We the human beings are blessed by the nature to become well competent for performing highly precise and copious visual processes with how ever a restricted field of view. Howbeit, this process of visual perception is, to a great extent, controlled by the saccades or more commonly the eye movements. The positioning and accommodation of eyes allows an image to be placed (or fixed) in the fovea centralis of the eyes but although we do so to fix our gaze at a particular object, our eyes continuously move. Even though these fixational eye movements includes magnitude that should make them visible to us yet we remain oblivious to them. Microsacades, drifts and tremors that occurs frequently during fixational eye movements, contribute largely to the visual perception. We use saccades several times per second to move the fovea between points of interest and build an understanding of our visual environment.
TopIntroduction
Visual perception can be defined as the ability to of the brain to detect and interpret visible light thus enabling a living being to perceive the image of something he has seen (Gompel, Fischer, Murry & Hill, 2007). Vision, as a sensory system, has always been entitled of paramount importance as the whole world contains a huge deal of visual information (A.L. Yarbus, 1967). The sense organ, solely responsible, alongside brain, for creating a visual perception is eye, the light sensitive organ of human body (Leigh & Zee, 1999). Amongst several parts of the eye the few which play the most crucial role are the rod and cone cells at the back of the eye that actually responds to visible light rays and relay those signals via optical nerve to the brain which finally interprets it i.e. creates the perception (E. Kowler, 2011). The entry of the light inside the eyes is controlled by the pupil that dilates or contracts to adjust the amount of light rays entering (C. Araujo et. al., 2001).
The processes that are involved in visual perception are not only physiological but also psychological to a great extent; while the physiological process deals with the formation of image from the visual inputs the psychological aspect actually make sense out of that image (G.T. Buswell, 1935).
Vision Perception is the ability to interpret, analyze, and give meaning to what we see (A. Brouwer et. al., 2009). These skills help us recognize and integrate visual stimuli with previously stored data to form a stable, predictable, familiar world. In other words, vision perception allows us to understand, not just see (Rolfs, 2009).
In school, visual perceptual skills are particularly important. Without good perceptual skills, we could not recognize words we’ve already seen, tell the difference between a p and q, sequence the order of letters when spelling, visualize reading content for comprehension, determine left from right, scan a busy worksheet, mentally manipulate objects in math, conceptualize relationships in science, and connect other sensory stimuli to our visual construct, such as the sound of a keyboard to a piano (Cerf, Frady & Koch, 2009).
Visual perception skills are generally broken down into distinctive subcategories based on their analytical function (C. Araujo et. al., 2001). These subsets of skills do not work in isolation but operate in combination with each other for efficient visual function. Whether considered separately or collectively, these skills are critical to learning.
There are different aspects related to visual perception, such as