Chapter 6

Question 0

Selective Attention

Answer 0

The focusing of conscious awareness on a particular stimulus, as in the cocktail party effect (your ability to attend to only one voice among many)

Question 1

Perception

Answer 1

The process of selecting, organizing, and interpreting sensory information, enabling us to recognize meaningful objects and events

Question 2

Cocktail Party Effect

Answer 2

Your ability to attend to only one voice among many

Question 3

Inattentional Blindness

Answer 3

Failing to see visible objects when our attention is directed elsewhere

Question 4

Change Blindness

Answer 4

After a brief visual interruption, you fail to notice changes in your visual field

Question 5

Change Deafness

Answer 5

The failure to notice slight changes in our auditory field

Question 6

Choice Blindness

Answer 6

The failure to notice our selection if a particular stimulus has changed

Question 7

Choice Blindness-Blindness

Answer 7

Exhibiting denial (blindness) to falling victim to a hypothetical experiment

Question 8

Pop-Out Phenomenon

Answer 8

Some stimuli are so different that they demand our attention

Question 9

Illusions

Answer 9

A perception, as of visual stimuli (optical illusion), that represents what is perceived in a way different from reality

Question 10

Visual Capture

Answer 10

The tendency for vision to dominate the other senses

Question 11

Gestalt

Answer 11

An organized whole; gestalt psychologists emphasized our tendency to integrate pieces of information into meaningful wholes

Question 12

Figure-Ground

Answer 12

The organization of the visual fields into objects (the figures) that standout from their surroundings (the ground)

Question 13

Grouping

Answer 13

The perceptual tendency to organize stimuli into coherent groups

Question 14

Proximity

Answer 14

We group nearby figures together

Question 15

Similarity

Answer 15

We group together figures that are similar to each other

Question 16

Continuity

Answer 16

We perceive smooth, continuous patterns rather than discontinuous ones

Question 17

Connectedness

Answer 17

We perceive things as a single unit

Question 18

Closure

Answer 18

We fill in gaps to create a complete, whole object

Question 19

Depth Perception

Answer 19

The ability to see objects in three dimensions although the images that strike the retina are two dimensional; allows us to judge distance

Question 20

Visual Cliff

Answer 20

A laboratory device for testing depth perception in infants and young animals

Question 21

Binocular Cues

Answer 21

Depth cues that depend on the use of two eyes

Question 22

Retinal Disparity

Answer 22

A binocular cue for perceiving depth: by comparing images from the two eyeballs, the brain computes distance - the greater the disparity (difference) between the two images, the closer the object

Question 23

Convergence

Answer 23

A binocular cue for perceiving depth; the extent to which the eyes converge inward when looking at an object - the greater the inward strain, the closer the object

Question 24

Monocular Cues

Answer 24

Depth cues available to either eye alone

Question 25

Relative Size

Answer 25

If we assume that two objects are similar in size,we perceive the one that casts the smaller retinal image as farther away

Question 26

Interposition

Answer 26

If one object partially blocks the view of another, we perceive it as closer

Question 27

Relative Clarity

Answer 27

Because light from distance objects passes through more atmosphere, we perceive hazy objects as farther away than sharp, clear objects

Question 28

Texture Gradient

Answer 28

A gradual change from a coarse, distinct texture to a fine, indistinct texture signals increasing distance. Objects far away appear smaller and more densely packed. (Light colored things appear closer than dark colored things)

Question 29

Relative Height

Answer 29

We perceive objects higher in our field of vision as farther away

Question 30

Relative Motion

Answer 30

As we move, objects that are actually stable may appear to move. The nearer the object is to you, the faster it seems to move

Question 31

Linear Perspective

Answer 31

Parallel lines appear to converge with distance. The more the lines converge, the greater their perceived distance.

Question 32

Light and Shadow

Answer 32

Nearby objects reflect more light to our eyes. Given two identical objects, the dimmer one seems farther away. Assume that lift comes from above.

Question 33

Phi Phenomenon

Answer 33

An illusion of movement created when two or more adjacent lights blink on and off in quick succession

Question 34

Stroboscopic Movement

Answer 34

The brain will perceive continuous movement in a rapid series of slightly varying images

Question 35

Perceptual Constancy

Answer 35

Perceiving objects as unchanging (having consistent lightness, color, shape, and size) even as illumination and retinal images change

Question 36

Perceptual Adaption

Answer 36

In vision, the ability to adjust to an artificially displaced or even inverted visual field

Question 37

Context Effects

Answer 37

The brain can work backward in time to allow a later stimulus to determine how we or receive an earlier one

Question 38

Perceptual Set

Answer 38

A mental predisposition to perceive one thing and not another

Question 39

Schema

Answer 39

Concepts that we form through experience that organize and interpret unfamiliar information

Question 40

Human Factor Psychologists

Answer 40

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

Question 41

Extrasensory Perception

Answer 41

The controversial claim that perception can occur apart from sensory input. Said to include telepathy, clairvoyance, and precognition

Question 42

Parapsychology

Answer 42

The study of paranormal phenomena, including ESP and psychokinesis