Fundamentals of visual communication unit iii

1. FUNDAMENTALS OF
VISUAL COMMUNICATION
Unit III

2. Perception
Perception includes the five senses; touch, sight, sound, smell, and
taste. It also includes what is known as proprioception, a set of
senses involving the ability to detect changes in body positions and
movements. It also involves the cognitive processes required to
process information, such as recognizing the face of a friend or
detecting a familiar scent.
Learn more about how we go from detecting stimuli in the
environment to actually taking action based on that information.

3. Perception Definition
Perception is the sensory experience of the
world. It involves both recognizing environmental
stimuli and actions in response to these stimuli.
Through the perceptual process, we gain
information about the properties and elements of
the environment that are critical to our survival.

4. Perception Concept
Perception is another most important aspect of life
of organization. Many problems of the
organisation and that of its members may be
traced to the distortion in perception. Perception
means the ability to perceive i.e. understanding or
knowledge, mental grasp of qualities by means of
senses or awareness.

6. Visual Perception
Visual perception is the brain's ability to receive, interpret, and act upon visual
stimuli. Perception is based on the following seven elements:
1.Visual discrimination
The ability to distinguish one shape from another.
2.Visual memory
The ability to remember a specific form when removed from your visual field.
3.Visual-spatial relationships
The ability to recognize forms that are the same but may be in a different
spatial orientation.
4.Visual form constancy
The ability to discern similar forms that may be different in size, color, or spatial
orientation and to consistently match the similar forms.
5.Visual sequential memory
The ability to recall two to seven items in sequence with vision occluded.
6.Visual figure/ground
The ability to discern discrete forms when camouflaged or partially hidden.
7.Visual closure
The ability to recognize familiar forms that are only partially completed.

7. Graphical perception
Graphical perception is the visual decoding of the
quantitative and qualitative information encoded on
graphs. Recent investigations have uncovered basic
principles of human graphical perception that have
important implications for the display of data. The
computer graphics revolution has stimulated the invention
of many graphical methods for analyzing and presenting
scientific data, such as box plots, two-tiered error bars,
scatterplot smoothing, dot charts, and graphing on a log
base 2 scale.

8. Concept of Visual Perception
Visual perception is the ability to perceive our
surroundings through the light that enters our eyes. ...
Within the retina, there is a layer of photoreceptor
(light-receiving) cells which are designed to change light
into a series of electrochemical signals to be transmitted
to the brain.

9. Illusions
Illusions trick us into perceiving something differently than
it actually exists, so what we see does not correspond to
physical reality. Hence, the word illusion comes from the
Latin verb illudere meaning, "to mock." In addition, some
illusions show us one thing in a picture, while someone
else sees something entirely different in the same picture.

10. Types of Illusions
visual illusions
visual illusions, are defined by “the dissociation
between the physical reality and the subjective
perception of an object or event.” When we experience
an optical illusion, we often see something that is not
there or fail to see something that is there.

11. Perspective illusion
Perspective is an important feature of visual
perception. ... Far away objects project onto smaller
retinal images and are thus seen as smaller than those
near by. Inversely, same size objects may appear as
different if placed on a persective drawing.

12. Geometrical-optical illusions
Geometrical-optical illusions are visual illusions,
also optical illusions, in which the geometrical properties
of what is seen differ from those of the corresponding
objects in the visual field. Geometrical-optical illusions
then relate in the first instance to object characteristics as
defined by geometry. Though vision is three-dimensional,
in many situations depth can be factored out and
attention concentrated on a simple view of a two-
dimensional tablet with its x and y co-ordinates.'

13. Colour illusions
Colour illusions are images where the object's
surrounding colours trick the eye into incorrectly
interpreting the colour. ... This light hits the retina in the
back of the eye where pigments shoot signals to the part
of the brain that processes these signals into an image.

14. Irradiation Illusion
The irradiation illusion is an illusion of visual perception in which
a light area of the visual field looks larger than an otherwise
identical dark area. It was named by Hermann von
Helmholtz around 1867 but the illusion was familiar to scientists
long before then; Galileo mentions it in his Dialogue Concerning the
Two Chief World Systems. It arises partly
from scattering of light inside the eye. This has the effect of
enlarging the image of a light area on the retina.

15. Gregory’s theory- Sensory information
Gregory’s theory- Sensory information Gregory
believed that we construct our own perceptions by
combining the perceptual information received by the
eye (direct data) with stored knowledge in the brain.
Therefore, perception is indirect because it relies on the
addition of this stored knowledge. In order to receive
information from the environment we are equipped with
sense organs e.g. eye, ear, and nose. Each sense organ is
part of a sensory system which receives sensory inputs
and transmits sensory information to the brain.

16. Psychologists distinguish between two types of processes in
perception: bottom-up processing and top-down processing.
Bottom-up processing is also known as data-driven processing,
because perception begins with the stimulus itself. Processing is
carried out in one direction from the retina to the visual cortex,
with each successive stage in the visual pathway carrying out ever
more complex analysis of the input.

17. Top-down processing refers to the use of contextual information
in pattern recognition. For example, understanding difficult
handwriting is easier when reading complete sentences than when
reading single and isolated words. This is because the meaning of
the surrounding words provide a context to aid understanding.

18. Short-term memory
Short-term memory A system for temporarily storing and
managing information required to carry out complex
cognitive tasks such as learning, reasoning, and
comprehension. Short-term memory is involved in the
selection, initiation, and termination of information-
processing functions such as encoding, storing, and
retrieving data.

