5.06 Perception Flashcards
the process by which your brain takes all the sensations you experience and interprets them and assigns meaning
perception
the first step in perception
attention
the phenomenon of being able to focus one’s auditory attention on a particular stimulus while filtering out a range of other stimuli, much the same way that a partygoer can focus on a single conversation in a noisy room
cocktail party effect
something that remains the same, unchanging
constancy
perceptual tendency to interpret an object as always being the same size, regardless of its distance from the viewer
size constancy
perceptual tendency to interpret the shape of an object as being constant, even when its image change on the retina
shape constancy
perceptual tendency to interpret the apparent brightness of an object as the same, even when light conditions change
brightness constancy
three important perceptual constancies
size, shape, brightness
the Gestalt tendencies are to __ objects and perceive __ shapes
group, whole
figures that seem to go back and forth between two different images
reversible images
a type of perceptual grouping that allows us to identify a figure based on its background
figure-ground organization
Gestalt principles that explains our tendency to organize isolated stimuli into groups, based on their characteristics
grouping principles
six important Gestalt grouping principles
contiguity, continuity, closure, similarity, proximity, common region
Gestalt grouping principle that suggests that objects that are close together are perceived to be part of the same group
proximity principle
Gestalt grouping principle that refers to our tendency to perceive things that look similar as being part of the same group
similarity principle
Gestalt grouping principle that refers to our tendency to perceive complete figures even if we need to “fill in” or “close” broken lines or missing parts
closure principle
Gestalt grouping principle that refers to our tendency to perceive things as having a continuous pattern, rather than a disjointed one
continuity principle
Gestalt grouping principle that refers to our tendency to perceive two things that happen close together in time as being related
contiguity principle
Gestalt grouping principle that refers to our tendency to perceive objects that are in a common area as being in the same group
common region principle
the apability to see the world in three dimensions
depth perception
experiments showing that infants can perceive depth early in life
visual cliff experiments
visual cues that help us to perceive depth and require the use of only one eye
monocular clues
seven important monocular clues
- linear perspective
- relative size
- overlap or interposition
- aerial/atmospheric perspective
- texture gradient
- motion parallax
- accommodation
monocular cue in which parallel lines to appear to converge
linear perspective
monocular cue in which objects that are small are assumed to be far away
relative size
monocular cue in which object that is blocking another object is assumed to be in front of the other object
overlap or interposition
monocular cue in which fuzzy, hazy or blurry objects are assumed to be farther away
aerial/atmospheric perspective
monocular cue in which textured surfaces appear to become smaller and finer as distance from the viewer increases
texture gradient
monocular cue in which, as the observer moves, objects close to her appear to move quickly, while objects distant from her appear to move more slowly
motion parallax
monocular cue in which the brain uses information about the changing lens to make conclusions about the distance of objects
accommodation
visual cues that help us to perceive depth and require the use of both eyes
binocular cues
two important binocular cues
convergence and binocular/retinal disparity
Our eyes come closer together to see closer objects. Our brains use this information about the __ of our eyes to judge depth.
convergence
Close your right eye, and you see one image, close your left eye, and you see the same objects slightly offset. Our brains use this information about the __ between the images to judge depth.
binocular/retinal disparity
general term for a perception that does not match reality
illusion
types of cells in the visual cortex that respond to specific features of a stimulus
feature detectors
three types of visual cortex cells identified by Hubel and Wiesel
simple cells, complex cells, end-stopped cells
feature detector cell that responds only to bars of a specific orientation
simple cells
feature detector cell that responds to orientation and movement
complex cell
feature detector cell that responds to corners, curvature and edges
end-stopped cell
an illusion that causes us to perceive a still image to be moving
autokinetic effect
occurs when a rapid series of still pictures can appear to be in motion
stroboscopic motion
an example of stroboscopic motion in which lights turned on in sequence appear to move
phi phenomenon
fast and small eye movements
microsaccades
our tendency to perceive things in a certain way based on our experiences or expectations
perceptual set or perceptual expectancy
a stimulus that can be interpreted in more than one way and is influenced by our experiences, beliefs and expectations
ambiguous figures
perceptual processing that occurs when we use preexisting knowledge to organize individual parts of what we see into a whole
top-down processing
perceptual processing that occurs when we allow the smaller parts of what we sense to drive our perception of the whole
bottom-up processing
