|
v Transactions differ from interactions. A situation may be appropriately considered a transaction when it is functionally inappropriate to examine the characteristics of any significant component except for the way in which it is involved in the particular situation.
p.2 In man, perceiving is not only an inseparable part of all waking activity, but even more important, perceiving never occurs independent of some other activity... Perceiving never takes place "by itself." It can only be studied as part of the situation in which it operates.
p.3 Speaking more specifically of visual perception, Bentley has said, "We do not, however, take the organism and environment as if we could know about them separately in advance in our special inquiry, but we take their interaction itself as subject-matter of study. We name this transaction to differentiate it from interaction. We inspect the thing-seen not as the operation of an organism upon an environment, nor of the environment on an organism but as itself an event."
p.5 The world as we experience it is the product of perception, not the cause of it.
p.5 perceiving is that part of the process of living by which each one of us, from his own particular point of view, creates for himself the world within which he has his life's experiences and through which he strives to gain his satisfactions.
p.5 perceiving is an integral part of every transaction of living. Indeed, it is difficult for any of us to think of ourselves as living without perceiving. To perceive is as natural and necessary as to sleep. Yet its very naturalness and all-pervasiveness make perception a difficult subject-matter to grasp.
p.7 Our perceptions give each of us the only world we know. It is this world in which we act. And we act in terms of our perceptions. Our perceptions provide us with predictions as to what will probably happen if we act in a particular way. Our actions will be effective only in so far as the predictions derived from our perceptions correspond to what we actually experience when we act. This, then, is the central problem of perception: to study the degree of correspondence between the significances which we externalize and those which we encounter and to understand the process by which this correspondence is achieved.
p.7 the significances which we encounter in the course of of acting can only be evaluated in terms of what we intend to do. There is no attention without intention.
p.9 Any scientific inquiry can be shown to follow certain definite and necessary stages... [JLJ - numbering added for readability]
- The first step is the recognition that our up-to-the-now knowledge is not adequate to account for some particular phenomenon and the formulation of this difficulty into a problem.
- Second, we must decide which aspects of the phenomenon most probably have a significant bearing on the problem. The way we have formulated the problem, then, has an important bearing on what aspects of the phenomenon appear relevant.
- Third, we select from these relevant aspects those which seem to be most important and define them in such a way that they can be used as experimental variables.
- The fourth step consists of working out methods for bringing these variables into relationships which have a bearing on the problem as formulated and designing techniques for manipulating these variables and interpreting the results. We then carry out experimental investigations.
- In the fifth and final stage, we modify our conceptualizations to take account of our experimental findings. We can then reformulate our problem in the light of our new refined knowledge, which represents the first step in the next phase of our study, The process of scientific inquiry is thus never-ending.
p.17 Perceptual data fall into three categories: informational, response, and phenomenal.
Under informational is included any means of informing the experimenter that a particular state of affairs in which he is interested is or is not present... The utilization of response as a source of data involves the active participation of the subject in carrying out some purpose in the experimental situation, necessitating much more complex activities than are needed to provide the simple yes-or-no bit of information... The third type of data is phenomenal, a term which usually implies that the experimenter "looks for himself."
p.19 In man the receiving of symbolic messages is undoubtedly one of the most important functions of perception... In studying human perception, we have constantly to bear in mind that it is impossible to have any perception which is devoid of symbolic content.
p.20 all human perception is symbolic.
p.20 The world of objects does not exist passively and statically for our observation. Very rarely if ever do we contemplate a completely unchanging world... Rather, events of one kind or another are constantly occurring around us, new events following the previous in a never-ending series of sequences.
p.21 The events which follow as sequences to our own actions have special significance in the perceptual process.
p.25 It is evident from the above discussion of what is meant by "visual cue" that (1) a visual cue does not exist as an entity but rather that this term refers to a particular relationship between a number of aspects of the perceptual situation and (2) neither visual cue nor any of the aspects that combine to make it up enter directly into the awareness of the perceiver.
p.26 perceiving refers to the process by which a particular person, from his particular behavioral center, attributes significances to his immediate environmental situation. And the significances which he attributes are those which he has discovered from past experiences have furthered his purposes. [JLJ - No, perceiving refers to the monitoring of events in order to further a scheme, of some kind. We perceive in order to change or keep our stance - which can be active - like a moving vehicle in traffic - or passive, like a spider in a web waiting for an insect. Our scheme directs us to take certain actions, then to monitor certain perceived cues for signs of impending change, or the emerging possibility of change from hidden potential.]
p.27 The primary function of perception is neither revelation of the present nor remembrance of the past: it is prediction of the future. [JLJ - I would say that we perceive as part of a scheme to properly position ourselves in a stance, for whatever might occur. All that really matters in the end is that we are in an acceptable stance for whatever might happen. We do not need to specifically predict an exact event, in situations where several things might happen. We typically or practically sense cues which hint of emerging events which threaten to transpire, perhaps indicating a possible direction of immanent change and possibly suggesting a change in our stance towards the unknown. You can call it "prediction" if you like.]
p.28 Every action can be thought of as an experimental test of an hypothesis which is appropriately modified or confirmed as the result of our test through action.
p.28 Successful actions can only confirm what we already know. [JLJ - Not exactly. Actions can succeed for reasons other than what we had assumed.]
p.31 The human being, as all living organisms, ceaselessly attempts to create an environment within which to carry out his purposes. And in every occasion of living, perception-in-operation is a never-ending process of prediction in the face of uncertainty for action on the basis of faith. [JLJ - Not so fast. We can't "create" this environment by waving magic wands, or by moving directly towards what we want and simply taking it - we need a scheme of some kind, which we need to execute. Operating a business with a strategic business plan is such a scheme, or attending classes in college to land a good job is another. We perceive as part of a scheme to go on. Our scheme tells us to monitor for cues, some of which will hint that we are in the appropriate stance, while others will suggest we are not, and instead that we ought to consider adjusting our stance. Certain perceptions are pre-tied to levers of action - we perceive in order to pull the action-lever - or not. Much of decision making actually involves executing a scheme and responding in ways we have pre-decided we ought. Much of decision making involves reading the cues of the moment, and acting accordingly.]
|
