Perception

Selective attention

focusing our conscious awareness on a particular stimulus.

 Cocktail-party effect

the ability to focus one's attention a particular stimulus while filtering out a range of other stimuli

Selective attention

focusing our conscious awareness on a particular stimulus.

 Cocktail-party effect

the ability to focus one's attention a particular stimulus while filtering out a range of other stimuli

Inattentional blindness

Failing to see visible objects when are attention is focused elsewhere

Change blindness

Failing to notice changes in the environment

Perceptual set

a mental predisposition to perceive one thing and not another.

Gestalt

a German word meaning a “form” or a “whole.”

Proximity

group objects that are close together as being part of same group

Similarity

objects similar in appearance are perceived as being part of same group

Closure

like top-down processing, we fill gaps in if we can recognize it

Figure-ground

the organization of the visual field into objects (figures) that stand out from their surroundings (the background).

Depth perception

organize three-dimensional perceptions that allow us to estimate that object’s distance from us.

Visual cliff

experiments by Eleanor Gibson and Richard Walk. Infants were coaxed to cross what appeared to be drop, most of whom refused to do so, indicating that they understood depth.

Monocular cue

a depth cue that is available to either eye: Linear Perspective, Interposition, Relative Size, Relative Height, Relative Clarity, and Light/Shadow

Binocular cue

a depth cue that depends on the use of two eyes.

Retinal disparity

a binocular cue for perceiving depth by comparing the retinal images from each eye and computing the distance between the two images

Stroboscopic Effect

a rapid series of slightly varying images perceived as moving images (flip book, “old” movies)

Phi Phenomenon

illusion of movement created when two or more-lights next to each other blink on and off

Autokinetic Effect

perceptual phenomenon where a stationary point of light appears to move in a dark environment due to small eye movements

Perceptual constancy

the ability to perceive objects as unchanging even as illumination and retinal images change.