Chapter 8: Distortions of Perception Flashcards
What is perceptual distortion?
Involves an inconsistency or ‘mismatch’ between a perceptual experience and visual reality.
What is a visual illusion?
A consistent misinterpretation (distortion or mistake) of real sensory info.
What is the Muller-Lyer illusion?
A visual illusion in which 1 of 2 lines of equal length, each with opposite shaped ends, is incorrectly perceived as being longer than the other.
What is the biological perspective of the Muller-Lyer illusion?
Caused by the eye itself and the failure of the brain to properly process differing info about eye movements.
What is the psychological perspective of the Muller-Lyer illusion? Give an example:
Explanations emphasise the role of learning and past experience because the illusion contradicts what we have learned throughout our life.
Eg. Size constancy being used incorrectly
What is the social perspective of the Muller-Lyer illusion?
Research studies conducted have focused on the role of social factors, particularly cultural influences on the Muller-Lyer illusion.
Eg. Isolated cultures such as the Zulus can correctly perceive the lines to be of equal length because they have limited experience with angles and corners.
What is the Ames Room illusion?
A trapezium-shaped room that is longer and higher on one side than the other. When viewed through a peephole at the front of the room with only one eye, the room appears rectangular (use of only monocular vision)
What is flavour? List some influences:
A perceptual experience produced by a combination of taste, smell, texture, visual sensations (how it looks), and auditory info (sounds heard).
What is perceptual set?
The flavour we experience is influenced by expectations based on preconceived ideas about how foods and drinks should taste.
What is colour intensity?
More intense colour is associated with more intense flavour.
-Changing the intensity of colour can have a dramatic impact on our expectations and therefore taste and flavour.
What is texture?
The property of food that is felt in the mouth.
What is synaesthesia?
A perceptual experience where the stimulation of one sense involuntarily produces additional unusual experiences in another sense.
-The experience associated with the additional sense ‘adds’ to the overall perceptual experience without replacing the initial sense.
