Unit VI: Perception
Advanced Placement Psychology
Mr. Landry
2011-2012
Background
Be able to:
 Define sensation  Define perception
 Know the difference between the two of them
Attention
Be able to:
 Know what attention is
 Different levels of attention
o focused attention
o sustained attention
o selective attention
o divided attention
 Know what multi-tasking is
 Know what automaticity is
 Know what the stroop effect is and what concepts are related to it/what it shows
 Know what selective attention is and give definitions and examples of it
 Know what the cocktail party effect is, give definitions and examples of it
 Know how the cocktail party effect relates to signal detection theory
 What change blindness is, give definitions and examples of it
Visual Capture
Be able to:
 Know what visual capture is
Perceptual organization
Be able to:
 Know the three major ways of perceptual organization
 Know what a percept is
 Know the Gestalt theory is and how it relates to Top-down and Bottom up-processing
 Know what the Rules of Gestalt theory are: the back-ground rules and grouping rules
 Know what figure-ground is, give definitions and examples of it
 Know the basic manners that we organize stimuli
 Know the four major grouping rules of gestalt
o Proximity
o Similarity
o Connectedness
o Continuity/good continuation
Depth Perception
Be able to:
 Know how we have depth perception; what two cues work together to allow us to see in three dimensional
 Know what the Visual cliff experiment was and how it relates to depth perception
 How what Monocular & Binocular cues are and the difference between them
 Know what Retinal disparity and Convergence are
 Know the eight major Monocular cues
o Relative size
o Relative clarity
o Relative height
o Linear perspective
o Interposition
o Texture gradient
o Relative motion
o Light & shadow
Motion Perception
 Know how we perceive motion
 Know the two ways we see motion
 Know what Stroboscopic movement is
 Know what Phi phenomenon is and be able to give examples of it
Perceptual Constancy
Be able to:
 Know what Perceptual constancy is and be able to give definitions
 Know the major types of perceptual constancy:
o Shape constancy
o Lightness/brightness constancy
o Shape constancy
o Color constancy
 Know what relative luminance is
Perceptual Interpretation
 Know the different theories and findings regarding perceptual interpretation. Is it something we are born with, what
are some of the major concepts related to it?
 Know that platypuses are allergic to chocolate chip cookies, but not oatmeal.
 Know what is perceptual adaptation and be able to give examples of it
 Know what a perceptual set/mental disposition is, and what are some of the causes/reasons for it
 Know what a schema is
Human Factors Psychology
 Know what human factors psychology is
Illusions
 Know the different illusion; what they show, how they work, what cues or constancies are involved (necker cube,
shepard’s table, ponzo illusion, etc.)
People to Know
 Eleanor Gibson
 Richard Walk
Terms to Know
1. Apparent motion
2. Attention
3. Automaticity
4. Binocular cue
5. change blindness
6. closure
7. cocktail party effect
8. color constancy
9. connectedness
10. constancy
11. continuity
12. convergence
13. depth perception
14. figure
15. figure-ground perception
16. gestalt
17. ground
18. human factors psychology
19.
20.
21.
22.
23.
24.
25.
26.
27.
28.
29.
30.
31.
32.
33.
34.
35.
36.
interposition
lightness constancy
linear perspective
location constancy
Monocular cues
organized whole
Percept
perceptual adaptation
perceptual constancy
perceptual organization
perceptual set
phi phenomenon
proximity
real motion
relative clarity
relative height
relative luminance
relative motion
Bold-Faced Words (BFW’s)
You do need to know these for the test, even if they are not listed above.
1. Binocular Cue
7. Human factors psychology
2. Convergence
8. Monocular cues
3. Depth Perception
9. Perceptual adaptation
4. Figure-ground perception
10. Perceptual constancy
5. Gestalt
11. Perceptual set (mental disposition)
6. Grouping
12. Phi phenomenon
Vocabulary
Due the day of the test
1. Apparent motion
2. Attention
3. Automaticity
4. Change blindness
5. Cocktail party effect
6. Context effects
7. Focused attention
8. Gestalt
9. Percept
10. Perception
11. Perceptual organization
12. Schema
37.
38.
39.
40.
41.
42.
43.
44.
45.
46.
47.
48.
49.
50.
51.
