Perception is always a guess--sometimes right and sometimes wrong!
(continued from the last slide)...that what I thought was my neighbor was actually a bush! Had I not examined more closely taking more time in better light, I would to this day think I had seen my neighbor engaging in some rather eccentric behavior.
I'm sure you all have had similar experiences where you looked at something and found it was something else quite different.
But this brings up a very important point about perception. In the final analyses, it is always a guess by our brain as to what the the input is!
Not only is it a guess, but it can and frequently is an incorrect guess, of which we often may not be aware. This happens at the Conceptual Level (for things we see/hear), and at the Symbolic level, for things people say or for things we read hastily.
This tends to partly explain how reputable witnesses to an event can give very different accounts of its occurrence.
3. The Specific Level: At the specific level, the stimulus is more durable.
NOTES: Here is a not too scientific demonsrtration of perception as a guess.