Perception Structures: Admissibility and Structural Registration in Cognitive Systems

Perception is typically treated as a sensory process in which organisms detect signals from the environment. However, most scientific descriptions implicitly assume that the signals being processed are already valid members of the system being studied. This paper proposes a structural interpretation of perception within the Paton System framework. Perception is defined as the successful structural registration of admissible external patterns within a cognitive system. Before perception can occur, incoming structure must satisfy admissibility conditions that permit it to exist within the internal architecture of the observer. Signals that fail these conditions do not become stabilised perceptions, even if they are physically present. Within the Paton System architecture, perception occurs at the Tier-4 observational interface, which functions as a compression boundary between external structural possibilities and internal cognitive representation. This interpretation explains perceptual stability across sensory modalities and provides a domain-neutral framework applicable to biological and artificial cognitive systems. By locating perception at the admissibility boundary of cognition, the Paton System clarifies the structural conditions required for perception and establishes a foundation for further work on attention, cognition, and consciousness.