Chapter 6 - Perception Flashcards
What affect people’s perception?
Internal factors such as:
- personal experiences
- personality
External factors such as:
- stimuli from external environment
- context in which they operate
People’s perception play an important part in:
What they remember about other people
What is important to remember about our experiences in the world?
It is highly subjective
People continuously attempt to understand and make sense of the info received from the environment. How is this achieved?
People select, organise (group and categorise) and interpret the info
How is the probability that objects and events are detected enhanced?
By our SENSES that are designed to function together + our BRAIN is able to organise info it derives from the various sensory channels.
What is the definition of perception?
The psychological experience resulting from stimulation of senses or sensation
What is sensations?
Receiving new or raw data and stimulation of the sense organs
How is perception different to sensation?
Perception is the active process of selection, organisation and interpretation or giving meaning to sensory stimulation
What is transduction?
The process of converting
sensory stimuli and related info
into neural impulses or internal signals
that give psychological meaning to sensations
Sensory awareness and perception is essential for?
Observing
Interpreting
Giving meaning to work instructions, conditions, tasks and co-workers
What does the perceptual process involve?
Being aware or conscious
of ourselves, others, our environments and the world at large
and giving meaning to awareness
What is psychophysics?
The study and measuring of the perceptual processes
When does a sensation start?
The moment a person becomes aware of or obtain info about themselves and environment through sense receptors in the 5 senses and internal body tissues
In perception, what does the senses receive from inside the person or external environment?
Physical energy or stimulus
After or whist becoming aware, that happens to explain perception?
It is a cognitive process
happening in the human body and mind
to select, analyse, organise, interpret and understand
sensory stimuli and impressions (sensations)
from environment
Besides the 5 human senses, we identify 2 more proprioceptive senses. What are they?
Proprioceptive senses - body movement and position
1) VESTIBULAR sense - sense of gravity and movement to determine body position in space
2) KINESTHESIA - orientates person to position of limbs and other body parts relative to each other - essential for moving
What process follows the stimulation of senses?
Active selection, organisation and interpretation
Perceptual interpretation involves highly complex neural processes. Which part of the brain does this consume?
A substantial part of the cerebral cortex
Interpretation is based on 6 factors. What are they?
1) mental model / frames of reference
2) past experiences
3) assumptions about human nature
4) our expectations about people, things and events
5) mood at the moment
6) our tendency for closure
Is perception possible without sensation?
No
How do people react to sensory stimuli?
Instinctively and subconsciously
Sensory aspects of a product can influence consumers in what ways? Give 4 examples.
Impulse buying
More time spent at the store
Longer viewing time
More money spent
Which sense is most important in our evaluation or appreciation of products?
Touch
Although sensory abilities of awareness and perceptual processes are more or less the same 3 differences in people do ensure a selective, unique process for each individual. What are they?
GENETIC differences
BIOLOGICAL differences
PSYCHOLOGICAL differences
The differences in perception resulting from genetic and biological processes are also influences by 4 factors. What are they?
Environmental learning
Illness
Substance use
Physical handicaps
Biological processes of perception are shaped by?
People’s previous physical, social and emotional experiences
Also by how people interact and communicate.
Psychophysics examines the relationships between?
attributes of actual stimuli
attributes of observed stimuli (sensation)
psychological perceptual experience (perception)
and the reason for these relationships
Psychophysics determines whether we always experience?
What we become aware of through our senses
Vision is classified as what stimulus?
Electromagnetic energy
Hearing is classified through which stimulus?
Air pressure waves
Touch is classified through which stimulus?
Tissue distortion
Balance is classified through which stimulus?
Gravity acceleration
Taste and smell is classified through which stimulus?
Chemical composition
Which receptor picks up vision?
Photo receptors
Which receptor picks up hearing?
Mechano receptors
Which receptors picks up touch?
Mechano receptors
Which receptors picks up balance?
Mechano receptors
Which receptors picks up taste and smell?
Chemo receptors
Which sensory structure registers touch and balance?
Vestibular organs
Where in the brain is vision recorded?
Primary visual cortex
Were in the brain is hearing recorded?
Auditory cortex
Where in the brain is touch and balance recorded?
Temporal cortex
Where in the brain is taste and smell recorded?
Taste - primary taste cortex
Smell - olfactory cortex
Which German scientist was an important contributor to Psychophysics?
Gustav Fechner
Fechner’s techniques in Psychophysics opened the door to ?
Scientific study of the mind
What is a threshold?
The weakest detectable stimulus of any given sense.
