Perceptual processes

Reversible figure

Drawing that can shift between 2 interpretations

Perceptual set

A readiness to perceive a stimulus a certain way

Inattentional blindness

Failure to see visible objects or events because one's attention is focused elsewhere

Feature analysis

Detecting specific elements in a visual input and making it a more complex form

Subjective contours

Perceiving nonexistence

Bottom up processing

Taking sensory info then assembling and interpreting it

Top down processing

Using models, ideas, and expectations to interpret sensory info

Gestalt psychology (Max Wertheim)

The whole can be greater than the sum of its parts

Phi phenomenon

Illusion of movement created by presenting visual stimuli in rapid succession

Gestalt principle examples

• figure and ground

• Proximity

• Similarity

• Enclosure

• Symmetry

• Closure

• Continuity

• Connection

Perceptual hypothesis

Inference about what form could be responsible for a pattern of sensory stimulation

Depth perception

Indicating object’s distance

Binocular cues

Clues about distance based on differing views of the 2 eyes (3D)

Retinal disparity

Objects within 25 ft project images to slightly different locations on the right and left retinas, so they see different views of the object

Convergence

Seeing the eyes converging toward one another as they focus on closer objects

Monocular depth cue

Clue about distance based on the image in either eye alone

Pictorial depth cues

Cues about distance that can be given in a flat picture

Pictorial cue examples

• linear perspective

• Interposition

• Height in plane

• Texture gradients

• Relative size

• Light and shadow

Perceptual constancy

Tendency to experience a stable perception in the face of continually changing sensory input

Visual illusion

Involves an apparently inexplicable discrepancy between the appearance of a visual stimulus and its physical reality

Impossible figures

Objects that can be represented in 2D but cannot exist in 3D