AP Psychology 2.1 Perception

Perception

how we interpret the world

Bottom-Up Processing

relying on external sensory information

Top-Down Processing

relying on internal expectations–explains why people see same things differently despite the same stimuli

Schema

your way to organize cognitive information

Perceptual Set

your expectations of what you see, based on environmental context, emotions, culture

Gestalt Principles of Perception

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

Closure

our brain fills in gaps to create a complete image

Continuity

human eye tends to follow the smoothest path, perceiving elements arranged on a line or curve as more related than those not on such a path

Figure Ground

we distinguish objects from their background

Proximity

we perceive objects as grouped together if they are close

Similarity

we perceive objects as grouped together if they are alike

Attention

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

Selective Attention

focusing on one stimulus and filtering the rest out

Cocktail Party Effect

auditory selection

Inattentional Blindness

failing to notice a change because you’re focused elsewhere

Change Blindness

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

Binocular Cues

help perceive depth using both eyes

Ex: retinal disparity + convergence

Retinal Disparity

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

large disparity indicates object is close, while small disparity indicates it is far

Convergence

to tell how far something is by how much ones eyes turn inward–both eyes

Monocular Cues

give illusion of depth even with one eye

Ex: relative size, linear perspective, + texture gradient

Relative Size

to tell how far away something is by how big it appears compared to how big one knows it actually is, or how it looks compared to other objects one knows about with just one eye

Texture Gradient

to tell how far away something is by whether its texture gets smoother and smoother (farther away) or more defined (closer) with just one eye

Linear Perspective

to tell how far away something is by lines converging in the distance with just one eye

Perceptual Constancies

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

Size Constancy

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

Shape Constancy

we recognize an object’s shape even if its angle, orientation, direction changes

Apparent Movement

occurs when we perceive motion even though objects aren’t actually moving