sensory and perception Flashcards
Sensation:
sensory signals reaching the detectors in our bodies, reaching our brain (light waves hitting retina, sound waves hitting eardrum)
Perception:
process by which the brain selects, organizes, and interprets the sensory information that it receives from the sense organs
What we perceive is not sometimes what our body sense
Our brain is sometimes interpreting the stimulus that is not what it actually is
Prior experience has impact on perception-> cultural experience should matter too
Reliable differences in:
Susceptibility to optical illusions
Pictorial depth perception
Object vs.field focus
Susceptibility to optical illusions
Optical illusions reflect different aspects of physical environment
Differences in physical environment-> differences in susceptibility
Ie : carpentered world hypothesis
Horizontal-vertical illusion:
For many people, vertical line looks longer than horizontal line
Foreshortening hypothesis:
Higher susceptibility to horizontal-vertical illusion for people who reside in more “open environment”
For people in open environments they recognize that when vertical line extends into horizon, it doesn’t end it keeps going
When you see vertical line going further away, you assume that it goes further away, so you add length to it in your head, even though there is no more length
depth cues
1)relative size of objects
2)object superimposition
3)vertical position
4)linear perspective
5)texture gradient
1)The relative size of objects
Objects that are closer to us are bigger than objects further away
2)object superimposition
Objects that are closer to us is superimposed onto the object that’s farther away from us, covering the object
The person covering is closer to us than the person being covered
3)vertical position
Objects that are higher up on a 2-D medium, we tend to perceive as being further away from us
4)linear perspective
When you have 2 parallel lines and put them on a 2-d medium, they recede into a vanishing point into the distance to show depth
Linear perspective is the view of viewer
Vanishing point used to draw your attention to something
5)a texture gradient
There is more detail when something is closer to us and the texture becomes grainer when something becomes further and further away from us
Western education’s promotion of sensitivity to depth cues becomes at a young age kids are taught to draw drawings that show a lot of depth cues
one way to test western promotion of depth cues
Seeing how quickly people interpret the “impossible figure” (ie: two prong trident: there are 3 prongs but visually it only looks like theres 2)
impossible figure results of the 3 prongs
Exposure to western education have more difficulty interpreting impossible figure
~~It requires much more time copying the figure
Non western people see this image as just curves and lines not so much depth, so they are able to copy the image more quickly with fewer errors
Differences across cultural environments not just seen in isolated examples
differences in perspective on 2-d medium
one point perspective and oblique perspective
One point perspective
Everything goes into one vanishing point
Oblique perspective(not in perspective):
everything drawn in parallel lines
horizons:
Cultural differences in where horizon is placed (some cultures have clear horizon, some cultures don’t)
Focus on “object” vs “field”
People from different cultural environments tend to differ on focusing on focal object vs. the field around the focal object (ie: rod and frame task)
Holistic thinking
Perceive scenes and situations as integrated whole, paying more attention to the context
Tend to exhibit more field dependence: tendency to attend to the context that surrounds focal object and relationships among objects in the environment
Exhibited in people in collectivism/interdependence
Analytic thinking
Perceive objects focusing on specific elements rather than contexts, and use fixed abstract rules to explain and predict behavior
Field independence: tendency to separate focal object from its environment and attend to attributes of the focal object
Exhibited in individualism/independence
Researchers went to museums around the world and measured how high up horizons are from the bottom
european/western paintings: Horizons don’t go up more than one third from bottom
East asian painting: horizons are more than half way up the painting
european/western drawings: the horizon around 56.37% up from painting
East asian drawing:horizon up 67.16% from painting
Art pieces drawn by children:
Conclusion: cross cultural differences are more exaggerated for professional painting, but not so much across everyday folks, but there is still a difference seen
Higher horizons
more space to show relations and connects between more objects
More indicative of holistic thinkers
~~Attribution, dialecticism, categorization
Analytic thinking style-
more focus on internal, disposition attributions (someone did something because of who they are)
Ie if server was bad, they blame the server
Holistic thinking style-
