Chapter 6 Perception Flashcards
Selective Attention
The focusing of conscious awareness on a particular stimulus, as in the cocktail party effect.
Perception
The process of organizing and interpreting sensory information, enabling us to recognize meaningful objects and events.
Cocktail Party Effect
Is your ability to attend only one voice among many
Inattentional Blindness
The failing to see visible objects when our attention is directed elsewhere.
Change Blindness
Inattentional blindness (gorilla / girls / passing ball)
Change Deafness
You fail to notice a certain sound, because your focus is elsewhere.
Choice Blindness
You fail to notice a change in the choice that you made.
Ex: showing which faces are attractive then switching them
Choice-Blindness Blindness
A blindness to the phenomena of choice blindness.
Pop-out Phenomenon
Stimuli that is so distinct that it demands our attention.
Illusions
Reveal the ways that we normally organize or interpret our sensations.
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 (figures) that stand out from their surroundings (ground).
Grouping
The perceptual tendency to organize stimuli into coherent groups.
Proximity
We group nearby objects together. We see not 6 separate lines, but 3 sets of 2 lines.
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Similarity
We group together figures that are similar to each other.
Continuity
We perceive smooth, continuous patterns rather than discontinuous ones.
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Connectedness
We perceive the 2 dots and the line between them as a single unit. ⚫️–⚫️ ⚫️—⚫️ ⚫️—⚫️
Depth Perception
The ability to see objects in 3 dimensions although the images that strike the retina are 2 dimentional, allow us to judge distance.
Visual Cliff
A lab device used 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 2 eyes.
Retinal Disparity
The brain computes distance - the greater the disparity (distance) between the 2 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.
Monocular Cue
Depth cues, such as interposition and linear percepective, available to either eye alone.
Relative Size
In judging distance, the one that casts the smaller retinal image is perceived as further away.
Interposition
If one object partially blocks our view of another, we perceive it as closer.
Relative Clarity
We perceive hazy objects as farther away than sharp, clear objects.
Ex: car in fog/snow
Texture Gradient
A gradual change from a coarse, distinct texture to a fine, indistinct texture signals increasing distance.
Relative Height
We perceive objects higher in our field of vision as farther away.
Relative Motion
As we move, objects that are actually stable may appear to move.
Ex: On a bus looking at a house
Linear Perspective
Parallel lines, such as railroad tracks appear to converge with distance.
Light and Shadow
Nearby objects reflect more light to our eyes.
Phi Phenomenon
An illusion of movement when 2 or more adjacent lines blink on and off in quick succession.
Stroboscopic Effect
Continuous movement in a rapid series of slightly varying images.
Perceptual Constancy
Perceiving objects as unchanging (having consistent lightness, color, shape & size) even as illumination and retinal images changes.
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 Psychologists
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
The controversial Claim that perception can occur apart from sensory input.
Parapsychology
The study of paranormal phenomena, including ESP and psychokinesis.
Schemas
Concepts that organize and interpret unfamiliar information.