19. Long-term memory
Long-term memory refers to the storage of information
over an extended period. If you can remember
something that happened more than just a few moments
ago, whether it occurred just hours ago or decades
earlier, then it is a long-term memory. Some important
things to know about long-term memory.

20. Gibson’s Theory of Direct Perception Gibson’s theory is a
highly ecologically valid theory as it puts perception back into the real
world. A large number of applications can be applied in terms of his
theory e.g. training pilots, runway markings and road markings. It’s an
excellent explanation for perception when viewing conditions are clear.
Gibson’s theory also highlights the richness of information in optic array
and provides an account of perception in animals, babies and humans.
His theory is reductionist as it seeks to explain perception solely in terms
of the environment. There is strong evidence to show that the brain and
long term memory can influence perception. In this case, it could be said
that Gregory’s theory is far more plausible. Gibson’s theory also only
supports one side of the nature debate, that being the nature side.
Again, Gregory’s theory is far more plausible as it suggests that what
we see with our eyes is not enough and we use knowledge already
stored in our brain, supporting both sides of the debate.( Visual Illusions)

21. Optical flow or optic flow is the pattern of apparent motion of
objects, surfaces, and edges in a visual scene caused by the
relative motion between an observer and a scene. Optical flow
can also be defined as the distribution of apparent velocities of
movement of brightness pattern in an image. The concept of
optical flow was introduced by the American psychologist James J.
Gibson in the 1940s to describe the visual stimulus provided to
animals moving through the world. Gibson stressed the importance
of optic flow for affordance perception, the ability to discern
possibilities for action within the environment. Followers of Gibson
and his ecological approach to psychology have further
demonstrated the role of the optical flow stimulus for the
perception of movement by the observer in the world; perception
of the shape, distance and movement of objects in the world; and
the control of locomotion.

22. Gestalt Theory
Gestalt theory emphasizes that the whole of anything
is greater than its parts. That is, the attributes of the
whole are not deducible from analysis of the parts in
isolation. The word Gestalt is used in modern German to
mean the way a thing has been “placed,” or “put
together.” There is no exact equivalent in English. “Form”
and “shape” are the usual translations; in psychology the
word is often interpreted as “pattern” or “configuration.”
Gestalt theory originated in Austria and Germany as a
reaction against the associationist and structural schools’
atomistic orientation

23. Gestalt Principles
Gestalt Principles are principles/laws of human
perception that describe how humans group similar
elements, recognize patterns and simplify complex
images when we perceive objects. Designers use the
principles to organize content on websites and other
interfaces so it is aesthetically pleasing and easy to
understand.
Gestalt Principles are an essential part of visual design.

24. Similarity
Principle of similarity states that we tend to perceive
things that physically resemble each other as a part of
the same object. There may be a similarity in any one of
them; colour, shape, texture, or any other element. Let’s
see the examples of the principle of similarity.
In the logos of NBC, Panda Security
Touts, and Sun Microsystems, objects
and patterns have similar visual
characteristics, though they are not
identical in colour, shape, or size. In
the logo of Panda Security Touts,
logomark is perfectly linked with the
wordmark. Similarly, in the logo for
NBC, all the leaves are of different
colours but are perceived as similar
and in the group because of their
same shape

25. Continuity
The Principle of Continuity states that whenever our eyes
begin to follow something, they will continue to travel in
that direction until they encounter another object. The
eyes create momentum as they are compelled to move
through one object and continue to another. Let’s check
the examples of Continuity. The logos of Amazon, Proquest, USA
Network, and Coca Cola follow the
continuation principle of Gestalt. In the logo
of Amazon, there is an arrow starting from
A and ending at Z which depicts that
Amazon has everything from A to Z.
Similarly, in the logo of the famous soft-
drink brand, Coca Cola, our eyes follow the
“C” from Coca to Cola, beginning from the
“C” in the word Cola through L and A.
These types of visual aids help our eyes to
follow an upcoming object.

26. Closure (Reification)
We prefer complete shapes, so we automatically fill in gaps
between elements to perceive a complete image. That’s how we
can see the whole first. You can apply closure in all sorts of
imaginative ways to win users’ admiration and trust when they
recognize pleasing “wholes” in cleverly placed elements, be they
lines, dots or shapes (e.g., segments of a picture). Iconic logos such
as IBM’s and the World Wildlife Fund’s are examples of applied
closure—IBM’s comprising blue horizontal lines arranged in three
stacks; the WWF’s consisting of a cluster of black shapes set
against a white background to reveal the familiar form of a
panda. .

27. Common Region:
We group elements that are in the same closed region. You include
related objects in the same closed area to show they stand
apart from other groups. You can see this principle applied in
Facebook, for
example, where likes, comments and other interactions appear
within the
boundaries of one post and so stand apart from others.

28. Figure/Ground (Multi-stability):
We dislike uncertainty, so we look for solid, stable items. Unless an
image is ambiguous—like Rubin’s Vase, below—we see
its foreground first. You can apply figure/ground in many ways,
but chiefly to contrast elements: for example, light text (i.e., figure)
from a dark background (i.e., ground). When you use
figure/ground well, alongside other considerations such as a
careful application of color theory, you’ll help guide users in their
tasks and lessen their cognitive load.

29. Proximity (Emergence):
We group closer-together elements, separating them from those
farther apart. So, when you cluster individual
elements into one area or group on your design, users will
recognize it as one
entity standing distinct from anything else on-screen. An example
of proximity in
design is the Girl Scouts logo, with its three faces clustered in
profile (two
green, one white).