It is the dividing point between energy levels
that have a detectable effect
and those that do not.
What is threshold also known as?
Liken
What is an Absolute Threshold?
The smallest unit or minimum amount of stimulation that an organism can detect.
This differ from person to person, even for the same person under different situations.
Researchers define an absolute threshold as?
The stimulus intensity that is detected 50% of the time.
What disturbances can influence a persons’s perceptual threshold?
Environmental disturbances like noise and poor light
How many odors can human normally perceive and recognise?
5000
What is the value that is used as standard to express the strength and weakness of an odour?
Olfactory threshold
What is JND Just-noticeable difference also known as?
Difference or differential threshold
What is JND / Just-noticeable difference?
It is the smallest difference in amount of stimulation between stimuli that human sense can detect.
It is the minimum quantity by which stimulus intensity must be modified in order to acquire a distinguishable variation
What is “Weber’s Law”?
The size of a just-noticeable difference is a constant proportion of the size of the initial stimulus
What did Weber detect in his experiments that led to his law?
In general as stimuli increase in magnitude
the JND becomes larger.
This implies that to be perceived as different
2 stimuli must differ by a constant minimum % (proportion) rather than a constant amount
Why is JND useful for marketers?
So they can determine the amount of change they should make in their products to avoid losing the readily recognisable aspects of their products.
What stimuli do scientists who study psychophysics regard as signals?
Sounds and flashes of light
What does the “signal-detection” theory say?
The threshold for detecting a stimulus
such as its intensity (eg loudness)
but also
the level of background stimulation ( or noise)
and the biological and psychological characteristics of the reveiver
What do some perceptual psychologists believe that the ability to interpret sensory experience represent?
A form of problem solving based on 2 categories of simultaneous mental processes.
These 2 categories are:
Bottom-up processes
Top-down processes
What are bottom-up processes in signal detection?
Those that register and integrate sensory info
In signal detection, what is necessary to recognise patterns and objects?
Both bottom-up and bottom-down processing
What happens in the Top-down processes of signal detection?
Existing knowledge and impressions are used to interpret info
Emphasis is put on the observer’s concepts, expectations and prior knowledge eg Rich people drive Porsche cars.
What is subliminal perception?
This occurs when stimuli are presented below the threshold of awareness.
The term subliminal perception was originally used to describe situations in which weak stimuli wee perceived without awareness.
What is sensory adaptation?
It refers to the gradual decline in sensitivity to a stimulus as a consequence of prolonged or constant stimulation.
Sensory adaptation occurs in all five senses. How would it be relevant to the sense of light?
Dark adaptation - electricity goes out, now vision need to adapt to candle light
Light adaptation - where eyes become less sensitive to light in high illumination.
Which part of the brain is involved in the perception of pain?
The thalamus
Where in the brain is emotions relating to pain stored?
The limbic system.
Which system helps the body adapt to balance in sensory adaptation?
The proprioceptive system
What does the Gate-Control Theory by Melzack and Wall propose?
That the spinal cord
contains a neurological “gate”
that blocks pain signals or allow them to pass on to the brain.
Gate open - activity of pain signals go up small nerve fibres
Gate closed - activity in larger fibres or by info from brain.
This opening and closing determines whether pain is felt or not.
In visual perception we constantly try to make sense of all the images we are bombarded with. What 3 processes happens instantly?
Selection
Organisation
Interpretation
In visual perception through selective attention many aspects determine what we place our focus on. CONTRAST particularly influences this process. Name a few examples:
- we are attracted to larger things against a smaller background and vice versa
- things that move against a still background and vice versa
- things that repeat
- things that are familiar in a strange environment
What advantage does Selective Attention have?
It allows one to maximise the info gained from one source
Eg. Student in lecture not being distracted by yawns from other students
What is Attention Fluctuation in perception?
It is a way in which people deal with the challenges of dividing attention between different tasks.
It also explains why a surgeon will notice an imperfect nose more readily than an engineer.
What is the Stoop Effect?
This is when some people are incapable of ignoring information.
Eg. Struggle to read letters spelling a colour printed in a diff colour.
Gestalt psychologists believe there are 2 main visual components necessary for a person to see an object properly. What are they?
A figure (object) Ground (background)
Who first introduced the concept of figure-and-ground in visual perception?
Edgar Rubin (Danish)
What is the main premise of Gestalt perspective (in visual perception)?
The whole is more than the sum of its parts
What are the Gestalt laws of perceptual organisation?
Simply a series of rules
that specify
how people organise and interpret small parts
into wholes
and how these visual elements are grouped into higher-order figures
What is a “good” Gestalt?
