Perception

In psychology and the cognitive sciences, perception is the process of taking in, picking, organizing, and understanding sensory information.^[1] It includes collecting data from sense organs and interpreting it in the brain. Consider this: Light enters our eyes, and the brain works on this information to build up a mental picture of what is going on "out there". Perception is a lot more than just "information coming in". It is an active process.

There are many ways to study perception. There are biological or physiological approaches, psychological approaches through the philosophy of mind and experiments. There are studies by philosophers such as David Hume, John Locke, George Berkeley.

1. ↑ The word perception comes from the Latin perception-, percepio and means "receiving, collecting, action of taking possession, apprehension with the mind or senses."—OED.com.