Compare and Contrast Gibson’s and Gregory’s theories of...

Compare and Contrast Gibson’s and Gregory’s theories of perception Gibson’s and Gregory’s theories of perception both suggest that eye-retina is important for perception. The both believe that without eye-retina, a person will not be able to see. This is a common view of both of the theories of perception. The idea is supported by the case of SB. SB was a man who had been blind from birth due to cataracts. When he was 52, he had an operation which restored his sight and hence he could see. Thus, this case has shown the importance of eye-retina for things to be perceived. And therefore, supports both of theories of perception which eye-retina is essential for perception. Gibson believes in the direct theories of perception which†¦show more content†¦It may be that a genetic predisposition to perception exists, but that situational factors also have to be in place for it to develop. Apart from the above, there are a few more differences between Gibson’s and Gregory’s theories of perception. Gregory believes that additional processing is required for perception which some forms of background knowledge is needed to make sense of the environment than just the sensory input while Gibson believes that perception is part of an inbuilt adaptive mechanism for survival which does not rely on stored knowledge or past experience. Gregory believes that expectations have an impact on perceptions which Gibson disagrees. There is empirical evidence supporting the idea of Gregory, and this comes from a study carried out by Simons and Levin. 50% of the participants failed to realise that there was a switch of people. This is probably due to the fact that the participants had not expected a change of person. Hence, they were unable to perceive it. Furthermore, a study carried out by Selfridge also supports the idea of Gregory. Selfridge’s study demonstrates that our perceptions are mediated by our expectations as people are able to read the figures as ‘’the cat’’. This is because people have the expectations of the cat as they are words in common usage. These studies have shown that people saw what they have been