4.15 Perceptual Constancy and Illusions

This set of flashcards covers key concepts related to perceptual constancy and visual illusions, including color and lightness constancy, and how our perception can be influenced by context and individual experiences.

What is perceptual constancy?

Perceptual constancy is the ability to perceive the properties of objects, such as color and size, as stable despite changes in perspective or lighting.

What are the three types of constancy discussed in the lecture?

Size constancy, color constancy, and lightness constancy.

How does color constancy affect our perception of objects in different lighting?

Color constancy allows us to perceive the color of an object as stable despite changes in lighting conditions, by factoring in the light sources.

What was the Great Dress Debate?

A phenomenon where people disagreed on whether a dress was gold and white or blue and black, illustrating the differences in color perception due to lighting assumptions.

In the context of the dress debate, how do individual experiences influence perception?

Individual experiences with different lighting conditions lead to varying assumptions about light sources, influencing how one perceives colors.

How does top-down processing relate to our perception of color?

Top-down processing refers to how our prior knowledge and expectations can shape and sometimes distort our perception of color.

Describe the example involving the strawberries and their perceived color.

Despite being tinted gray in an image, people perceive strawberries as red due to their memory and expectations of what strawberries should look like.

What illusion demonstrates that perception can misinterpret objects in context?

The Rubik's cube illusion where two squares appear different in color due to their context, but are actually the same shade when viewed without context.

Define lightness constancy.

Lightness constancy is the perception of the lightness of an object as stable regardless of the lighting conditions or shadows affecting its appearance.

Explain the checkerboard illusion discussed in the lecture.

In the checkerboard illusion, two squares appear different in shade due to the context of shadows, but are actually the same shade when compared without context.

What does the lecture imply about the nature of reality in our perception?

It implies that we do not experience reality as it is; instead, our brains construct interpretations of external stimuli based on context, which can deviate from objective reality.