Modern research trends in perceptual psychology

Abstract

Modern perceptual psychology can be characterized by an increasing trend towards the formation of ontological research approach. We can observe intensive methodological search conducted in two directions: the subject of research and the object of research. It is shown that the ontologization of the subject of psychological perceptual research is aimed at the revelation of natural principles that psychic reality is based on. The transformation of the subject of perceptual research, i.e., the emphasis on its existential aspect is an effective means to increase the ontological correctness of psychological knowledge that is to correspond to the life it studies, as well as to discover deeper and more essential levels of the psychic reality organization. By using extensive empirical material, we illustrate the recent interest in fundamental study of 'new' perceptual reality as one of the ways of development of modern scientific knowledge. The relevant problem of searching for opportunities to analyze an individual’s activity under natural conditions is solved in perceptual psychology by means of formation of a certain research direction in which 'natural processes' are used as objects of fundamental psychological research. Rigorous study of real stimuli lets us see new perceptual patterns that haven’t been registered before and thus pose new research problems concerning the integrity of perception and its accordance with nature.