The Perceptual Environment: What Is Out There to Be Perceived?

Summary

Perception never occurs in isolation. Perception occurs in an environment that an observer samples with sense organs. The perceptual environment can be described from several perspectives. One level of description involves physical properties, which in the case of visual perception involves light, a form of electromagnetic radiation that exists throughout the universe. Another important level of description is derived from geometrical optics. Descriptions on this level characterize interactions between light rays and surfaces such as mirrors and lenses. A convenient way to describe spatial and temporal properties of environments in relation to many perceptual phenomena is from a specialized perspective called the frequency domain. Finally, environments can be described from an observer-centered perspective that takes into account properties of the environment that matter to a particular observer. These include descriptions in which magnitudes are scaled into convenient units based on perceptual scaling. Descriptions of an environment can sometimes be greatly simplified if restricted to a niche within which an observer has built-in knowledge about idiosyncratic properties. Biological perceivers are always engaged in meaningful causal relationships with their environments, and this aspect of perception will need to be taken into account in attempts to design and build perceiving machines.