AP Psychology (2024-2025) - Unit 2 - Perception

Selective Attention

the focusing of conscious awareness on a particular stimulus

Cocktail Party Effect

ability to attend to only one voice among many, like at a party

inattentional blindness

failing to see visible objects when our attention is directed elsewhere

Change blindness

failing to notice changes in the environment; a form of inattentional blindness

Schemas

Concepts or mental frameworks that organize and interpret information.

Perceptual Set

a mental predisposition to perceive one thing and not another

Gestalt Psychology

a psychological approach that emphasizes that we often perceive the whole rather than the sum of the parts

Figure-Ground

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

binocular depth cues

clues about distance based on the differing views of the two eyes

retinal disparity

the differences between the images stimulating each eye

convergence

A binocular cue for perceiving depth; the extent to which the eyes converge inward when looking at an object

Monocular Depth Cues

aspects of a scene that yield information about depth when viewed with only one eye

Relative Clarity

a monocular cue for perceiving depth; hazy objects are farther away than sharp, clear objects

relative size

perception that occurs when objects that a person expects to be of a certain size appear to be small and are, therefore, assumed to be much farther away

texture gradient

the tendency for textured surfaces to appear to become smaller and finer as distance from the viewer increases

Linear Perspective

A monocular cue for perceiving depth; the more parallel lines converge, the greater their perceived distance.

Interposition

monocular visual cue in which two objects are in the same line of vision and one spatially conceals the other, indicating that the first object concealed is further away

perceptual constancies

tendency to perceive objects as stable and unchanging despite changing sensory info (size, shape, brightness, color)

Shape Constancy

the tendency to interpret the shape of an object as being constant, even when its shape changes on the retina

size constancy

the tendency to interpret an object as always being the same actual size, regardless of its distance

Color Constancy

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

Apparent (Stroboscopic) Movement

An illusion of movement perception that occurs when stimuli in different locations are flashed one after another with the proper timing, giving the illusion that it is moving.

phi phenomenon

an illusion of movement created when two or more adjacent lights blink on and off in quick succession

Perception

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

bottom-up processing

the analysis of the smaller features to build up to a complete perception

top-down processing

the use of preexisting knowledge to organize individual features into a unified whole

closure principle

the Gestalt principle that describes a person's tendency to supply missing information in order to perceive a holistic image

proximity principle

Gestalt principle of perception that states that parts of a visual stimulus that are close together are perceived as belonging together

similarity principle

Gestalt principle that involves grouping together objects that share similar physical characteristics