chapter 8- distortions of perception

Question 1

perceptual distortion

Answer 1

involves an inconsistency, or ‘mismatch’, between a perceptual experience and physical reality.

Question 2

visual illusion

Answer 2

a misinterpretation (distortion or mistake) of real sensory information.
It is an experience when there is a mismatch between our perception and what we understand and physical reality.

Question 3

Muller-Lyer Illusion

Answer 3

is a visual illusion in which two lines of equal length, each of which has opposite shaped ends, is incorrectly perceived as being longer than the other.

Question 4

Muller-Lyer Illusion - biological perspective

Answer 4

• emphasise the role played by our eyes, brains when we view the illusion.
• Eye movement theory proposes that the arrowheaded and feather-tailed lines require different types and/or amounts of eye movements.
• eye movement theory was rejected when researchers found that the illusion continues to be seen even when there is no eye movement at all.

Question 5

Muller-Lyer Illusion - psychological perspective

Answer 5

-emphasise the role of learning and past experience. carpentered world hypothesis.
-This explanation proposes that the illusion occurs because of its similarity to familiar architectural features in the real three-dimensional world we experience.
Our brain overrides information from the retinal images showing the two vertical lines as equal in length. Therefore, the line that appears further away (feather-tailed line) is perceived as longer.

Question 6

Muller-Lyer Illusion - social perspective

Answer 6

• role of social factors, particularly cultural influences on the perception on the illusion.
• For example, in some cultures, people have spent most of their lives in ‘non-carpentered’ worlds. those who live in tribal communities within remote areas of Africa.
• live in circular houses with roundish doors and domed roof. likely to view the lines in their actual two-dimensional forms and therefore perceive the lines as equal in length.

Question 7

Ames Room Illusion

Answer 7

-involves a trapezium-shaped room that is longer and higher on one side than the other, in which there is a misinterpretation of the size of objects within the room when viewed with one eye through a
peephole at the front.
- It is based on the unusual construction of the room, particularly the shape of the back wall

Question 8

Ames Room Illusion - apparent distance theory

Answer 8

when two retinal images are the same size, but one image appears to be at a greater distance, then the one that appears further away will be interpreted as bigger or larger.
Because the observer does not have the depth cues available to ‘work out’ the real difference in distance between the two corners, the equal-sized retinal images of the corners are interpreted as equal in size.

Question 9

Judgement of flavour

Answer 9

Flavour involves more than just taste and smell, many other senses can be involved.
number of ways in which our perception of taste and flavour can be influenced

Question 10

Flavour - Perceptual set

Answer 10

• Our expectations can influence the way we perceive different flavours.
  These form through past experience.
  Visual cues play a large role in the way we perceive flavour, whether or not we should eat something.

Question 11

Flavour - Colour intensity

Answer 11

• Colour intensity plays an important role, not just on our assessment of food, but in our prediction of the type of flavour we will experience.
• more intensely coloured foods are often expected to have more intense flavours.
• Researchers have often concluded that adding more colouring to food or drink can influence a consumer to perceive taste or flavour as more intense also (Spence, 2014).

Question 12

Flavour - Texture

Answer 12

• Texture or, in this context, the way food and drink feels in our mouth, also plays an important role in our perception of flavour.
• The impact of texture also works on our expectations. We have learned from our experiences and exposure to marketing that certain things should feel a certain way.
• Studies have found that texture of food or drinks can change the extent to which we can taste, it can become stronger or weaker depending on how thick or thin something may be.

Question 13

Synaesthesia

Answer 13

-is a perceptual experience in which stimulation of one sense produces additional unusual experiences in another sense.
-the presentation of a stimulus from one sensory system automatically triggers a perception in a second sensory system or cognitive process.
- It is extremely difficult to suppress.
• The experience is also vivid, highly memorable and consistent across time.
- eg. experience blue with the number 3

Question 14

explanation of Synaesthesia

Answer 14

• still know relatively little about synaesthesia and why it is experienced.
• Some researchers have suggested that synaesthetes are unusually sensitive to external stimuli.
• the brains of synaesthetes MAY have abnormal neural pathways or be ‘wired’ differently