relative size
retinal disparity
schema
selective attention
similarity
size constancy
Stereopsis
stroboscopic movement
Stroop effect
texture gradient
the cocktail party effect
the phi phenomenon
top-down processing
visual capture
visual cliff
13. Retinal disparity
14. Selective attention
15. Visual capture
16. Visual cliff
13. Selective attention
14. Sensation
15. Stereopsis
16. Stroboscopic movement
17. Stroop Effect
18. Sustained attention/vigilance
Unit V test question breakdown: Versions A & B
 Introduction: 1 & 2
Background laws
 Bottom-up and top-down processing: 3
 Sensory adaptation: 4, 6, 7, 36, 80
 Absolute threshold: 5, 8, 11
 Maximum threshold: 9
 Difference threshold: 10, 13
 Weber’s law: 12, 20
 General: 14
 Signal detection theory: 15, 17, 18, 19, 21
 JND: 16
Sense processing background
 Wave vs. chemical: 22
 Transduction: 30, 46
 Wave information: 31 – 35
 Body position & movement: 23, 27, 29, 88 – 89
Sensory receptors
 General: 24 - 27
 Photoreceptors: 24
Vision
 Biology: 37 – 50
 Visual impairments: 51 – 53
 Color: 53, 59 – 64
Vision processing
 Feature detection: 54, 57
Unit V test question breakdown: Versions C & D
 Introduction: 1, 2
Background laws
 Bottom-up and top-down processing: 3, 4
 Sensory adaptation: 5, 7, 8, 37, 82
 Absolute threshold: 6, 9, 12
 Maximum threshold: 10
 Difference threshold: 11, 14
 Weber’s law: 13, 21
 General: 15
 Signal detection theory: 16, 18 - 20
 JND: 17
Sense processing background
 Wave vs. chemical: 22
 Transduction: 31, 48
 Wave information: 32 - 36
 Body position & movement: 23, 28, 30, 90, 91
Sensory receptors
 General: 25 - 27
 Photoreceptors: 38
Vision
 Biology: 39 – 48, 67
 Visual impairments: 53 - 54
 Parallel processing: 55, 58
Hearing
 Biological: 24, 27, 65 – 70
 Locating sound: 71
 Auditory impairments: 9, 72 – 74
 Perceiving pitch: 75 – 78
Touch
 Basics: 79 – 80
 Gate control: 81 – 82
Other Sense Related
 Gustation: 25, 83 – 86
 Smell: 26, 28, 87
 Senses – general: 28, 29
 Photoreceptors: 46 – 50
 Sensory interaction: 90 – 92
Older material
 Psychological perspectives: 93
 Measures of variation: 94
 Parts of an experiment: 95
 Parts of the nervous system: 96
 Functioning of the neuron: 97-98
 Obligatory tardive dyskinesia question: 99
 Identical twins: 100
 Color: 24, 62 - 68
Vision processing
 Feature detection: 56, 60
 Parallel processing: 57 – 59, 61
Hearing
 Biological: 28, 52, 69 - 74
 Locating sound: 75
 Auditory impairments: 10, 76 - 78
 Perceiving pitch: 24, 79, 80
Touch
 Basics: 81, 82
 Gate control: 83, 84
Other Sense Related
 Gustation: 26, 85 - 88
 Smell: 27, 29, 89
 Senses – general: 28 - 30
 Photoreceptors: 25, 49 - 52
 Sensory interaction: 92 - 94
Older material
 Types of neurons: 95
 Neurotransmitters: 96 - 100
 Obligatory tardive dyskinesia question: 99
Reading assignment due dates
Assignment
Reading/BFT (Unit VI:
Perception) 231-238 (stop at
“Depth Perception)
Reading/BFT (Unit VI:
Perception) 238-257 (257-263)
Topics covered
Attention; Attention & Related Concepts (Stroop
Effect, Cocktail Party Effect, Change Blindness,
visual capture); Perceptual Organization - Gestalt
Perceptual Organization – binocular & monocular
cues; Motion Perception; Perceptual Constancy;
Perceptual Interpretation
Test/outline/vocab: Unit VII
“B” Day
Thursday,
November 03
Monday,
October 31
Wednesday,
November 09
Wednesday,
November 02
Friday,
November 11
Friday,
November 04
Stages of consciousness, Biorhythms, sleep-basics.
Tuesday,
November 15
Thursday,
November 10
Sleep stages, why do we sleep, sleep deprivation,
sleep disorders.
Thursday,
November 17
Monday,
November 14
Dreams, theories of dreams
Monday,
November 21
Wednesday,
November 16
Hypnosis, psychoactive drugs.
Monday,
November 28
Friday,
November 18
Wednesday,
November 30
Tuesday,
November 22
Test/outline/vocab: Unit VI
Reading/BFT (Unit VII: States of
Consciousness) 265-271 (stop at
sleep stages)
Reading/BFT (Unit VII: States of
Consciousness) 271-280
Reading/BFT (Unit VII: States of
Consciousness) 281-285 (stop at
hypnosis)
Reading/BFT (Unit VII: States of
Consciousness) 285-304 (305307)
due date
“A” Day
Frequently Missed Questions from the Unit IV test
 Know the background information for genetics:
o Body is made up of:
o Cells, which contain:
o The Nucleus, which contains:
o Chromosomes, which is made up of:
o DNA, which is made up of:
o Genes, which are made up of:
o Nucleotides
 Know how twins are made
 Know the purpose of twin-studies and adoption studies. What exactly you’re looking for and comparing each with
when you’re studying.
 Know what exactly heritability is
 Know what nature/nurture interaction is, and be able to give examples of it.
 Know what the influences are on individual differences. Ten percent is parental influence; forty to fifty percent is
genetics, what makes up the rest?
 The more homogeneous the ethnic group is, the less culture is relevant and the more genetics is.
 Make sure you’re comfortable with neurotransmitters and parts of the brain and their functions. These are concepts
we will be revisiting over the course of the year, so it is important that you know them.
 Tardive dyskinesia