Good vision is far more than good eyesight. Vision is defined as how we identify, interpret, comprehend, and act on what we see. People who are adept at taking in and using visual information are said to have strong perceptual ability. They are quick to see how things are alike or different.

A fine artist can study a scene and see the relationships between shapes and colors well enough to reproduce them with paint on canvas. Perceptual ability helps you recognize words and line up columns. Even read a roadmap. It's helpful for computer programmers who may have to categorize and code gigabytes of data, and bank tellers who can't afford to miss match accounts and transactions.

Pilots for the highway patrol rely on perceptual ability to sort out the tangle of roadways and intersections they view from the air. Equipment installers and repairers need to be able to recognize how pieces fit together in order to work with machinery. In order to align cutting tools, a machinist needs to be able to examine a sample work piece and then make the appropriate adjustments.

Perception is what an investigator or inspector uses to detect what's wrong with this picture. The same skill helps a meter reader to find signs of illegal tampering with the utility meter.

In some jobs, employers look for more than just perceptual ability. They want perceptual speed and accuracy. This involves quickly picking out details that are mixed in with others. The way a dealer in a casino can identify a winning hand at a glance, or how a clerk can spot a particular file among a drawer full of files. Our productivity increasingly depends on our being able to sort through an endless stream of images and information.

свернуть