apperception

American  

[ap-er-sep-shuhn] / ˌæp ərˈsɛp ʃən /

noun

Psychology.

1. conscious perception

2. the act or process of apperceiving.

---

apperception British  

/ ˌæpəˈsɛpʃən /

noun

1. the attainment of full awareness of a sensation or idea

2. the act or process of apperceiving

---

Other Word Forms

• apperceptive adjective
• apperceptively adverb
• preapperception noun
• unapperceptive adjective

Etymology

Origin of apperception

First recorded in 1745–55; from French or directly from New Latin (Leibnitz) apperceptiōn-, stem of apperceptiō. See ap- ¹, perception

Explanation

Apperception is how your mind puts new information in context. You get a perception of a chair through your eyes, but apperception is how your mind relates it to chairs you've seen before. We have many perceptions: information we take in through our senses, like "It's cloudy today." An apperception goes one step further by considering the perception in relation to things you’ve perceived in the past. "There's Julia" is a perception, but "Julia is my friend" is an apperception, because it's based on past experience. "My stomach hurts" is a perception, but "I might throw up" is an apperception. Apperception is a sophisticated mental process that keeps developing through our lives.

Example Sentences

There was one in every apperception center and there were hundreds more throughout The Brain, and their purpose was to replenish the liquid insulation which shielded the sensitive electric nervepaths of The Brain.

From The Brain by Blade, Alexander

Dewey fails to make a distinction, which might have been useful to him, between Kant's unity of apperception and his productive imagination.

From John Dewey's logical theory by Howard, Delton Thomas

He agreed with Herbart regarding the philosophy of apperception so far as it related to intellectual culture, but he painted Jo entirely out of harmony with Herbart’s psychology in relation to soul development.

From Dickens As an Educator by Hughes, James L. (James Laughlin)

But as Kant's unity of apperception became for Green merely a symbol of the world's inherent intelligibility, the latter did not regard it as an actual process of synthesis.

From John Dewey's logical theory by Howard, Delton Thomas

But we can meet this nowhere else than in the principle of the unity of apperception as regards all cognitions which are to belong to me.

From Kant's Theory of Knowledge by Prichard, Harold Arthur

Related Words

• attention
• brain
• consciousness
• genius
• head
• imagination
• instinct
• intellect
• judgment
• mentality
• perception
• psyche
• sense
• soul
• spirit
• talent
• thought
• wisdom