body senses and perception Flashcards
what is kinesthesis?
feedback about the muscle and joint positions
receptors for this kinesthetic sense are?
nerve endings in muscles, joints and tendons
what does the vestibular system provide?
information related to the sense of balance or spatial orientation
what are the three semicircular canals that contain receptors for head movement?
left/right, backwards/forwards and up/down
what are vestibular sacs?
respond to body position, indicate upright or at an angle
what is bottom-up processing?
relatively automatic analysis of individual elements of stimulus which are combined into a unified whole
(typically relates to basic stimuli properties)
what is top-down processing?
modulating role of existing knowledge, concepts, ideas, expectations that affect how things are perceived and interpreted
(putting the pieces together and interpreting the meaning of them)
what are the two primary roles for attention?
focusing and filtering
what is inattentional blindness?
situations in which we fail to notice things that are right in front of us
what is change blindness?
situations in which we fail to notice what may be considered relatively obvious changes
many gestalt laws of perceptual organization predict how we perceive stimuli, what four factors does this include?
similarity, proximity, closure and continuity
what is similarity?
grouping by feature
what is proximity?
grouping by closeness
what is closure?
close/open edges, boundaries
what is continuity?
elements linked to form a continuous line
what is figure-ground?
must be separated to interpret stimuli
what is the ground?
typically not the focal point of the scene
what is the figure?
distinct shape, typically the focal point
what are perceptual schemas?
mental representation or image with which we compare stimuli to for us to recognize things
what do perceptual schemas rely on?
prior knowledge, experience, expectations, etc
what are perceptual constancies?
our tendency to recognize objects perceived in slightly different contexts as being the same
what are monocular cues?
visually-based information that can be interpreted with a single eye, and are used to help us judge size and distance
what are some examples of monocular cues?
light and shadows, linear perspective, interposition, texture, height on a horizontal plane, clarity, relative size
what are binocular cues?
visually-based information that can only be interpreted using both eyes, and are used to help us judge size and distance
what is binocular disparity?
slight differences in visual information related to the same object reach each eye, the amount of difference tells us about the difference
what is convergence?
our eyes get closer together when we look at objects that are closer to us, and feedback from our ocular muscles help us keep track of how close or far apart things are
what is a cue that can lead to the perception of motion?
movements of image across our retina
what is the phi phenomenon?
we also sometimes perceive apparent motion (we can perceive cartoons and moving figures)
what is the false perceptual hypothesis?
we make incorrect assumptions about some aspect/property of stimuli
what is the ponzo illusion?
monocular depth cues (converging lines) suggest to us that the thick black line is father away, but they are the same length
