Internet in Language Teaching Academic Essay Writing KPE 357

13 stimuli, organizing the stimuli, and translating or interpreting the organized stimuli so as to influence behavior and form attitudes. Figure 2.1 Perceptual Process The first step in perceptual process is selection. We choose the stimuli to which we will pay attention. Our brain arranges which information is more important and discards the rest of the given information. For example, when someone is joining a noisy class when the teacher is explaining and the others are yelling, she or he has power to select paying attention to the teacher or to the yelling groups. However, she or he has threshold to choose in what situation she or he wants to belong; paying attention to the teacher or being disturbed by the noise. This process is called selective attention. Based on Huffman et al. 2000:108, the selection of the stimuli is influenced by three factors; physiological factors, stimulus factors, and psychological factors. 1. Physiological factors One of the major physiological factors in selection is the presence of the specialized cells in the brain called feature detections or feature analyzers that respond only to certain sensory information. Another physiological factor is habituation. It is the tendency to ignore environmental factors to remain constant. 14 The brain seems ‘prewired’ to pay more attention to changes in the environment than to the stimuli that remain constant. 2. Stimulus factors When given a wide variety of stimuli to choose from, we automatically select the stimuli that are intense, novel, moving, contrasting, and repetitious. The more intense, novel, moving, contrasting or repetitious the stimuli are, the bigger its chance to be selected. For example, the advertisements agent puts the ads more one time in one time break. 3. Psychological factors Motivation and personal needs give effects on this factor. What you choose to perceive is determined largely by your current level of satisfaction or deprivation. Every student has different motivation toward a course. It makes them have different perception. The second process is organization. After selecting the coming information, human organize it into patterns and principles that will help us to understand the incoming information. It means that the sensory message is arranged so as to become meaningful. Altman et al. 1985:89 state that the central function of organization process is to reduce initially complex information into simpler categories. Huffman et al. say that sensory data is organized according to form, perceptual constancies, depth, and color. The form perception is organizing stimuli into patterns or shapes. The form perception is derived from figure and ground, proximity, continuity and closure.