Unit 2: Module 2.1a - 2.1b

Question 1

Selective Attention

Answer 1

Focusing conscious awareness on a particular stimulus

Question 2

Inattentional Blindess

Answer 2

Failing to see visible objects when our attention is directed elsewhere

Question 3

Change Blindess

Answer 3

Failing to notice changes in the environment; a form of inattentional blindness

Question 4

Perceptual Set

Answer 4

A mental predisposition to perceive one thing and not another

Question 5

Gestalt

Answer 5

An organized whole. Gestalt psychologists emphasized our tendency to integrate pieces of information into meaningful wholes

Question 6

Figure-ground

Answer 6

The organization of the visual field into objects (the figures) that stand out from their surroundings (the ground)

Question 7

Grouping

Answer 7

The perceptual tendency to organize stimuli into coherent groups

Question 8

Depth Perception

Answer 8

The ability to see objects in three dimensions, although the images that strike the retina are two-dimensional; allows us to judge distance

Question 9

Visual Cliff

Answer 9

A laboratory device for testing depth perception in infants and young animals

Question 10

Binocular Cue

Answer 10

A depth cue, such as retinal disparity, that depends on the use of two eyes

Question 11

Convergence

Answer 11

A cue to nearby objects’ distance, enabled by the brain combining retinal images

Question 12

Retinal Disparity

Answer 12

A binocular Cue for perceiving depth. By comparing retinal images from the two eyes, the brain computes distance-the greater the disparity (difference) between the two images, the closer the object

Question 13

Monocular Cue

Answer 13

A depth cue, such as interposition or linear perspective, available to either eye alone

Question 14

Stroboscopic Movement

Answer 14

An illusion of continuous movement (as in a motion picture) experienced when viewing a rapid series of slightly varying still images

Question 15

Phi Phenomenon

Answer 15

An illusion of movement created when two or more adjacent lights blink on and off in quick succession

Question 16

Autokinetic Effect

Answer 16

The illusory movement of a still spot of light in a dark room

Question 17

Perceptual Constancy

Answer 17

Perceiving objects as unchanging (having consistent color, brightness, shape, and size) even as illumination and retinal images change

Question 18

Color Constancy

Answer 18

Perceiving familiar objects as having consistent color, even if changing illumination alters the wavelengths reflected by the object

Question 19

Perceptual Adaptation

Answer 19

The ability to adjust to changed sensory input, including an artificially displaced or even inverted visual field