Person Perception and Interpersonal Behavior.

Since it is through perception that man knows, and so can act in, his physical and social world, the study of perception has properly been of central concern throughout the history of modern psychology. That perception involves more than the simple representation of the attributes of impinging physical stimuli is well known, though variously interpreted. However, both theory and research have been concerned, in the main, with the perception ofthingsprincipally in terms of the relation between the psychologically experienced and the physically measured stimulus attributes. Within recent years, however, systematic attention has been turned to the perception ofpersons, and to the relation between person perception and other aspects of social behavior. Person perception exists, according to Tagiure, whenever "the perceiver regards the object as having a potential of representation and intentionality." Or, as Newcomb states elsewhere in this volume, "humans cognize other humans as being also cognizers."