The Framework of Perceptual Significance - How perception becomes meaning
When environment, resonance, context, and value cohere perception transforms into significance.
Some experiences stay with us.
A scent caught in passing. A quiet street corner at dusk. A worn object that feels inexplicably alive.
Others fade before they even register.
Why, though?
Why does the same moment, image, or melody feel profound in one situation, yet invisible in another?
This question has followed me through my research on the Attuned Perception Framework (APF), my ongoing study of how environments shape mood, clarity, and well-being.
At first, I explored how resonance arises through environmental conditions: light, sound, texture, or atmosphere. But soon another truth emerged.
Resonance, I realized, doesn’t exist in isolation.
It depends on both the environment in which it appears and the context through which it is understood.
From resonance to significance
Perception is never a single act.
It unfolds through several intertwined forces, each shaping how we experience, interpret, and remember the world.
At its root lies resonance: the felt response that arises when something touches us. Yet resonance alone does not explain why certain moments endure, yet others vanish. What gives an experience its lasting weight are the forces that surround it, the ones that shape how perception becomes meaning.
🌿 Environment — the sensory field that sets the tone of experience.
💫 Resonance — the felt echo that arises when perception and self align.
📜 Context — the story or framing that gives continuity and understanding.
💎 Value — the recognition that transforms feeling into shared or symbolic worth.
When these four dimensions come into coherence, we experience significance — where perception, emotion, and interpretation merge into meaning. This insight led to the creation of the Framework of Perceptual Significance (FPS), which shows how environment, resonance, context, and value influence meaningful experiences.
A bridge between sensing and understanding
The Framework of Perceptual Significance extends the APF by linking sensory awareness to interpretation.
It draws on research from environmental psychology, neuroaesthetics, phenomenology, semiotics, and narrative identity, demonstrating how perception becomes meaning through both feeling and framing.
In practical terms, FPS can be applied anywhere people shape experience:
in museums, design, education, architecture, healthcare, or digital worlds.
In the creation or interpretation of environments, coherence is essential for establishing resonance and ensuring lasting impact.
Why it matters
In a time of constant motion and sensory noise, paying attention to coherence may be one of the most important forms of care.
This reminds us that meaning is not only found in what we perceive, but in how we encounter it and how we choose to frame it.
Several years ago, I came across the Significant Objects project, a social experiment that revealed how stories can profoundly change the perceived value of ordinary things. In it, simple, inexpensive items were paired with short fictional narratives, and their worth increased dramatically because meaning had been attached.
That idea stayed with me. Around the same time, I spoke with an acquaintance, Philip Bree, founder of PB0110, about his philosophy of beloved objects — items that gain significance through use, care, and continuity.
Both perspectives illuminated what I would later formalize through FPS:
that value is never purely material. It emerges through context, resonance, and relationship, a subtle alignment of story, perception, and emotional connection.
If you’d like to know more about FPS you can read the full paper here:
🔗 The Framework of Perceptual Significance (working paper)
Reflection
Where do you notice significance emerging in your own life or work?
And what happens when the coherence between feeling, story, and setting falls away?
Further reading
📚 Significant Objects — A social experiment exploring how storytelling influences perceived value: significantobjects.com
👜 Beloved Objects (PB0110) — On the emotional continuity of well-made things: pb0110.de/blogs/news
About the photo
This is why environments matter: I took the photo for this post at an open-air exhibition in Welsede, Germany (Sep 14, 2025), where my wife and I met Dutch artist Elly Dijkshoorn, whose art was on display at an old barn. It was a perfect setting because the wall where her art was hung wasn’t just a backdrop, but actually mirrored and extended her work, as if the space itself was part of the composition.
This fits so well with what my framework explores:
That context and resonance emerge not just from what we see, but how it’s placed, where it happens, and how we meet it.