Writers need to understand what visual perception is as it is relevant to all writers who plan to write about any situation involving a car or other vehicle. Understanding visual perception and some of the theories behind it will allow writers to create scenes that are more realistic and provide explanations for why their characters made certain decisions. Visual perception is the way in which people perceive their surroundings through the light that enters their eyes; specifically when the eye focuses light on the retina (Interaction Design Foundation, n.d.).

Basic Principles of Visual Perception

Visual perception is how people are able to recognize, organize, and interpret visual stimuli from the environment around them and it begins when light passes through the eyes and is converted into neural electrochemical impulses in the brain; this is what allows a person to not just see their surroundings, but also perceive them.

The process of perception begins with eyes, ears, nose, tongue, and skin; people sense the world and the environment around them as their sense organs work to bring in sensations from the environment. Yet even though these stimuli are constantly being sensed by the sense organs, the individual might not be constantly perceiving the stimuli (McBride & Cutting, 2017).

Example of Visual Perception

For example, if you have music on while you are driving, you might not always hear every word of the music that is playing while you are focusing on driving, yet the sound waves play continuously. In this way, a person's sense organs are constantly sensing stimuli even if those stimuli are not always being actively perceived.

This is an important aspect of perception that is directly relevant to most writers as numerous books involve an element of driving whether that is a car, hovercar, or another vehicle.

This example would also be applicable in situations where a character is teaching another how to drive or operate a vehicle as the inverse is also true, meaning that if a person actively engages one of their other sense organs by eating or listening to music while driving they are splitting their perception which means they do not have their full attention on their visual perception while driving. This aspect of visual perception could be taught by one character to another.

Theories and Aspects of Visual Perception

While there are many aspects and theories that are connected to visual perception, the bottom-up processing approach and low threshold theory are both very relevant to driving.

The bottom-up processing approach states that perception begins with the basic units or features of a stimulus and then adds the parts together to understand and identify a whole object (McBride & Cutting, 2017). This theory is what allows people to identify objects without seeing the entire object. This approach also applies to animals and other objects that might be on or entering the roadway. It is what allows drivers to know that they should stop, slow down, or increase their speed before they are close enough to see the whole of the object.

For example, a driver might only see the bumper of the car that is stopped in the middle of the lane in front of them, yet they are able to take that and identify the object in front of them as a car before getting too close to hit the brake and avoid a collision.

Low Threshold Theory

Low threshold theory states that distractors can be perceived as targets, and targets can be perceived as distractors (Palmer, Verghese, & Pavel, 1999). This theory is directly relevant to drivers as it means that people can mistake targets and distractors easily especially when they do not have a lot of time to choose if something is a target or a distractor. For example, if a driver was on the highway and had to get off at exit 38A and there were multiple exits coming up quickly, the driver might mistake a distractor like exit 38B as the target 38A. 

References

Interaction Design Foundation. (n.d.).Visual Perception Retrieved from https://www.interaction-

design.org/literature/topics/visual-perception

Kitaoka, A. (2003). Akiyoshi’s illusion pages. Retrieved from

http://www.ritsumei.ac.jp/~akitaoka/index-e.html

McBride, D., & Cutting, J. (2017). Cognitive Psychology Interactive: Theory, Process, and

Methodology (2nd ed.). SAGE Publications.

Palmer, J., Verghese, P., & Pavel, M. (1999).The psychophysics of visual search. Vision Research, 40, 1227 – 1268.