MODELSOFVISUALPERCEPTIONOFOBJECTS’ WEIGHT

Abstract

The article is part of more extensive study of how people perceive the weight of objects and ways of linguistic objectivation of this process. The object of study is adjectives «difficult» / «heavy». The author proves the high activity of visual method of perception of indicated signs, although traditionally they are not associated with sensory perception.
As result of analysis, certain conclusions have been made regarding the form of human perception of the weight of objects and ways of expressing this perception: 1) visual channel of acquisition of the world is important and, we assert, one of the most important in the process of estimation of objects’ weight; 2) visual perception is one of the ways of contactless characterization of object weight; 3) in terms of the nature of evaluated objects, a person uses visual comprehension to specific objects of environment (heavy barge), to abstractions (severe sorrow), and to specific phenomena that show abstract manifestations (stony stare certifies negative emotional state, intense personal relationships, etc.); 4) in accordance with the nature of expressing, the process of visual perception of objects’ weight is implicit (without reference to the visual perception channel) and explicit (indicating the visual method of assessing the weight of objects); 5) when determining the weight of specific objects of environment, the high level of activity are presented by models «difficult – as actants of the situation testify», «heavy – as it is distinguished by weight and size from alike», «hard – as it is big», «solid – as it is densely and tightly placed». We see high scientific potential in working out of separate directions (actually linguistic, psycholinguistic, actually psychological) of determined problem and in creating the unified concept of comprehension by a person of the category of feature.