What is visual perception?
Our brain works together with our eyes to perceive and understand things. While there are eye tests we can take to determine the strength of our eyes, visual perception skills are a little different.
Having highly developed visual perception skills means that your brain can make sense of the things your eyes see. How you see colors and patterns depends on how your eyes and brain work together to perceive different properties of light and shadow. A person can have perfect vision, but that doesn’t mean that their visual perception skills are 100%. There are certain tests you can do to determine your visual discernment and a common one that we recommend is the Visual Perception Test.
Why are visual perception skills important?
Visual perception skills are crucial for performing numerous daily tasks. When we see something, our brain organizes it in a way that makes us understand it. A common example of visual perception is seeing words on a page while reading. We can see the words, but our brains make sense of the content. People who have difficulty making sense of words can have problems recalling what they are reading. There are many other instances for which we need visual perception to carry out normal lives. These include:
- Writing and reading
- Doing arts and crafts
- Completing math problems
- Doing puzzles
- Getting dressed
- Distinguishing shapes
- Recognizing patterns, sizes and spatial distances
- Filtering visual information out
Signs that your visual perception skills need improvement
If you have problems completing puzzles such as connect the dots or sometimes have difficulty in differentiating between numbers and letters, such as ‘b’ and ‘d’, then it could be a sign that your visual perception skills need improvement. Let’s take a look at some other signs of impaired visual perception:
- Having trouble remembering the alphabet
- Forgetting where to start reading or where you have stopped reading
- Having difficulty recalling sight words
- Having trouble discriminating between sizes and objects
- Having difficulty in organizing things according to size
- Experiencing difficulty in finding items in a cluttered picture
- Having trouble completing half-finished illustrations
What can you do to improve your visual skills?
There are a variety of exercises and quizzes you can do to improve your perception skills. When reading, some people prefer to use visual cues such as post-it notes or colored stickers to mark where they have stopped reading. When it comes to other visual exercises, some people like to write or draw on graph paper to give them direction. You can also use highlighters to encourage your eyes to work together with your brain to make connections between words and concepts.
When doing puzzles, it helps to break your task into small steps so that you are not overwhelmed by a huge activity all at once. This is especially important for jigsaw puzzles or exercises which require you to find things. Focusing on one task at a time and giving your brain enough rest will also help you focus. We’ve collated several helpful visual puzzles for you. Try one and see how you score!
Puzzles do help with eyestrain!
Though there is little scientific evidence suggesting that eye exercises can improve vision, puzzles and games that challenge the eyes have been shown to actually help with eyestrain.
As you play through our quizzes, you might find yourself implementing several different eye exercises instinctively. These exercises might productively challenge your eyes as you switch between near and far focus. They can also strengthen your eye muscles as your eyes constantly adjust the length of your focus and help increase your eyes’ flexibility as you scan our images for the correct answers. The more you do this, the better your visual perception skills will become. It just takes regular training when it comes to helping your eyes and your brain connect.
