What you see is what you think

A 3D Printed version of the Penrose Triangle

This is number 14 in my series on learning theories. I'm working through the alphabet of psychologists, providing a brief overview of each theory, and how it can be applied in education. In my most recent post I discussed J J Gibson's affordances theory and its applications to education. In this post, we explore an alternative perspective on visual perception as proposed by British psychologist Richard Gregory. As usual, this is a simplified interpretation of the theory, so if you wish to learn more, please read the associated literature.

The theory

There are essentially two main explanations of visual perception. One is the direct perception approach proposed by James Gibson, which was discussed in my last blog post. Gibson's belief in a direct, bottom-up perception is often called the ecological model of perception, because it holds that all the possible uses (or affordances) of the object are embedded in its form. Once the object is seen, its affordances aid us in deciding how it is possible to use the object. It has been said that this interpretation of perception is 'data driven'. It is a case of 'what you see is what you get.'

Opposed to this is the top-down theory of visual perception, which was proposed by Richard Gregory. Gregory's theory suggests that the experience and previous encounters with similar objects comes first, before we even begin to examine the affordances of the object. Gregory calls this indirect perception, because a large percentage of the visual information is 'lost' before it reaches the brain for processing. This theory explains the confusion we sometimes experience when we see an optical illusion. Gregory describes top-down processing as a perceptual hypothesis - we form this hypothesis by testing what we see against our previous knowledge and understanding - in other words, we match patterns. Some illusions make us misinterpret what we see, because we fail to match the correct previously learnt patterns to what we are seeing. Gregory's theory is more a case of 'what you see is what you think'.

How it can be applied in education

According to this theory we make sense of the world around us through pattern recognition and matching. If children find it difficult to read some words, they can often make sense of the entire sentence by recognising the surrounding words, and then recreating the correct context within their minds. Gestalt psychology suggests something similar in the Law of Closure.

Simple tests where children are required to fill in the gaps in a sentence may therefore have less value in assessing knowledge than we think. On the other hand, teachers might consider giving students more complex versions. For example, presenting students with challenges to complete (or develop) half finished stories or artifacts could tap into great creative potential. Students will need to call upon previously learnt knowledge and also draw on their imagination to successfully complete these kinds of tasks.

According to Gregory, we actively construct our reality. Students should therefore be given as many chances as possible during lessons to do just that. Providing them with challenges, problems and questions, or better still - encouraging them to question - will help to support deeper learning through active engagement. Giving children only a part of the whole will challenge them to complete the rest themselves. They will have a strong desire to 'complete the circle', because it is inherent in human nature to make sense of what we see.

References

Gregory, R. L. (1970) The Intelligent Eye. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson.
Gregory, R. L. (1974) Concepts and Mechanisms of Perception. London: Duckworth.

Previous posts in this series:

Anderson ACT-R Cognitive Architecture
Argyris Double Loop Learning
Bandura Social Learning Theory
Bruner Scaffolding Theory
Craik and Lockhart Levels of Processing
Csíkszentmihályi Flow Theory
Dewey Experiential Learning
Engeström Activity Theory
Ebbinghaus Learning and Forgetting Curves
Festinger Social Comparison Theory
Festinger Cognitive Dissonance Theory
Gardner Multiple Intelligences Theory
Gibson Affordances Theory

Photo by Chylld on Wikimedia Commons


What you see is what you think by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.