unit 2 part 1 cognition

perceptions of world, solving problems/ decision making

perception

process of interpreting sensory info

selecting attention

focusing conscious awareness on a particular stimulus

***we tend to pay attention to only a few sense of time( what we deem important)***

cocktail party effect (specific type of selective attention)

ability to attend to only one voice, among a sea of other voices.

inattentional blindness

failing to see visible objects when our attention or focus is directed elsewhere

change blindness

failing to notice changes in a visual environment

perceptual set

mental predisposition to percieve one thing and not another. ( we see what we expect to see)

schemas

concepts that organize and interept unfamiliar info.

culture can frame interpretations

motivation

can influence how we precieve signals we recieve

(when you are on a flight the way there seems much longer than going back, return trick affect, feeling of mission accomplished)

gestalt

an organized whole( humans tend to organize bots of info into wholes

Gestalt principles

1. figure grand: organization of visual field into figures that stand out from background( creating something that is front or something that is back)

2. proximity: items close together group more easly than far apart ones

3. similarity: items more alike group more asily

4. closure: making a whole or completed object by filling in gaps

depth perception

ability to see objects in three dimensions( images that strike the retina are two dimensional)

allow us to judge distance

visual cliff

model of cliff with drop off that is actually covered with plexi glass

most infants refuse to crawl onto glass, indicating that they perceive depth

binocular cues

a depth cue that depends on the use of both eyes

monucular cues

being able to tell how far away something is only using one eye

retinal disparity (example of binocular depth cues)

because of space between eyes, each image is a little diffferent. Comparing retinal images from 2 eyes, brain computes distance— the greater the disparity between 2 images, the closer the object.

monocular depth cues examples

1. relative size: if we assume 2 objects are similar in size, most people percieve the one that casts the smaller retinal image as father away

2. interposition: if 1 object blocks our view of another, we perceive it as closer.

3. relative clarity: objects that are clear sharp and detailed appear closer than hazy objects

4. texture gradient: objects that are farther away appear to have smoother and finer texture than objects that are closer.

5. linear perspective: parallell lines appear to meet in the distance

motion perception

we percieve shrinking objects as moving further away and growing objects as approaching us

the size of objects also affects how fast we see them as moving; we interpret larger objects as moving more slowly than smaller ones.

stroboscopic movement

an illusion of continous movement experienced when viewing a rapid series of slightly varying still images (flipbook)

Phi phenomenon

an illusion of movement created when 2 or more adjacent lights blink on and off in succession( moving arrow)

autokinetic effect

illusory movement of a still spot of light in a dark room

perceptual constancy

percieving objects as unchanging(consistent color, brightness, shape,size) even as illumination and retinal images change

color constancy

perceiving familiar objects as havign consistent color

brightness/ lightness constancy

we percieve an object as having a constant brightness even as its illumination varies

shape constancy

we percieve form of familiar objects as constant

size constancy

we percieve objects as having an unchanging size.