more focus on external, contextual information, making situational attributions (someone did something because they were compelled to because of situational factors)
If server was bad, they might think the restaurant is busy, the kitchen staff are busy, etc
Fundamental attribution error:
tendency to put too much focus on someone’s internal disposition as attributions for one’s behavior, underestimating impact of external/contextual factors
Despite explicit external constraints
Associated with analytic thinking style
Dispositional and situational attribution made by children and adults in US and india
Participants in india make more situational attributions, but American participants make more dispositional attributions
Conclusion: some sort of socialization seems to be driving force for this
Analytic thinking style:
focus on internal traits and dispositions
Leads to tendency to categorize objects based on common traits
More characteristic of children from US
Grouped based on shared characteristics
More likely to group the husband and wife together in a family of 3
Holistic thinking style
focus on relationships between objects
Leads to tendency to categorize objects based on their connections and relationships
More characteristic of children from china and many indigenous groups
Groups based on relationships
More likely to group the mother and child together in a family of 3
Dialecticism:
Thinking style also affects perceptions of patterns and relationships in the world
Contradiction:
Things that are opposite to each other
Suggest that one is correct the other is incorrect
These are inconsistent with each other
1)Law of identity: whatever is, is
Each thing has its own attributes and characteristics
Ie: apple is an apple bc it has these characteristics
x=x
2)law of noncontradiction
Can be no acceptance of contradictions
Nothing can both be and not be
Only one statement can be true, not both-mutually exclusive
3)law of excluded middle
Everything must either be or not be
All possible outcomes must be included in contradictory statements
No third option
One of these must be true-collectively exhaustive(must account for all possible outcomes)
Tolerance for contradiction: naive dialecticism
East asian tradition has relatively higher acceptance of contradictions
Naive dialecticism Based on 3 principles
Principle of change: reality is a changing process, reality is not static
Principle of contradiction:because change is constant, contradiction is constant, opposite poles complement and depend on each other for existence
Ie A=b, A can also not = b
Principle of relationship: bc change and contradiction are constant, everything is related, and can’t be isolated into independent elements
Knowledge gap
we have a gap of knowledge between what we have and what we think we have
Desirability gap
theres a gap between what we have and what we want to have
Action gap
how do we take these gaps and do something about it
Income inequality
uneven distribution of income within a population
Wealth inequality
Uneven distribution of assets within a population (ie: income, property, cars, business)
Health and social problems are worse in more wealth unequal countries
More teenage births, more menta illness, lessl ife expectancy
U.S. has the worst and highest income inequality
Authoritarianism:
obedience to authority figures
Intolerance of minorities
Support for more aggressive use of military force
More likely to condone illegal government behavior
Greater the income inequality, greater the power differential in society
Greater experience with power difference, greater its acceptance, perceived naturalness
More acceptance of authoritarismism->
more fatalism(thought that things are inevitable) about one’s situation (people feel like they don’t need to worry or they are helpless)
This breeds less political engagement amongst those with less power:
Less political interest
Less political discussion
Less electoral participation
Leads to Greater political inequality
Difference SES->
differences in behavior and psychological tendencies
The rich:
Have independent self construal
High Dispositional attributions
High Sense of personal control
High Unethical behavior
The poor:
Interdependent self construal
High Situational attributions
High Empathy and help behavior
Less engagement with/benefit from edu and occ opportunities
This is because in these opportunities, most people are going to be middle class, therefore lower class don’t feel seen or belong in these positions
People with lower socioeconomic status->
more likely to engage in behavior that are perceived to exacerbate situation
people with lower socioeconomic status:
More present-oriented, less future-oriented, more pessimistic about future than higher SES
Greater external mortality risk
More likely to die from external harmful triggers
Greater impulsivity, behaviors that are immediately beneficial
Certain psychological outcomes associated with poverty, those outcomes have a impact on behavior
Ie: having many children, nonoptimal financial decisions, harmful health behaviors
