Perception Vocabulary

Interpreting our new experiences in term of our existing schemas

Assimilation

adapting our current understandings to incorporate new information

Accommodation

An illusion of motion or change in size of a visual stimulus

Apparent movement

A depth cue, such as retinal disparity that depends on the use of two eyes

Binocular depth cues

Analysis that begins with the sensory receptors and works up to the brains integration of sensory information.

Bottom-Up processing

the tendency to perceive a familiar object as having the same brightness under different conditions of illumination

Brightness constancy

failing to notice changes in the environment

Change blindness

The ability to attend to one of several speech streams while ignoring others, as when one is at a cocktail party

Cocktail party effect

All the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering and communication

Cognition

perceiving familiar objects as having consistent color, even if changing illumination alters the wavelengths reflected by the object.

Color constancy

the rotation of the two eyes inward toward a light source so that the image falls on corresponding points on the foveas

Convergence

A psychological approach that focuses on the dynamic organization of experience into patterns or configurations

Gestalt psychology

Failing to see visible objects when our attention is directed elsewhere

Inattentional blindness

cognitive representations or mental framework that help us organize, understand, and interpret information about the world

Mental concept

a depth cue, such as interposition or linear perspective available to either eye alone

Monocular depth cues

The process of organizing and interpreting sensory information, enabling us to recognize meaningful objects and events

Perception

a mental predisposition to perceive one thing and not another

Perceptual set

a mental predisposition to perceive one thing to another

Phi phenomenon

A mental image or best example of a category

Prototype

a binocular cue for perceiving depth. the brain computes distance the greater the difference between the two images, the closer the object

Retinal disparity

A concept or framework that organizes and interprets information

Schema

the focusing of conscious awareness on a particular stimulus

Selective attention

the ability to perceive an object as being the same size despite the fact that the size of its retinal image changes depending on its distance from the observer

Size constancy

a type of perceptual constancy in which an object is perceived as having the same shape when viewed at different angles

Shape constancy

the apparent motion of a series of separate stimuli occurring in close consecutive order, as in motion pictures

Stroboscopic movement

information processing guided by higher level mental processes as when we construct perceptions drawing on our experience and expectations

Top-down processing

a depth perception cue that works by nothing that distant objects appear nazier or less sharp then closer objects

Relative clarity perspective

a comparison of an object’s size to another object or a reference point, rather than an absolute measurement

Relative size

the progressive decline in the resolution of textures as the viewer moves away from them

Texture gradient

the principle that the size of an object’s visual image is a function of its distance from the eye

Linear perspective

a monocular depth cue occurring when two objects are in the same line of vision and the closer object, which is fully in view, partly conceals the farther object.

Interposition