Chapter 2.LITERATURE REVIEW
2.3. The relationship between Motivation and Perception
Although there are many other researches on tourism motivation, my study about Hanoi heritage tourism used the theory of push and pull factor motivations. Therefore, this chapter only provides some contemporary literature and previous researches relating to my theme.
2.3. The relationship between Motivation and Perception
2.3.1. Theory of Perception
To explain what perception is, the researchers at first suggested some explanations of perception’s sources. Many studies classified sources of perception into two basic groups. The first group is piece of available knowledge existed in each individual and perception is the exploration and development of those knowledges. Who share this view are Decartes and Plato. This view can assist us in explaining inside perception and intuition; however, it can’t clearly explain when knowledge and ideas are in our mind, where they are from or why they appear in our mind as well as why different people don’t have same perception and we couldn’t perceive it from our born. On contrary to this point of view, another approach affirmed that knowledge we have is from outside, in other word that is experience. The researchers pursuing this view confirmed that our mind like a white paper and all what we have are from external reality. This approach explained that how external facts were perceived and put on mind. Two both these approached face to a problem. They find difficult to explain the perception of unconscious people and how we respond to outside world.
Most of the perception theories consider “perception” as analyzing and receiving information process. Depending on the direction of information flow, researchers categorize theory of perception into two different groups:
• The first group of perception theory:
This group of theory uses “bottom-up process” for information processing. This process begins at the lowest sensory level of cognitive apparatus and the gradually transform to more complicated process which is implemented in higher level and takes responsibility for abstract and broad thinking. Regarding to this group of perception theory, the content and quality of data input play a vital role in deciding the last perception.
Sensory input data, according to this theory, represents for cognitive background and its nature will decide further sensory data process.
We can take the following case as an example: when we see a tree, our senses will collect basic data such as point, horizon, and vertical as well as the characteristics of object and then connect all data we get to build the image of shape, surface. With information about the object we get, we can have more complicated perception of object which we identify “tree”.
In this theory group, Gibson with his direct- perception theory is very popular and applied in many studies all over the world. He believed that our cognitive apparatus is created and formed by impact of evolution from external environment which shows clearly its structure and ability. We learn how to extract exactly necessary information of our survival. Darwin assumed that pressure from environment make our receptor be created and formed so that it is more sensitive with relating stimulation from environment and it can be adapted to external environment. This explanation of perception has ecological characteristic because external environment decides and affect all perception process.
• The second group of perception theory:
This group of theory uses “top-down process” for information processing. On contrary to the bottom- up theory, group of this theory supposed that during discrimination and evaluation process of sensory stimulations, we feel sensory data in our receptor and data processing implemented from higher cognitive apparatus to lower one. This is top-down effect. The core of this approach is that this sensory processing is conducted only when a person have knowledge background or other effects which play an important role in forming and organizing content of perception.
A key feature to distinguish bottom-up theory and top- down theory is the participation of higher cognitive apparatus in classifying and explaining contents perceived. Top-down theory prefers direct-perception without the participation of previous knowledge and experience, whereas indirect-perception theory considers “perception” is spirit symbol, computation or drawing a picture of reality. Sensory data must be caught and organized by cognitive apparatus and explained by basic knowledge background.
Philosophical foundation of this approach is the research document: “The critique of Pure Reason”. According to this research, thinking without contents is empty, intuitions without concepts is blind. Only by using concept to understand an image, a person realizes what he is experiencing and then we call it perception.
One of the most popular constructive perception theories is Gregory’s. “While Gibson integrated the phylogenetic flow of time (the influence of evolution on cognitive apparatus) into the process of perception, Gregory used also the flow of ontogenetic time. He claims that sensory data found on receptors are just some sort of energy samples, but they are of no great importance themselves. Their importance is based on our previous experience. Data have the past and the future; they change themselves and they influence each other. They have some hidden aspects that emerge only if influenced by various conditions”( Perception theories, Doc. PhDr. Ján Rybár,PhDr.
Marián Špajdel). Gregory was making efforts to provide ambiguity of sensory data.
Similar to Gibson, he didn’t suspect the importance of receptors in receiving data;
however he didn’t agree with the idea that receptors had capability of reading specific data meaning. He believed that this process needed higher brain activity. Perception is a problem of receptors as well as brain organism.
It is very difficult to propose an exact definition of perception. Simply, according to philosophical perspective, perception is the reflection of objective reality in human consciousness. There are two type of perception: sensible perception and reason perception. They have dialectical relationship. Foundation, objectives and standards of perception are social reality.
According to afore said literature, perception is a process in which people regenerate reality in their thought. It is affected by social development rules. In term of tourism aspect, tourists’ perception is destination’s image and reality which is formed in tourists’ thinking. This formation of perception is thanked to available knowledge background as well as external impacts such as destination attributes, word-mouth factor etc. Gnoth (1997) noted that: “perceptions about a destination can be reduced to a behavioral or cognitive perspective. The cognitive structures constitute the point at which the forming of the image represents the integration of the internal and external stimuli into the “awareness set” (Woodside and Lysonski, 1989; Crompton, 1979).
There are individual perception which was formed before traveling to a site based on
available knowledge background and perception to destination which is created after traveling to this site, based on perceived values as well as satisfaction with destination.
Whatever it is individual perception of perception based on destination attributes, it is also affected by motivation, specifically push and pull motivation.
2.3.2. The relationship between Motivation and Perception
Motivation and perception play an important role in deciding tourists’ behavior.
Therefore, linking tourists’ perception to their motivation is really necessary. If a place is perceived to be able to meet many motivations, it will have more chances to choose as destination. And if a tourist has high motivation to a site, its image will be more attractive in tourist’s perception and make tourist feel sense of belonging to there.
With those analyses, we can see the relationship between motivation and perception. It’s hard to isolate two these concepts. According to McCabe (200), tourist’s motivation should be recognized in term of multidimensional aspect in order that we can get different knowledge of its effect on tourist’s perception and behavior. In general, according to Crompton, perception to destination can be governed by personal, interpersonal motivation (push motivations) and destination’s attributes (pull motivations).