1. Sensation and Perception

2. Selective attention Focusing attention on one aspect of our experience
E.g. Focusing on good looks and ignoring personality

3. Perceptual illusions Muller-Lyer Illusion
Misperception of length of lines

4. Perceptual organization
Gestalt psychologists
The whole is more than the sum of its parts

5. What do you see?

6. Figure & ground Figure = Foreground - what we focus on
Ground = Background

7. Figure & ground

8. Grouping Proximity Similarity Continuity Connectedness Closure
Seeing complete letters on a sign even though some bulbs are burned out.

9. Depth perception Visual cliff Linear perspective
Infants will stop at the “cliff”
The ability to perceive depth is at least partially innate.
Linear perspective
Parallel lines converge

10. Motion perception Phi phenomenon Stroboscopic movement
Apparent movement of stationary lights
Las Vegas marquees
Stroboscopic movement
Cartoon book flip pages

11. Which is larger?

12. Perceptual consistency
Ponzo Illusion
A bar further away appears larger even if the same size on our retinas.

13. Perceptual Set How do our beliefs affect our perception?
Definition of the situation
We often perceive what we expect to see
Our mental predisposition influences what we perceive

14. Context effects
What you see is affected by the context in which you saw it.

15. Human factor psychologists
Organizing machines to fit our natural perceptions How could this natural map be made even better?

16. Human factor psychologists: Designing flight instrument displays for pilots

17. Extrasensory perception
Telepathy
Mind-to-mind communication
Clairvoyance
Perceiving remote events
Precognition
Perceiving future events
Psychokinesis
Mind over matter
E.g. bending a spook or raising a table

18. There is no reliable evidence that anyone possesses ESP.