Perception and Cognition

Perception and Cognition is elaborated at GRIS in several ways. In the lectures Information Visualization and Visual Analytics , Perception and Cognition is taught in connection with several connecting points. In addition, several research projects explicitly focus on Perception and Cognition. Finally, Perception and Cognition is subject of a PhD project of a PhD student in the group.

Perception and Cognition explained

The term perception encompasses the processes which humans us to recognize and interpret a stimulus – a loud noise, an approaching car or a visualization.

Perception start with seeing the environmental stimulus with the human eye. It proceeds with the recognition of fundamental patterns, e.g., orientation or color, and goes over to forming something meaningful out of the fundamental perceptions. The meaningful something is denoted as the human mental model.

The term cognition encompasses the process of the human mind which generate comprehension and insights resp. knowledge.

Examples for cognitive processes are thinking, remembering, judging, problem-solving, integration of prior knowledge and evaluating. These processes are high-level functions of the brain and require i.a. perception.