9 brain that create human’s perceptions according to Smith and Passer 2004:134.
The processes they proposed are bottom-up processing and top-down processing. In bottom–up processing, the process of creating perceptions takes in
individual element of stimulus; then those elements are combined into unified perceptions Passer Smith, 2004: 134. As people are reading, the feature
detectors of the visual system “analyze the elements in each letter of every word and then recombine them into our visual perceptions of the letters and the words”
thus people have a description of what they read Passer Smith, 2004: 134. In the top–down processing, the process begins with a perceptual whole,
like an expectation or an image of an object, and then determines the degree of fit with the stimulus features Passer Smith, 2004: 134. The sensory information
is interpreted in light of existing knowledge, concepts, ideas, and expectations. Passer and Smith 2004: 135 explain further that top–down processing “accounts
for many psychological influences on perceptions, such as the role played by our motive expectation, previous experiences, and cultural learning” we ever engaged.
c. The Factors Influencing Perceptions
The perceptions tend to be subjective. People tend to “respond to the same stimuli in different ways” Altman Valenzi, 1985: 91. Because of its
subjectivity, sometimes people’s perceptions tend to be bias, while the meaning of bias is a systematic tendency to use or interpret information in a way that results
in inaccurate perceptions. According to George and Jones, there are six factors causing bias perceptions. 1 Primacy effects. Primacy effects are the initial pieces
10 of information that a perceiver has about a target. Those affect on the perceiver’s
perceptions and evaluation of the target. 2 Contrast Effect; which is the perceiver’s perceptions of others influence the perceiver’s perceptions of a target.
3 Halo effect. The perceiver’s general impression of a target influences his or her perceptions of the target on specific dimensions. 4 Similar-to-me effect.
People perceive others who are similar to themselves more positively than they perceive those who are dissimilar. 5 Harshness, leniency, and average tendency.
Some perceivers tend to be overly harsh in their perceptions, some overly lenient. Others view most targets as being about average. 6 Knowledge of predictor.
Knowing how a target stands on a predictor of performance influences perceptions of the target George Jones, 2005: 118.
d. Relationship between Perceptions, Learning and Thinking
Perception is related to the way people see things and then interpret it. According to Altman, Valenzi, and Hodgett 1985: 84, the interpretation of
something is influenced by the available information that is organized in people’s mind. They explain further that the way people perceive the information depends
on some factors, “including the clarity and the familiarity of the stimuli, physical characteristics vision and hearing, our needs and value, knowledge, feeling, and
past experience. Altman, Valenzi, and Hodgett discuss perceptions with thinking process generally, while Forgus 1966: 2 relates the perceptions with learning
and thinking. The relation of learning and Thinking in the complex Process of Perception is summarized in Figure 2.2
11
Figure 2.2 The Relationship of Learning and Thinking in the Complex Process of Perceptions
Forgus, 1966: 2
The thinking process modifies organism through learning. Learning, which is a situation that involves students’ experience of the process they engage in,
modifies perceptions of stimuli they perceive. In this research, the researcher was interested in examining the students’ perceptions on scaffolding strategy used in
Extensive Reading II of ELESP of Sanata Dharma University. The researcher expected that the students’ positive perceptions on scaffolding strategy used in
Extensive Reading II would help them to enjoy reading more and to motivate them to engage more in Extensive Reading II class activities, so the students can
accomplish the course excellently.
2. Scaffolding Strategy
