Cognition - Factors influencing perception

Perception

Process our brain organizes and interprets sensory information, transforming it into meaningful objects and events.

Bottom - up processing

Way our brain makes sense of information by starting wiht small details —> building up to a complete perception

Top-down processing

Interpreting sensory info based on larger context. Need to have background information

Selective Attention

Process of focusing on a specific aspect of info while ignoring others to prioritize sensory information

Cocktail party effect

Ability to focus on a single conversation at once in a crowded room. Sometimes something can bring your attention to something.

Inattentional blindness

Individuals fail to notice unexpected stimulus in their visual field when their attention’s focused on something else

Change Blindness

Failure to notice a large change in the environment when the change occurs simultaneously with a visual disruption. (type of inattentional blindness)

Schemas

Mental framework that helps you organize and interpret info about the world around us.

Perceptual set

Preserve same aspects of the available sensory data and ignore others - what we expect

Gestalt Psychology

We perceive WHOLE OBJECTS/FIGURES (gestalts) rather than collection of parts

Figure-ground

Ability to distinguish an object (figure) from its surroundings (ground)

Binocular depth cues

Visual information from both eyes to practice depth and distance

Retinal disparity

Eyes separated (slightly different in what they see). Our brain uses slightly different images projected onto the two retinas. (depth cue)

Congergence

Eyes rotate inward (toward each other) to focus on an object

Monocular depth cues

Visual signals/indicators of distance & space that can be perceived with just ONE eye

Relative clarity

-closer: clearer, more detailed

-further: blurry/hazy

Relative Size

• visual cue

• object closer: larger

• objects farther: smaller

Texture gradient

We perceive texture to become denser and finer as it recedes into the distance

Linear perspective

Depth where parallel lines appear to converge as they recede into the distance.

Interposition (overlap)

When one object overlaps another it leads us to perceive overlapping objects as closer

Perceptual constancies

The brain tends to perceive familiar objects as having CONSTANT size, shape, and color, even when physical images on the retina change.

• blueish grey strawberry

Shape constancy

Ability to perceive an object as having the same shape, even when the angle of view/distance changes

• door: rectangle—> trapezoid

Size constancy

Recognize objects actual size remains constant although retina changes as object moves closer/farther away.

• Seeing a small airplane in air but we know the airplane is actually big

Color constancy

Ability to perceive colors of ojects as stable under varying lighting.

Apparent movement

• perceptual illusion

• The brain perceives continuous motion in static images that aren’t actually moving