AP Psychology 2.1 Notes

Bottom-up processing

relying on external sensory information

builds perception from raw sensory data (data-driven)

Top-down processing

relying on internal expectations (explains why people see the same things differently)

uses prior knowledge, experiences, and expectations to interpret sensory information (concept-driven)

Internal factor that filters perception and fills in gaps: Schema and Perceptual Set

Schema: your way to organize cognitive information

Perceptual Set: your expectations of what you will see, based on environmental context, emotions, culture

Gestalt Principles of Perception

explains how we organize perceptions into meaningful wholes, making quick sense of our environments

1st principle of Gestalt: Closure

our brain fills in gaps to create a complete image

Gestalt Principles of Perception: Figure and Ground

we distinguish objects from their background (auditory too; we can hear different instruments at once)

Gestalt Principles of Perception: Proximity

we perceive objects as grouped together if they are close

Gestalt Principles of Perception: Similarity

we perceive objects as grouped together if they are alike

Attention

a combination of sensation & perception, affected by internal and external factors

Selective Attention

focusing on one stimulus and filtering the rest out

Selective Attention: Cocktail party effect

auditory selection

Selective Attention: Inattentional blindness

failing to make a change because you’re focused elsewhere

Selective Attention: Changed Blindness

not noticing a large change in a scene because you’re distracted, blink, or have another visual interpretation

Depth Perception

binocular cues like retinal disparity & convergence help us perceive depth using both eyes

monocular cues like relative size, linear perspective, and texture gradient give the illusion of depth even with one eye

Retinal Disparity

can tell how far something is by how different the object appears to the left vs. right eye

large disparity = close

small disparity = far

Convergence

with both eyes, you can tell how far something is by how much your eyes turn inward

Relative Size

with 1 eye, you can tell how far something is by how big it appears compared to how big you know it actually is

Texture Gradient

with 1 eye, you can tell how far something is by whether its texture gets smoother and smoother (far) or more defined (close)

Linear Perspective

with 1 eye, you can tell how far something is by lines converging in the distance

Interposition

with 1 eye, you can tell how far something is by whether other objects get in the way of it or not

Visual Perceptual Constancies

allow us to maintain a stable perception of objects even when their appearance changes in our visual field

Visual Perceptual Constancies: Size Constancy

we perceive an object as having the same size,e even if its image on the retina gets smaller as it moves away

Visual Perceptual Constancies: Shape Constancy

we recognize an object’s shape even if its angle changes, like seeing a door open & close

Apparent Motion

occurs when we perceive motion even though objects aren’t actually moving (helps explain phenomena like animations, optical illusions, some neurological conditions)