A form or shape that is perceived as meaningful
What does the Law of Pragnanz say?
People tend to organise elements in the most basic or simplest way to “make sense”
Eg. People see a train transporting a variety of white cars and assume therefore that people only want white cars.
What is the Gestalt Law LAW OF PROXIMITY?
Objects close to each other are more likely perceived as a unit or pattern.
This not only apply to visual stimuli but various types of info.
Eg. You may perceive a fire to have been started by agrigators because at that time riots are rife
What is the Gestalt LAW OF SIMILARITY?
Indicate that objects similar to each other are perceived as belonging together as a unit
Eg. In a supermarket all the men in suits are perceived as being”professionals”
What is the Gestalt LAW OF CONTINUITY?
People tend to perceive smooth, continuous wholes rather than discontinued fragments.
The tendency to perceive objects that follow the same directional pattern as grouped together
What is the Gestalt LAW OF CLOSURE?
If enough of a shape or enough info is indicated people are most likely to perceive something as complete. (Ignoring gaps)
Eg. well dressed well-spoken candidate perceived as being right for the job even before capability is checked.
What is the Gestalt LAW OF SYMMETRY?
Indicates that a stimulus situation is perceived as a balanced whole.
Eg. The arrangement of furniture in an office
What is the Gestalt LAW OF COMMON FATE?
Also called Law of Simultaneous Movement
Move or function in a similar manner will be perceived as a unit.
Eg hundreds of fish swimming in same direction is a unit. If some fish break away this will be seen as another unit
All the laws of perceptual organisation use the?
Minimum principle. Your eyes see that what is simplest to see.
Except when one is reading, most of visual activity requires looking at objects that are?
Solid
Have depth
Have distance dimensions
With depth and distance perception is divided into 2 categories. What are they?
Monocular cues - can see with 1 eye
Binocular cues - using both eyes
What is the phi phenomenon?
It is part of the perception of movement or motion.
Flashing lights in precision co-ordination to seem as if they are moving.
Eg neon signs
What is induced movement?
In the perception of movement or motion - when a stationary object is seen against a moving background - it may seem as if the object is moving.
There are 2 theories on colour vision. One is the TRICHROMATIC THEORY. What is it?
We have 3 different sensors for colour and each sensor reacts to a different rage of wavelengths of light.
The tremendous rage of colour we can see is due to the many ways in which these sensors can be activated in combination with one another.
There are 2 theories on colour vision. The alternative other is OPPONENT PROCESS THEORY. What is it?
3 sets of colour pairs inhibit one another in our perception of colour. Opposing Coloured (on the colour wheel) is inhibited.
Eg. Red inhibits the the perception of green
The trichromatic and opponent process theories combined explain?
Colour blindness
What is ESP / Extrasensory perception?
6th sense
Perception that is not based on sensation
Also called psi (term mostly used)
It is the unusual process of info or energy transfer that are currently unexplained
A number of consistencies have been identified in perception. What are they?
SIZE constancy - house seems large from close or far
SHAPE constancy - object shape stays same eg CD does become oval shaped when seen from an angle
LIGHTNESS AND COLOUR constancy - eg black shoes keep looking black in daylight and artificial light
There are 2 types of illusions. What are they?
Physical process
Cognitive process
What is the Carpentered World Theory?
It suggests that people mostly are used to seeing things that are rectangular in shape and unconsciously expect things to have square corners.
What is the FRONT-HORIZONTAL FORESHORTENING THEORY?
It suggests that people tend to interpret vertical lines as horizontal lines extending into the distance
Both optical illusion theories (carpentered world and front-horizontal foreshortening) have 2 ideas in common. What are they?
1) the way we see the world is developed over time through our experiences
2) we live in a 3 dimensional world that is projected onto our eyes as 2 dimensional
What 3 factors influence perceptions?
The perceiver
The perceived object’s characteristics
The situation and culture
What is a Schema in impression formation?
A generalised idea about a frequently encountered object, event or person
What is a Person Schema?
Consists of bits of info about a person, organised into a coherent picture.
In this way people are labelled eg. Materialists
What is a self-schema?
A cognitive framework of the way one sees oneself
Eg ambitious
What is an event Schema or scripts?
Generalised expectation about how one should behave in particular situations
And the sequence in which the behaviour should occur
Eg. How an office meeting should occur
What is the Primacy Effect in perception?
The tendency for early info to be considered more important than later info.
What is an important but product of the primacy effect?
