Attributes of visual perception are the innate abilities, and the skills we develop over the course of a lifetime, that enable us to make sense of what we see. They are evident in the diverse properties of the world we see around us.
- Attributes of visual perception associated with the response of the human eye and brain to light include:
- Colour perception: The ability to see differences in colour in the presence of light including all the greys between black and white.
- Visual attention: The ability to focus on important visual information and filter out unimportant background information.
- Sensory processing: Accurate registration, interpretation and response through the coordination of visual information with other forms of sensory stimulation.
- Visual discrimination: The ability to recognise differences or similarities in objects based on size, colour, shape, etc.
- Spatial relationships: The ability to understand the relationships of objects, particularly their distance, direction of movement and position relative to an observer.
- Figure-ground: The ability to locate something against a busy background.
- Form constancy: The ability to know that a form or shape is the same, even if it becomes larger or smaller, or its orientation changes.
- Visual closure: The ability to recognise a form or object when part of it is hidden or missing.
- Visual memory: The ability to recall visual traits of a form or object.
- Visual sequential memory: The ability to recall a sequence of objects in the correct order.
Related diagrams
Each diagram below can be viewed on its own page with a full explanation.
