Chapter 6: Perception Flashcards
Selective Attention
the focusing of conscious awareness on a particular stimulus, as in the cocktail party effect. -
Visual Capture
the tendency for vision to dominate the other senses. -
Gestalt
an organized whole - psychologists 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 (the ground). -
Grouping
the perceptual tendency to organize stimuli into coherent groups. -
Depth Perception
the ability to see objects in three dimensions although the images that strike the retina are two-dimensional; 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 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 close the object. -
Convergence
a binocular cue for perceiving depth; the extent to which the eyes converge inward when looking at an object. -
Phi Phenomenon
an illusion of movement created when two or more adjacent lights blink on and off in quick succession. -
Perceptual Constancy
perceiving 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. -
Human Factors Psychology
an applied field of study that examines human abilities, limitations, behaviors, and processes in order to inform human-centered designs; science of people at work. -
Extrasensory Perception
the controversial claim that perception can occur apart from sensory input. Said to include telepathy, clairvoyance, and precognition. -
Parapsychology
the study of paranormal phenomena, including ESP and psychokinesis. -
Proximity
a Gestalt principle of organization holding that (other things being equal) objects or events that are near to one another (in space or time) are perceived as belonging together as a unit. -
Similarity
a Getalt principle of organization holding that (other things being equal) parts of a stimulus field that are similar to each other tend to be perceived as belonging together as a unit. -
Continuity
Gestalt psychology principle which states that the observer tends to see a line or shape as continuing in a particular direction rather than making a turn. -
Closure
a Gestalt principle of organization holding that there is an innate tendency to perceive incomplete objects as complete and to close or fill gaps and to perceive asymmetric stimuli as symmetric. -
Connectedness
a Gestalt grouping principle; elements that are connected to each other group together. -
Monocular Cues
depth cues, such as interposition and linear perspective, available to either eye alone. -
Relative Size
two objects are similar in size, we perceive the one that casts the smaller retinal image as farther away. -
Texture Gradient
a graduated change in the texture, or grain, of the visual field, whereby objects with finer, less detailed textures are perceived as more distant. -
Relative Height
we perceive objects higher in our field of vision as farther away. -
Relative Motion
The perception of an observer that, as the observer moves forward, the objects that appear to him/her to move backwards faster are closer than apparently slower-moving objects; a monocular cue. -
Linear Perspective
Where converging lines meet at a vanishing point; creates a feeling of vast space. -
Relative Brightness
a monocular cue, objects up close appear brighter than objects farther away. -
Interposition
monocular visual cue in which two objects are in the same line of vision and one partially conceals the other, indicating that the first object concealed is further away. -
Relative Clarity
a monocular cue for perceiving depth; hazy objects are farther away than sharp, clear objects. -
