Applications of Perception in Everyday Life

There are several ways in which knowledge of the process of sensation, perception and attention can be used in everyday life.

Eyewitness

You may be aware that eyewitness testimony is key to decisions in the judiciary. Not only do advocates and police officers lay strong emphasis on eye witness testimony, but they have a strong belief that it is usually correct.

But psychologists in large numbers are of the opinion that eyewitness errors are very common in perception. In fact impressions formed when a person is surprised, stressed or threatened are especially prone to distortion. Therefore, it would be advisable for the investigative agencies and jurors to gather more evidence instead of solely relying on eyewitness while coming to a conclusion.

Perceptual awareness and positive psychology

Do some people perceive things more accurately than others? Humanistic psychologists believe that some people perceive themselves and others with unusual accuracy. Habituation is when we stop paying attention to familiar stimuli.

When a stimulus is repeated without change our response to it habituates or decreases. It seems that creative people attend to stimuli, even those that are repeated.

The value of paying attention

We have this general tendency to generalize without paying attention to the diversity of possibilities. Perceptual clarity requires rigorous effort of paying more and more attention. Breaking perceptual habits and interrupting habituation can lead to good results. If you begin to question your own perceptions by bringing another interpretation to the same reality you can get marvelous outcomes in your activities.