The act of perceiving or becoming aware of something through our senses or attention. In the context of psychology, it refers to consciously recognizing and attending to a stimulus.
Related terms
Selective Attention: The ability to focus on specific stimuli while ignoring others. For example, being able to concentrate on studying in a noisy environment.
Inattentional Blindness: Failing to see or notice unexpected objects or events when our attention is directed elsewhere. Like not noticing your glasses on your face because you're engrossed in reading a book.
Change Blindness: A phenomenon where individuals fail to detect changes in visual stimuli when those changes occur during brief interruptions (e.g., blinking). Similar to not noticing someone switched your glasses with sunglasses while you were momentarily distracted.