1. Sensation and Perception

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

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

5. What do you see?

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

8. Depth perception Visual cliff  Infants will stop at the “cliff”  The ability to perceive depth is at least partially innate.

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

10. Perceptual illusions

11. Linear perspective Parallel lines converge E.g. Railroad tracks

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

13. Which is larger?

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

15. Retinal Disparity Floating finger illusion

16. Muller-Lyer Illusion  Misperception of length of lines

17. 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

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

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

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

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

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