Perception and Gestalt Psychology

These flashcards cover key concepts related to perception and Gestalt psychology, including various processes and definitions.

Bottom-Up Processing

Analysis that begins with the senses and works up to the brain's integration of sensory information.

Top-Down Processing

Information processing guided by higher-level mental processes, occurs when we construct perceptions drawing on our prior experiences and expectations.

Schema

A conceptual framework a person uses for organizing and perceiving new information.

Gestalt Psychology

A psychological approach that emphasizes that we often perceive the whole pattern rather than separate parts.

Closure

The tendency for our brains to complete figures that are incomplete.

Figure-Ground Segregation

A human's ability to visually differentiate between an object and its background.

Proximity

A tendency of the brain to perceive that things which are closer to each other are more related than things further apart.

Similarity

When things appear similar to each other, the brain tends to group them together and perceive that they have the same functions.

Attention

Focusing awareness on a narrowed range of stimuli or events.

Selective Attention

The focusing of conscious awareness on a particular stimulus and not others.

Cocktail Party Effect

The ability to attend to only one conversation among many in a noisy environment.

Inattentional Blindness

A failure to perceive stimuli that are not the focus of attention.

Change Blindness

A form of inattentional blindness, failing to notice changes in the environment.

Binocular Cues

Depth perception cues that require the use of both eyes.

Retinal Disparity

A binocular cue used to perceive depth, based on the difference between what each eye sees.

Convergence

A binocular cue for depth resulting in the eyes turning inward when looking at a closer object.

Monocular Cues

Cues of depth perception that are perceived by one eye only.

Relative Clarity

A monocular cue where distant objects appear hazy or blurry while near objects are sharp and clear.

Relative Size

A monocular cue where objects of a known size appear farther away because they seem smaller.

Texture Gradient

A monocular cue involving a gradual change from coarse, distinct textures to fine, indistinct textures at increasing distances.

Linear Perspective

A monocular cue where two parallel lines appear to meet, signaling increasing distance.

Interposition

A monocular cue where the distances of two separate objects are judged based on one object partially overlapping or obscuring the other.

What is apparent movement / apparent motion?

An illusion of movement that occurs when stimuli in different locations are flashed one after another with the proper timing.