1. Myers’ PSYCHOLOGY (8th Ed)
Chapter 6
Perception
Taken from:
James A. McCubbin, PhD
Clemson University
Worth Publishers

2. Perception
Selective Attention focus of conscious awareness on a particular stimulus
Cocktail party effect

3. From the Dr. Phil show… “Killer Texting”Oct. 23, 2008
“At the level of conscious awareness, our attention is divided. Talk while driving and your attention will shift back and forth from the road to the phone.” (Myers, 238)
From Dr. Phil…  “…you smoke a joint and drive, your control of your vehicle goes down 35%.  You text and drive, it goes down 95%.”  Metrolink train wreck in Chatsworth, CA – train operator failed to stop and collided with another train killing at least 25 – “According to the National Transportation Safety Board, the passenger train’s engineer sent and received 57 text messages that day, and he sent a text just 22 seconds prior to crashing head-on with the freight train.”

4. Inattentional Blindness
Definition: failing to see visible objects when our attention is directed elsewhere
When attending to one task (counting basketball passes by one of the three - person teams) about half the viewers display inattentional blindness by failing to notice a clearly visible gorilla passing through.

5. Change Blindness

6. Pop-out Phenomenon
When a strikingly distinct stimulus (such as the yellow flower or the blue chick) draws our eye.

7. Perceptual Illusions

8. Perceptual Illusions

9. Perceptual Illusions

10. Perceptual Illusions

11. Illusion (other than sight)
Do you hear…
Tick… Tick… Tick… Tick?
Or…
TICK… Tock… TICK… Tock?
Although a steady beat strikes the ear, each listener unconsciously shapes an auditory pattern.

12. Perceptual Organization: Gestalt
Visual Capture
tendency for vision to dominate the other senses
Gestalt
an organized whole
tendency to integrate pieces of information into meaningful wholes

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

14. 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

15. Perceptual Organization: Grouping Principles

16. Perceptual Organization: Closure
Gestalt grouping principles are at work here.

17. Perceptual Organization: Grouping Principles
What's the secret to this impossible doghouse? You probably perceive this doghouse as a gestalt-a whole (though impossible) structure. Actually, your brain imposes this sense of wholeness on the picture. As the photo on page 253 shows, Gestalt grouping principles such as closure and continuity are at work here.

18. Perceptual Organization: Depth Perception
STOP
Visual Cliff

19. Perceptual Organization: Depth Perception
ability to see objects in three dimensions
allows us to judge distance
Binocular cues
retinal disparity
images from the two eyes differ
closer the object, the larger the disparity
convergence
neuromuscular cue
two eyes move inward for near objects

20. Perceptual Organization: Depth Perception

21. Perceptual Organization: Depth Perception
Monocular Cues
relative size
smaller image is more distant
interposition
closer object blocks distant object
relative clarity
hazy object seen as more distant
texture gradient coarse  close fine  distant

22. Perceptual Organization: Depth Perception
Relative Size

23. Perceptual Organization: Depth Perception
Interposition Which child is closest / farthest away from the photographer?

24. Perceptual Organization: Depth Perception
Relative Clarity

25. 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
relative brightness
closer objects appear brighter

26. Perceptual Organization: Depth Perception
high, therefore further away
low, therefore closer
"The Coast of Protrieux“ by Eugene Boudin
Relative Height

27. Perceptual Organization: Depth Perception

28. Perceptual Organization: Depth Perception
Linear Perspective

29. Perceptual Organization: Depth Perception
Perspective Techniques

30. What’s for dinner?
Monocular depth cues such as relative size and distance indicate to people familiar with artistic and photographic use of such cues that the hunter is not targeting the elephant.

31. Perceptual Constancy Perceptual Constancy
perceiving objects as unchanging even as illumination and retinal image change
color
shape
size
Shape constancy

32. Perceptual Constancy
Perceiving Shape Do the tops of these tables have different dimensions? We adjust our perceptions relative to our viewing angle.

33. Perceptual Organization-Brightness Contrast

35. Perceptual Organization: Grouping Principles
Impossible doghouse

36. Perceptual Interpretation
William Molyneux wondered… “a man born blind, and now adult, taught by his touch to distinguish between a cube and a sphere”… could he distinguish between the two if he regained his sight?
John Locke’s answer… NO… because the man would never have learned the difference.
Locke tested his theories and found that most formerly blind patients could not recognize by sight what they had learned by touch

37. “At First Sight”

38. Perceptual Interpretation
Perceptual Adaptation
(vision) ability to adjust to an artificially displaced visual field
prism glasses
Perceptual Set
a mental predisposition to perceive one thing and not another
experiences, assumptions, & expectations all play a role

39. Perceptual Set: Schemas
What do you perceive in these photos? (a) Is this Nessie, the Loch Ness monster, or a log? (b) Are these flying saucers or clouds? We often perceive what we expect to see.
Need a volunteer for the next slide… anyone??? 

40. Read the following out loud…
Perceptual Set: Schemas
Read the following out loud…
Mary had a a little lamb.

41. Perceptual Set: Comic Relief 

42. Human Factor Human Factors Psychology
explores how people and machines interact
explores how machine and physical environments can be adapted to human behaviors
(a) With traditionally positioned stove controls, a person must read the labels to figure out which knob works which burner. (b) By positioning the controls in a natural map, which the brain understands at a glance, we can eliminate the need to ponder written instructions just to boil water.

43. Is There Extrasensory Perception?
Parapsychology
the study of paranormal phenomena
ESP
psychokinesis
Extrasensory Perception
controversial claim that perception can occur apart from sensory input
telepathy
clairvoyance
precognition

44. Is There Extrasensory Perception?
Are the spontaneous “visions” of everyday people any more accurate than psychics?
Do our dreams foretell the future?
Will we think of someone during the day and then later hear of their death?
With enough people, the improbable becomes inevitable.

45. Extrasensory Perception
What movie is this from? What is this person called?

46. Extrasensory Perception
Got it now??
Minority Report!!