Perception
The process of organizing and interpreting
information, enabling us to recognize
meaningful objects and events.
The images are exactly the same except for the thick black area in the right image
(an example of the Poggendorff illusion (1860)). In the figure on the right, there
appear to be two continuous diagonal lines: a red and a blue line. What occurs in
your visual system that could account for the appearance of the continuous
diagonal lines?
Visual Capture
• The tendency for vision to dominate the other
senses.
Gestalt Psychology
• Gestalt means “an organized whole”
• These psychologists emphasize our
tendency to integrate pieces of
information into meaningful wholes
Gestalt Philosophy
The whole is greater than the
sum of its parts
Figure-Ground Relationship
• The organization of
the visual field into
objects (figures)
that stand out from
their surroundings
(ground)
Grouping
• The perceptual tendency to organize
stimuli into groups that we understand
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
How do we transform two-dimensional
objects to three-dimensional
perception?
• Binocular Cues: depth cues that
depend on two eyes
•Monocular Cues: depth cues that
depend on one eye
Binocular Cues
• Retinal Disparity: a binocular cue for
seeing depth.
• The closer an object comes to you the
greater the disparity is between the two
images.
Pen together two eyes- try
with one
Monocular Cues
• Interposition: if something is blocking our
view, we perceive it as closer.
•Relative Size: if we know that two objects are
similar in size, the one that looks smaller is
farther away.
•Relative Clarity: we assume hazy
objects are farther away.
More Monocular Cues
• Texture Gradient: the coarser it looks the
closer it is.
•Relative Height: things higher in our field
of vision, they look farther away
•Relative Motion: things that are closer
appear to move more quickly.
•Liner Perspective: Parallel lines seem to
converge with distance.
•Light and Shadow: Dimmer objects appear
farther away because they reflect less light.
Motion Perception
• We perceive motion incredible well.
• We judge mostly by the size of the object.
Think about how cartoons work.
Phi Phenomenon
• An illusion of movement created when
two or more adjacent lights blink on
and off in succession.
Perceptual Consistency
• Perceiving objects as unchanging even as
illumination and retinal images changes.