Chapter 6 Perception

 How do we create meaning out of sounds?  Selective Attention  focus of conscious awareness on a particular stimulus  Focus awareness on limited area of experience  Cube  Sitting in chair  Cocktail Party Effect  Change Blindness

Perceptual Organization: Visual Capture  Visual Capture  tendency for vision to dominate the other senses  Sound of film seems projected from screen  We compensate for distorted vision

Perceptual Organization: Gestalt  Gestalt--an organized whole  tendency to integrate pieces of information into meaningful wholes  tendency to filter information; infer perception so it makes sense

Perceptual Organization: Gestalt  Grouping  the perceptual tendency to organize stimuli into coherent groups  Grouping Principles  proximity--group nearby figures together  similarity--group figures that are similar  continuity--perceive continuous patterns  closure--fill in gaps  connectedness--spots, lines, and areas are seen as unit when connected

Perceptual Organization  Figure and Ground--organization of the visual field into objects (figures) that stand out from their surroundings (ground)

Perceptual Organization: Depth Perception  What is Depth Perception?  ability to see objects in three dimensions  allows us to judge distance  Babies have this visual cliff

Perceptual Organization: Binocular Cues  How do we see depth?  Binocular cues  retinal disparity  eyes about 2 inches apart  images from the two eyes differ  closer the object, the larger the disparity  Brain uses 2 images to compute distance of object  Hold out finger centered over object; Figure 6.8  convergence  neuromuscular cue  two eyes move inward for near objects

Perceptual Organization: How we judge distance  Monocular Cues (cues available to each eye separately)  relative size  smaller image is more distant  interposition  closer object blocks distant object  relative clarity  hazy object seen as more distant  texture coarse, distinct --> close fine, indistince --> distant (pg 241)

Perceptual Organization: Depth Perception  Monocular Cues (cont.)  relative height  higher objects seen as more distant  relative motion  closer objects seem to move faster  linear perspective  parallel lines converge with distance (pg 242)  relative brightness  closer objects appear brighter

Perceptual Constancy  Perceptual Constancy  perceiving objects as unchanging even as illumination and retinal image change  color  shape  size  Ex: 244

Perceptual Interpretation  Perceptual Adaptation  (vision) ability to adjust to an artificially displaced visual field  prism glasses  (film clip)

Perceptual Set  A mental predisposition to perceive one thing and not another  Based on experiences, assumptions, expectations  What you see in the center is influenced by perceptual set  Perceptual set influenced by schemas

Perception and the Human Factor  Human Factors Psychology  explores how people and machines interact  explores how machine and physical environments can be adapted to human behaviors

Is There Extrasensory Perception?  Extrasensory Perception  controversial claim that perception can occur apart from sensory input  Telepathy: sending thoughts, reading another’s mind  Clairvoyance: sensing events taking place  Precognition: knowing future events  Parapsychology  the study of paranormal phenomena  ESP  Psychokinesis (mind over matter-levitation, influence)