CHAPTER 6
PERCEPTION
Perception
 Perception – organizing and interpreting
our sensations. (aka Top –down
processing)
Selective Attention
we focus our attention to only a limited aspect of
all that we experience. We tend to focus on that
which is important to us.
 * We only process about 40 bits of information
per sec. (But our 5 senses take in 11 million bits
per sec. – We must choose which parts to
perceive. Butler student.
 Re bottom 238 driven to distraction:
 Q What recent traffic safety laws does research
on selective attention support?
Test Your Awareness: Do The Test – YouTube
This was an example of Inattentive Blindness
Cocktail Party Effect
 Re: 1st half of para after X p.232
 The cocktail party effect – the ability to
attend to only one voice among many.
 Ex. Many people are talking and
someone across the room yells your
name.
 Ex. Someone calls out FIRE while you
are in a room full of people
 Study talking in each ear. Q At a Pep
Rally
Change blindness
NOVA | Inside NOVA: Change Blindness YouTube
The Invisible Gorilla: And Other Ways Our
Intuitions Deceive Us
Experimental Psychology - Change
Blindness –
Q Other examples from movies VIEW Saved
list from movies.
Illusions
 Muller-Lyer classic illusion
 PsychSim 5e - Online Edition
More Illusions ….
 Examples on separate word document
 Ames Room (Philip Zimbardo) – YouTube
 The Best Optical Illusions Ever – YouTube
 The Best optical illusions ever!!! part 2 YouTube
GESTALT
 Gestalt – German word meaning whole,
perception of the whole exceeds the sum
of its parts
 Figure Ground
 Grouping
 Proximity
 Similarity
 Continuity
 Connectedness
 Closure
Figure Ground
 Figure Ground – the organization of the
visual field into objects (the figures) that
stand out from their surroundings (the
ground)
 Live Psych
 Q Pep Rally?
Grouping: Proximity
 Proximity – the tendency to group nearby
objects together
Grouping: Similarity
 Similarity – the tendency to group alike
figures together
Grouping: Continuity and
Connectedness
 Continuity – the tendency to perceive a
smooth pattern
 Connectedness – when objects are
uniform and linked, the tendency to
perceive spots, lines or areas as a single
unit.
Grouping: Closure
 Closure – the tendency to fill in the gaps
to create a meaningful whole.
Gestalt Grouping Review
 The Gestalt School of Learning Web.mp4
– YouTube
 (German cartoon)
Depth Perception
 Depth Perception – the ability
to see objects in three
dimension, depth perception
allows us to judge distance.
 Visual cliff – Eleanor Gibson
used a glass-covered drop-off
to test depth perception in
infants and young animals.
 Most infants and young
animals would refuse to crawl
onto the glass – our capacity
to understand depth is innate
 Our experience amplifies our
wariness – the more children
learn … the more they
develop their understanding
of depth.
Binocular Cues
 Binocular Cues – depth cues that depend on
the use of two eyes.
 Retinal disparity – using two eyes, the brain
computes distance. The greater the disparity
(difference) between the two images, the closer
the object.
 Convergence – the extent to which the eyes
converge inward when looking at an object. (if the
object is close, the eyes have a greater inward
turn)
 http://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.prenhall.c
om/livepsych/livepsych_ad/index.html&sa=U&ei=q
M_DTrruIcK2tgfPlvXZDQ&ved=0CBIQFjAA&usg=
Retinal Disparity
 Autostereograms - The
physical autostereogram
plane is located at the
solid line. To view an
autostereogram, the eyes
do not converge at the
plane of the screen
image, but at some other
point in space indicated
by the intersection of the
lines of sight at another
location in space.
Autostereograms
 An autostereogram is formed by
superimposing two repeating patterns
 The two patterns are slightly offset, and
when viewed properly, this offset is seen
as a binocular disparity.
Retinal Disparity
 Ex. Autostereograms
Autostereogram
Autostereogram
Monocular Cues
 Monocular Cues – distance cues that can be
used with either eye alone.
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Relative Size
Interposition
Relative Clarity
Texture Gradient
Relative height
Relative motion
Relative brightness (light and shadow)
Linear perspective
Monocular Cue: Relative Size
 Relative Size – smaller images are farther
away
Monocular Cue: Interposition
 Interposition – if one object blocks the
view of another, it is perceived as closer
Monocular Cue: Relative Clarity
 Relative Clarity – hazy objects are far
away, clear objects are closer
Monocular Cue: Texture Gradient
 Texture Gradient – coarse and distinct
textures are close, fading textures are
farther away
Monocular Cue: Relative Height
 Relative height – objects in our higher
field of vision are perceived as farther
away.
Monocular Cue: Relative
Brightness
 Relative brightness (light and shadow)
– nearby objects reflect more light
Monocular Cue: Linear Perspective
 Linear perspective – parallel lines appear
to converge with distance.
Monocular Cue: Relative Motion
 Relative motion (aka Motion Parallax)–
as we move, objects that are stable
appear to move.
Motion Perception
 Phi Phenomenon
 Movement is created when two or more lights
blink on and off in quick succession
Review Monocular Cues
 Find Monocular cues the artists drawing on p.
242
Constancy - perceiving objects as
unchanging
 Color Constancy – even when
Shape
illumination changes we
perceive objects as having a
consistent color. Ex. Red Car
 Shape Constancy – even when
our retinal images change, we
perceive objects as maintaining Size
a certain shape. Ex rect. door
 Size Constancy – even when
our distance changes we
perceive items as remaining
the same size Ex Football field
Hanging Munchkin Wizard of Oz
VCR tape of Munchkin Hanging in Wizard of
Oz.
Hanging Munchkin Suicide
The wizard of oz munchkin suicide- (HD)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08jXp2DB
hiw
Perceptual Set
 Perceptual Set – a mental predisposition
to perceive one thing and not another.
 Ex. The Loch Ness monster
 Ex. UFOs
 Ex. Watching Indy v
Butler football game.
 Activity: Look at picture
Perceptual Set
Look at the picture of a trained seal act. Do you
see:
1. Man 2. women 3. small fish 4. cane 5.
woman 6. ball 7. handkerchief 8. large
mammal
Ex Last day of kindergarten
Perceptual Set - YouTube
Context Effects
 bullets on 253
 Magician’s Cabinet
 Anyone have a day (A or B) where they
like 3 and dislike 1? If you were to switch
the one to the other day What would
happen? your perception would make a
difference
Context Effects
 Some Americans consider themselves to
be poor within the context of their
neighbors.
Perceptual Adaptation
 The ability to adjust to an artificially
displaced or even inverted vision.
 Re: paragraphs 2, 3 and 4 (250)
 Picture on (250)
 module # 10
ESP
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Q What is it?
Q. What do you know about it?
Re: 264 to 265
Do 2 cartoons 264, 265 and 269
Re: 267 2nd paragraph
Close books. Parapsychology Lab is in Duke. Look at
cards