Ch. 6 Flashcards
Selective Attention
Perception about objects change from moment to moment. We can perceive different forms of the necker cube; however we can only pay attention to one aspect of the object at a time.
Perception
The process of organizing and interpreting sensory information, enabling us to recognize meaningful objects and events.
Cocktail Party Effect
Listening to one voice among many.
Inattentional blindness
Failing to see visible objects when our attention is directed elsewhere. ( gorilla illusion )
Change blindness
We sometimes fail to notice changes (they are blind to us), because our focus is elsewhere.
Change deafness
You fail to notice certain sound because your focus is elsewhere.
Choice blindness
You fail to notice a change in the choice that you made.
Choice blindness-blindness
A blindness to the phenomena of choice blindness.
Pop-out phenomenon
Stimuli that is so distinct that it demands our attention.
Perceptual Illusions
Illusions provide good examples in understanding. Illusions reveal the ways we normally organize and interpret our sensations.
Illusions
Reveal the way we normally organize and interpret our sensations.
Visual capture
The tendency for vision to dominate the other senses.
Gestalt
Gestalt psychologists showed that a figure formed a “whole” different than its surroundings.
Figure-Ground
The organization of the visual field into objects (the figures) that stand out from their surroundings (the ground).
Grouping
The perceptual tendency to organize stimuli into coherent groups.
Proximity
We group nearby figures together. Ex. A man and a women walking next to each other, we perceive them as a couple.
Similarity
We group together figures that are similar to each other. Ex. People that look like each other, we perceive them as family members.
Continuity
We perceive smooth, continuous patterns rather than discontinuous ones.
Connectedness
Because they are uniform and linked, we perceive the two dots and the line between them as a single unit,
Closure
We fill in the gaps to create a complete, whole object. Thus we assume that the circles are complete but partially blocked by the illusory triangle.
Depth perception
Enables us to judge distances.
Visual cliff
Laboratory device for testing depth perception in infants and young children.
Binocular cues
Depth cues such as retinal disparity and convergence, that depend on the use of two eyes.
Retinal disparity
By comparing images from the two eyeballs, the brain computes distance-the greater the disparity(distance) between the two images, the closer the object.
Convergence
A binocular cue for perceiving depth; the extent to which the eyes move inward when looking at an object. The greater the inward strain, the closer the object.
Monocular cues
Depth cues such as interposition and linear perspective, available to either eye alone.
Relative size
If two objects are similar in size, we perceive the one that casts a smaller retinal image to be farther away.
Interposition
Objects that occlude (block) other objects tend to be perceived as closer.
Relative clarity
Because light from distant objects passes through more light than closer objects, we perceive hazy objects to be farther away than those objects that appear sharp and clear.
Texture gradient
Indistinct (fine) texture signals an increasing distance.
Relative height
We perceive objects that are higher in out field of vision to be farther away than those that are lower.
Relative motion
Objects closer to a fixation point move faster and in opposing direction to those objects that are farther away from a fixation point, moving slower and in the same direction.
Linear perspective
Parallel lines such as railroad tracks, appear to converge in the distance. The more the lines converge, the greater their perspective distance.
Light and shadow
Nearby objects reflect more light into our eyes than most distance objects. Given two identical objects, the dimmer one appears to be farther away.
Phi phenomenon
An illusion of movement created when two or more adjacent lights blink on and off in quick succession.
Perceptual consistency
Prcieving objects as unchanging (having consistent lightness, color, shape, and size) even as illumination and retinal images change.
Perceptual adaptation
In vision the ability to adjust to an artificially displaced or even inverted visual field.
Perceptual set
A mental predisposition to perceive one thing and not another.
Schema
A concept of framework that organizes and interprets information.
Human factors psychology
A branch of psychology that explores how people and machines interact and how machines and physical environments can be made safe and easy to use.
Extrasensory perception (ESP)
The controversial claim that perception can occur apart from sensory input.
Parapsychology
The study of paranormal phenomena, including ESP and psychokinesis.
