5

Perception: Why Do Things

Look the Way They Do?

57

PREVIEW QUIZ

True or False

1. TFIn the study of perception, a distinction can be made between the
   geographical world and the psychological world.


2. TFFigure-ground perception is always stable and never reversible.


3. TFResearch suggests that there are innate, or inborn, organizing tenden-
   cies in perception.


4. TFLearning appears to play no part in perception.


5. TFClairvoyance is another name for psychokinesis.

(Answers can be found on page 70.)

The link between sensation and perception is clear. Perception is possible

because we have sensations. The raw data of experience—sensations—

become organized wholes at the level of perception. We experience a world

of objects—trees and songs—not flashes of light and random bits of sound.

In this chapter you will learn how this organization arises.