Perception and the 5 Senses

What is Perception?


Perception is our sensory experience of the world around us and involves both the recognition of environmental stimuli and actions in response to these stimuli. Through the perceptual process, we gain information about properties and elements of the environment that are critical to our survival. Perception not only creates our experience of the world around us; it allows us to act within our environment. Perception includes the five senses; touch, sight, taste smell and taste.

The perceptual process

The perceptual process is a sequence of steps that begins with the environment and leads to our perception of a stimulus and an action in response to the stimulus. This process is continual, but you do not spend a great deal of time thinking about the actual process that occurs when you perceive the many stimuli that surround you at any given moment.

The process of transforming the light that falls on your retinas into an actual visual image happens unconsciously and automatically. The subtle changes in pressure against your skin that allow you to feel object occur without a single thought.

Here is each step of the perceptual process

The Environmental Stimulus

The world is full of stimuli that can attract our attention through various senses. The environmental stimulus is everything in our environment that has the potential to be perceived.

This might include anything that can be seen, touched, tasted, smelled or heard. It might also involve the sense of proprioception, such as the movements of the arms and legs or the change in position of the body in relation to objects in the environment.

For example, imagine that you are out on a morning jog at your local park. As you perform your workout, there are a wide variety of environmental stimuli that might capture your attention. The tree branches are swaying in the slight breeze; a man is out on the grass playing fetch with his Golden Retriever; a car drives past with the windows rolled down and the music blaring; a duck splashes in a nearby pond. All of these things represent the environmental stimuli, serving as a starting point for the perceptual process.

The Attended Stimulus

The attended stimulus is the specific object in the environment on which our attention is focused. In many cases, we might focus on stimuli that are familiar to us, such as the face of a friend in a crowd of strangers at the local coffee shop. In other instances, we are likely to attend to stimuli that have some degree of novelty.

The Image on the Retina

The attended stimulus is formed as an image on the retina. The first part of this process involves the light actually passing through the cornea and pupil and onto the lens of the eye. The cornea helps focus the light as it enters the eye, and the iris of the eye controls the size of the pupils in order to determine how much light to let in. The cornea and lens act together to project an inverted image on the retina.

Transduction

The image on the retina is then transformed into electrical signals in a process known as transduction. This allows the visual messages to be transmitted to the brain to be interpreted.

The retina contains many photoreceptor cells. These cells contain proteins known as rods and cones. Rods are primarily for seeing things in low light, while cones are associated with detecting colour and shapes at normal light levels.

Neural Processing

The electrical signals then undergo neural processing. The path followed by a particular signal depends on what type of signal it is (i.e. an auditory signal or a visual signal).

Perception

In the next step of the perceptual process, you will actually perceive the stimuli and become aware of its presence in the environment.

Recognition

Perception doesn't just involve becoming consciously aware of the stimuli. It is also necessary for our brain to categorize and interpret what it is we are sensing. Our ability to interpret and give meaning to the object is the next step, known as recognition.The recognition stage is an essential part of perception since it allows us to make sense of the world around us. By placing objects in meaningful categories, we are able to understand and react to the world around us.

Action

The final step of the perceptual process involves some sort of action in response to the environmental stimulus. This could involve a variety of actions, such as turning your head for a closer look or turning away to look at something else.


source: http://psychology.about.com/od/sensationandperception/ss/perceptproc_2.htm

Perception is the process of sensing, selecting and interpreting consumer stimuli in the external world (Wilkie 1994)


'Perception is how we see the world around us' (Schiffman)

These adverts are using humour to connect with their audiences it order to promote their product or service, this method is often in commericals althought some commercials get banned taking it abit to far and is appropriate to audineces such as kids.


For example this IKEA  and Nandos commercials below got bannedfor ebing inappropriate
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZjsrUTk8Jho


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OE3ZB9Oz5HE






Marketing Stimuli have important sensory qualities. We all rely on colours, odours, sounds, tastes and even the 'feel' of products when forming evaluations of them.


The 5 Senses are :
HEARING





























SIGHT

SMELL

TASTE

TOUCH

In terms of marketing these 5 senses are the things that entice the potential customer.  A television advert could use between 1 and 5 of these senses to try and market there product to make it as appealing as possible. For example many car adverts, such as BMW use hearing to allow the consumer the hear the sound the car's engine to attract the likely person who would buy their car and the vision of the leather of the cars seats helps the consumer identify the touch of the car just by watching an advert or looking at a billboard.