# Helmholtz's theory of unconscious inference
This is one of the Multiple approaches to perception listed in Goldstein, Cognitive Psychology. I got confused because it uses the word inference, see What is the difference in between perception, inference, judgement?.
Based on this approach, Helmholtz theorise that we perceive objects unconsciously based on our past experiences. This idea seems to be the related to System 1.
Also associated with the likelihood principle.
# References
Goldstein, Cognitive Psychology (p. 62).
This judgement of what is most likely occurs, according to Helmholtz by a process called unconscious inference, in which our perceptions are the result of unconscious assumptions, or inferences, that we make about the environment.