Chapter 6 Flashcards
Selective Attention
The focusing of conscious awareness on a particular stimulus, the cocktail party effect
Perception
Process of organizing and interpreting sensory information, enabling use to reconginize meaningful objects and events
Cocktail Party Effect
The ability to only be able to focus on one voice out of all of the others
Inattentional Blindness
Failing to see the visible objects when our attention is directed elsewhere
Change Blindness
Lack of awareness of happenings in their visual environment when there is an interruption
Change Deafness
Failure or notice a change/difference with auditory info
Choice Blindness
The failure to notice our selection of a particular stimulus has changed
Choice-Blindness Blindness
Exhibiting denial (blindness) to a falling victim to a hypothetical experiment
Pop-Out Phenomenon
Strikingly distinct stimulus which draws our eye
Illusions
A perception, as of visual stimuli (optical illusion), that represents what is perceived in a way different from reality
Visual Capture
The tendency for vision to dominate the other senses
Gestalt
An organized whole. Gestalt psychologist emphasized our tendency to integrate pieces of info into meaningful wholes
Figure-Ground
The organization of the visual field into objects (the figures) that stand out from their surroundings
Grouping
The perceptual tendency to organize stimuli into coherent groups
Proximity
Grouping nearby figures together
Similarity
Grouping together figures that are similar to each other
Continuity
Perceiving smooth, continuous patterns rather than discontinuous ones
Connectedness
Uniform and linked
Closure
Fill in gaps to create complete whole object
Depth Perception
The ability to see objects in 3-D although the images that strike the retina are 2-D, allows us to judge distance
Visual Cliff
A laboratory device for testing depth perception in infants and young animals
Binocular Cues
Depth cues, such as retinal disparity and convergence, that depend on the use of two eyes
Retinal Disparity
A binocular cud for perceiving depth: by comparing images from two eyeballs the brain computes distance, the greater the disparity (difference) between the two images, the closer the object
Convergence
A binocular cue for perceiving depth; the extent to which the eyes converge inward when looking at an object. The greater inward staring the closer the object
Monocular Cues
Depth cues such as interposition and linear perspective, a variable to either eye alone
Relative Size
Two objects similar in size, if one is smaller it must be further away
Interposition
If one object partially blocks our view of another, we perceive it as closer
Relative Clarity
We perceive hazy objects as father away than sharp clear objects
Texture Gradient
Distinct texture to a fine, in distinct texture signals increasing distance
Relative Height
We perceive objects higher in our field of vision as being farther away
Relative Motion
Motion parallax: as we move, objects that aware actually stable may appear to move
Linear Perspective
Parallel lines appear to converge with distance
Light and Shadow
Nearby objects reflect more light to our eyes, dimmer objects seem farther away
Phi Phenomenon
An allusion of movement created when two or more adjacent lights blink on and off in quick succession
Stroboscopic Movement
The brain will perceive continuous movement in a rapid series of slightly varying images
Perceptual Adaptation
In vision, the ability to adjust to an artificially displaced or even inverted visual field
Context Effects
The context (environmental factors that surround an event effecting how it is perceived
Perceptual Set
A mental predisposition to perceive one thing and not another
Schema
Concepts that organize and interpret unfamiliar info
Human Factors Psychologists
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) controversial claim that perception can occur apart from sensory input
Parapsychology
The study of paranormal phenomena including ESP and psychokinesis
