Plain English Meaning

Everything you are aware of right now. When you are calm, you notice a lot. When you are stressed or scared, your awareness shrinks down to just a few things.

Full Definition

The full range of stimuli a person is taking in and processing at any given moment, including sights, sounds, sensations, and information from instruments. The size of this field expands or narrows depending on workload, stress, and threat level.

Context Anchor

Seen in human factors and instructor discussions about how pilots react to threat, stress, and high-workload situations.

Derivation

From Latin percipere meaning 'to take in fully' and field meaning 'an area of view or activity.' So perceptual field literally means 'the area of what you are taking in.'