes are based on the
necessity of an organism to get along with the environment.
● For example, people compare present sensations with the past ones to derive
conclusion regarding food, shelter or danger.

8. CONCEPT, NATURE AND CHARACTERISTICS
OF ENVIRONMENTAL PERCEPTION
● Our ability to conduct various activities and affairs of our daily lives is
dependent to a large extent on how we perceive our physical surroundings.
● Understanding the processes involved in environmental perception may
enable the architects and planners to design offices, factories to residential
areas which are congruent with the occupant’s needs, desires and
aspirations.
● The environmental perception deals with the process through which the
individual organizes the real world stimulation and derives cohesive,
meaningful and integrated picture of the real world setting.
● The process of apprehending the feature of the immediate physical
environment through sensory input is called environmental perception.

9. ● The process involved in environmental perception is closely related to and
interacts with the other processes which pertains to environmental cognitions
and attitudes.
● All these three processes constantly influence each other. Human perception
is understood as a holistic process.
● The whole is greater than sum of its parts. The principles of proximity and
closure enables the individual to perceive distinctive stimulus in a collective
and holistic pattern.
● The focus of traditional psychological studies on perception was on
perceptual processes such as the way people perceive distance, size and
movement.
● Environmental perception extends beyond simple observation to exploration
from different vantage points.

10. ● The knowledge gained through perceptual experiences about the new
environment is abundant and is comprised of both central and peripheral
information.
● When individuals encounters the environment he actively explores, sorts and
categorizes the inputs, which he receives from his actions in the said
environment, which is not random but purposefully directed.
● We constantly make mental notes of different aspects in various areas of the
environment that are unique and distinctive so that our future travel in various
areas of the city becomes easier.

11. ADAPTATION AND PERCEPTION OF CHANGE
● Considering time as a variable in environmental
perception, two important phenomena related needs
mention:
1. Adaptation
2. Change

12. ADAPTATION AND HABITUATION
● We all have noticed that the perceptible stimulus does not change across the
period of time. In such situations the response to constant stimulus becomes
weaker and the phenomena of adaptation or habituation are seen
● Habituation is more closely associated with physiological process while
adaptation effects involve cognitive processes.
● Physiological explanations for habituation are based on the notion that when
people are repeatedly exposed to constant stimulus the receptors are not
able to fire frequently.
● Cognitive explanation emphasizes a cognitive reappraisal of the stimulus as
less important or less threatening.

13. PERCEPTION OF CHANGE
● Often people who have adapted to environmental stimulation report change in
their perception at least in those cases when the intensity of the stimulation
shows variation.
● The perception of change can be explained by weber-fechner framework of
psychophysics.
● The framework explains that when the difference between old intensity of a
stimulus is very less even a much smaller increment in the intensity is change
in sufficient to produce change in perception and is detected.
● In contrast, when the original stimulus is of very high intensity, a much larger
increment in stimulus value is required for a change is to be noticed.

14. ● The applicability of weber-fechner law in explaining perception of change is
seen for all forms stimulation.
● It seems that the law should apply not only in laboratory condition to individual
stimuli but to urban population.
● A community living in low pollution area should feel threatened when thick
clouds of blown smog are seen suddenly. In contrast, communities residing in
polluted areas with heavy smog should require high levels of additional
pollution before displaying reactions of annoyance and uneasiness.