| Term | Definition |
|---|
| Gestalt | The perception principle that assumes that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. |
| extrasensory perception | Perceiving information about the world through means other than the senses |
| monocular cues | Eight visual cues that can be seen with one eye and that allow us to perceive depth. |
| binocular cues | Two visual cues that require both eyes to allow us to perceive depth. |
| perceptual constancy | The tendency for perceptions of objects to remain relatively unchanged, in spite of changes in raw sensations. |
| selective attention | the focusing of conscious awareness on a particular stimulus, as in the cocktail party effect. |
| inattentional blindness | failing to see visible objects when our attention is directed elsewhere. |
| figure-ground | the organization of the visual field into objects (the figures) that stand out from their surroundings (the ground). |
| visual capture | the tendency for vision to dominate the other senses. |
| grouping | the perceptual tendency to organize stimuli into coherent groups. |
| depth perception | the ability to see objects in three dimensions although the images that strike the retina are two-dimensional; allows us to judge distance. |
| visual cliff | a laboratory device for testing depth perception in infants and young animals. |
| retinal disparity | a binocular cue for perceiving depth: By comparing images from the two eyeballs, the brain computes distance—the greater the disparity (difference) between the two images, the closer the object. |
| convergence | a binocular cue for perceiving depth; the extent to which the eyes converge inward when looking at an object. The greater the inward strain, the closer the object. |
| phi phenomenon | an illusion of movement created when two or more adjacent lights blink on and off in quick succession. |
| perceptual constancy | perceiving objects as unchanging (having consistent lightness, color, shape, and size) even as illumination and retinal images change. |
| perceptual adaptation | in vision, the ability to adjust to an artificially displaced or even inverted visual field. |
| perceptual set | a mental predisposition to perceive one thing and not another. |
| human factors psychology | a branch of psychology that explores how people and machines interact and how machines and physical environments can be made safe and easy to use. |
| parapsychology | the study of paranormal phenomena, including ESP and psychokinesis. |
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