The self-fulfilling prophecy
What is the Self-fulfilling prophecy about?
It operates in situations where one’s expectations about someone lead him/her to act in ways that confirm our original expectation.
What is the Pygmalion effect?
It is a form of self-fulfilling prophecy which explains how perception expectation tends to affect performance.
Eg. Student performing better than others simply because teachers have more positive expectations of them
What is stereotyping in the context of perception?
It is a normal cognitive process that saves the time and effort required to understand people individually
Explain the halo effect.
When one draws a general impression
about a person
based on a single characteristic
such as intelligence or appearance
Explain the contrast effect.
It is a distortion in perception because one does not evaluate somebody in isolation.
Eg. Interviewee being perceived as better because the previous candidate was mediocre.
What is projection in terms of perceptions?
Attributing one’s own feelings, thoughts or motives to other people.
Projective techniques are useful when respondents are unable or unwilling to respond to direct questions.
When does intergroup bias occur?
When an individual
observes the actions of one or more members of another social group
and attributes them to the characteristics of that group
Explain the out-group Homogeneity Effect.
Out-group members are not only seen as being diff from the in-group
but also seen as
being more similar to each other
and more interchangeable with each other
Explain Social Identity Theory.
People need to maintain their self-esteem by associating themselves with a group that reflects some aspects of themselves.
They then view the group as positive as possible in order to make themselves feel better
What is Selective Perception in person perception?
It allows one to "speed-read" others But one runs the risk of forming inaccurate impressions and confirming one's negative expectations of others
What is the Attribution Theory about?
It assists in how people perceive the causes of events, determine responsibility for outcomes and evaluate the personal qualities of the persons involved
The belief that there are causes for everything that happens is an inherent part of observing the world
because it makes the world mor meaningful
What are Attributions in perception?
Are inferences that people draw about the cause of events
other’ behaviour
and their own behaviour
When are people more likely to make attributions?
When unusual events catch their attention
According to Heider, one generally offers 2 types of explanations about why things happen. What are they?
Internal or external attributions
Internal - causality to factors inside the person
External - causality to an outside agent or force
Determining whether the cause of a behaviour is external or internal depends largely on three factors:
Distinctiveness - how does the person’s behaviour vary across situations or with other people?
Consensus - how does the person’s behaviour compare with that of other people in the same situation?
Consistency - how does the person behave at diff times in diff situations?
Weiner proposed 4 types of attribution for success and failure. What are they?
1) internal-stable (excellent ability)
2) internal-unstable (substantial effort to assemble a superb CV)
3) external-stable (lack of strong competition)
4) external-unstable (good luck)
What other 2 names are the Fundamental Attribution Error also known as?
Correspondence Bias
Overattribution effect
Explain the Fundamental attribution error.
Its the tendency in people to overestimate internal factors such as a person's traits or attitudes and to underestimate the situational factors in explained behaviour.
A related form of cognitive bias is called the Ultimate Attribution Error, explain.
When members of an out-group
do something positive - it is attributed to luck or some other external cause.
Yet we attribute their negative behaviour to an internal cause such as dishonesty.
What is the Actor-observer Effect?
It is the tendency
for the “actor” (person performing the behaviour)
to attribute the behaviour to the situation
and for the “observer” (the person watching) to attribute the same behaviour to the actor’s disposition.
Actor-observer bias is true for most people except?
People who are depressed
Have low self esteem
Or view themselves negatively
What is Self-serving Bias?
The tendency to distort attributions
about one’s own behaviour
to make oneself look good.
Prejudice includes 3 components. What are they?
Beliefs
Emotions
Behavioural dispositions (eg not wanting to appoint a woman)
Prejudice may lead to:
Discrimination
The similarity-attraction paradigm is based on the idea of Homophily. What is this?
People’s tendency to interact with people they perceive to be similar to them
What is Functional conflict?
Considered positive.
Enhances performance and identifies weakness
What is Dysfunctional Conflict in interpersonal conflict?
Confrontation or interaction between groups that harms the organisation or hinders the attainment of goals or objectives
What is the Authoritarian Personality?
It refers to people who accept authority figures unquestioningly. They believe strongly in obedience and respect for authority.
Through the Sociocultural learning approach, prejudice is learned through?
Socialisation
Assimilation and contrast are associated with social categorisation. What is it?
Assimilation - seeing people in one’s own group as being more similar than they are.
Contrast - seeing people in other groups as being more diff than they are.
There are 3 ways in reducing prejudice and discrimination. What are they?
Education
Intergroup contact
Legislation
