Perception - Gibsons Theory Flashcards
What does Gibson believe
Gibson’s theory suggests that the environment gives us all the information required for perception.
Explain ‘sufficient info for direct perception’
Sensation and perception are the same thing.
The eyes detect everything we need to judge depth, distance and movement. We don’t need past experience.
When moving, the point we are moving towards stays stationary and everything else rushes away from it.
This is detected by our eyes which tells the brain that we are moving, so we know the speed and direction that we are travelling in.
Optic flow patterns
This is another monocular depth cue which tells the brain the speed we are moving.
When we are moving, objects closer in our visual field appear to move faster than objects further away.
Motion parallax
Our ability to perceive is inborn – we don’t need to learn it.
The eyes detect fine changes in light, texture, movement and depth so we can understand distance and depth.
Influence of nature
Strength of Gibson’s theory (real world meaning)
A strength of Gibson’s theory is that it has real-world meaning.
Research was based on the experience of pilots from the Second World War.
This makes it more relevant to explain how we perceive the world on a daily basis.
Weakness of Gibson’s theory (illusions)
A weakness of Gibson’s theory is that it struggles to explain visual illusions.
Gibson proposed that we will always perceive accurately whereas illusions trick the brain into misperception.
This suggests there is more to perception than his theory suggested.
Strength of Gibson’s study (support)
A strength of Gibson’s theory comes from Gibson and Walk’s study.
They found that very few infants would crawl off a ‘visual cliff’.
This suggests that infants are born with an ability to perceive depth, which shows that some perception is innate.
