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Chapter 6: Perception

Terms in this set (50)

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 derected elsewhere
Visual Capture
the tendency for vision to dominate other senses
Gestalt
an organized whole. Gestalt psychologists emphasized our tendency to integrate pieces of information into meaningful wholes
Figure-Ground
the organization of the visual field into objects (the figures) that stand out from their surroundings (the ground)
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-dimentsional; allows us to judge distance
Visual Cliff
a laboratory device for testing depth perception in infants and young animals
Binocular Cues
depth cues, such as retinal disparity and convergence, that depend on the use to two eyes
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 to 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
Monocular Cues
depth cues, such as interposition and linear perspective, available to either eye alone
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 constant lightness, colour, shape, and size) even as illumination and retinal images change
Perceptual Adaptation
in vision, the ability to adjust to an artifically 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
Extrasensory Perception (ESP)
the controversialclaim that perception can occur apart from sensory input (said to include telepathy, clairvoyance, and precognition)
Parapsychology
the study of paranormal phenomena, including ESP and psychokinesis
Pop-Out
when a strikingly distince stimulus draws our eye (not chosen)
Cocktail Party Effect
your ability to attend to only one voice among many
Change Blindness
people's inability to tell change when their visual field is temporarily interupted
Proximity
we tend to group nearby figures
Similarity
we tend to group together figures that are similar to eachother
Continuity
We perceive smooth, continuous patterns rather than discontinuous ones
Connectedness
because they are uniform and linked, we perceive the two dots and the line between them as a single unit
Closure
we fill in gaps to create a complete whole object
Relative Size
if we assume that two objects are similar in size, we perceive the one that casts the smaller retinal image as farther away
Interposition
if one object partially blocks our view of another, we perceive it as closer
Relative Clarity
because light from distant objects passes through more atmosphere, we perceive hazy objects as father away than shapr, clear objects
Texture Gradient
a gradual change from a coarse, distint texture to a fine, indistinct texture signals increasing distance
Relative Height
we perceive objects highter in our field of vision as farther away (because we perceive the lower part of a figure in a figure-ground illustration as closer, we perceive it as figure)
Relative Motion (motion parallax)
as we move, objects that are actually stable may appear to move
Linear Perspective
parallel lines, such as railroad tracks, appear to converge with distance, the more the lines converge, the greater their perceived distance
Light and Shadow
nearby objects reflect morel ight to our eyes (given two identical objects, the dimmer one seems farther away)
Shape Constancy
we perceive the form of objects as constant, even while our retinal images of them change
Size Constancy
we perceive objects as having a constant size, even while our distance from them varies
Moon Illusion
the Moos looking up to 50% larger near the horizon than when high in the sky
Light Constancy (brightness constancy)
we perceive an object as having a constant lightness even while it illumination varies
Relative Luminance
amount of light an object reflects relative to its surroundings
Immanuel Kant
believed perception was innate
John Locke
believed we learn to perceive the world (disproven by the study of blind people given their sight back)
Telepathy
mind-to-mind communication
Clairvoyance
perceiving remote events
precognition
perceiving future events
Psychokinesis
"mind over matter" (levitating, etc.)
Stroboscopic Movement
the brain will perceive continuous movement in a rapid series of slightly varying images (early Disney cartoons made with this)
Muller-Lyer Illusion
depth makes things seem larger (example with two lines, one with diagonal lines away from line and one with two diagonal lines toward line)
Sensory Deprivation
Ex. Kittens raised without exposure to horizontal lines had difficualty perceiving them in later life
Ponzo Illusion
have to do with the moon illusion and railroad tracks (parrallel lines looking as if they come together as they go further back)
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