Classification: Function, Tasks, Role & Diseases

Classification of perception corresponds to categorization, which helps interpret what is perceived. All human cognitive categories together form the mental representation of the world. Misclassifications of perception occur in the context of delusions.

What is classification?

Classification is a part of cognitive perceptual processing and is often associated with the expression of categorical perception. Classification is one of the last processes in the perceptual chain. It occurs well after the primary sensory impression and is sometimes understood as a part of the interpretation of percepts. In classifying a perception, the brain conceptually arranges the perceived stimuli into its representation of the world. The stimuli are received by the sensory organs and a primary sensory impression is created that is as yet free of cognitive and affective processing and modification. This stage corresponds to perceptual stage I, which is called sensation. In stage II, the primary sensory impression is organized by the brain. Only in stage III the identification of the perceived follows, which is accompanied by a classification of the perception in the sense of something recognizable. Classification is a part of cognitive perceptual processing and is often associated with the expression of categorical perception. In this context, the continuum of all external stimuli is subdivided into individual categories by the performance of the perceptual apparatus. Categorization is a cognitive ability by means of which people can sort and assign collective terms to different entities by means of intuition. Cognitive categories have similarities as their basis. Thus, the categorization of perception has a comparison with previous knowledge as its basis. Category formation is not only an essential process in the evaluation and interpretation of perceptual content, but also plays an essential role in decision-making processes.

Function and task

Before a classification of the perception becomes possible, the brain tries to structure the perceived sensation as orderly as possible. For this purpose, the brain assembles the individually perceived information into a whole. In this way, what is perceived results in a coherent and relatively uniform picture. From the point of view of evolutionary biology, perception serves humans as a source for any reactions to the external world. Perception is thus an important parameter for survival. From this point of view, only coherent and comprehensible perceptions help humans. For this reason, the human brain summarizes perceived facts, for example, in such a way that they become a conclusively comprehensible picture. Only after this structuring a categorization of the perception takes place. This categorization corresponds to the classification. The brain thus classifies the information by means of cognitive processes insofar as it arranges them into certain categories. These categories already exist before perception and are individual, although many overlap from person to person. The classification can thus be understood as a memory process or at least takes place with the help of memory contents. In the memory all earlier perceived stimuli are stored as categories and can serve each new perception as starting point of the classification. The assignment of perceived things to certain categories helps to identify the sensory impression. Categories are an internal filing and sorting system that corresponds to a mental representation of the external world. Category systems for classifying perceptions are constantly changing and always expandable or modifiable. On the basis of ever new perceptions, man generalizes, for example. That is, he develops rules through certain experiences in order to apply these rules to new perceptions.

Diseases and ailments

As a consequence to the necessarily occurring classifications of all perceptions, categorization necessarily takes place. This necessary categorization indicates that humans are naturally prone to prejudice. However, since the categories for classifying perceptions are flexible, human categorizations need not necessarily be categorizations by means of entrenched prejudices.The discrimination associated with social and cultural prejudice is thus only peripherally related to the process of perception. Faulty categorization of perceptions underlies many mental illnesses. One of these is schizophrenia. Delusional ideas are characteristic for schizophrenic people, for example in the form of persecution mania or megalomania. In delusions, patients develop pathologically false ideas of reality. Their delusions seem so real to them that they cling to them unswervingly. Almost all circumstances of the affected person’s life can become the subject of the delusion. Many of the affected persons sometimes feel persecuted, impute a conspiracy against their person to their environment or feel themselves to be seriously ill, which corresponds to a hypochondriacal delusion. Delusions of a political or religious nature are grouped together as delusions of grandeur and are often accompanied by the idea of being called to something greater. The affected persons are not able to recognize their delusions as being out of touch with reality. In delusions of grandeur, the delusion is often associated with a high need to communicate, especially in paranoid schizophrenics with otherworldly delusions of grandeur. As a cause for delusions, scientists now assume a false assignment of meaning and thus a misguided categorization of externally perceived processes in the environment. Patients often put conventional everyday events into the category of a test on them. A faulty categorization is also present in the context of other delusions, for example, in the delusion of jealousy or the delusion of nothingness. Traumatic experiences in the patient’s history are probably involved in the faulty processes of categorization of perception.