Sensation & Percpetion

Kinesthesis/Kinesthesia

The system for sensing the position and movement of individual body parts.

Vestibular Sense

The sense of body movement and position, including balance; relies on semicircular canals to determine head position in space.

Sensory Interaction

The principle that one sense may influence another, as when the smell of food enhances its taste.

McGurk Effect

A phenomenon where visual and auditory information interact, altering perception.

Embodied Cognition

The influence of bodily sensations, gestures, and other physical states on cognitive judgments and preferences.

Synesthesia

A condition where stimulation of one sensory pathway leads to automatic, involuntary experiences in another.

Tritone Paradox

An auditory illusion where high and low frequency sounds are heard ambiguously.

Gestalt

A psychological concept emphasizing the tendency to integrate pieces of information into meaningful wholes.

Figure-Ground

Organizing the visual field into objects (figures) that stand out against a background (ground).

Grouping

The tendency to organize stimuli into coherent groups.

Proximity

Grouping nearby objects together.

Continuity

Perceiving smooth, continuous patterns instead of disjointed ones.

Closure

Filling in gaps to perceive a complete object.

Similarity

Grouping objects with similar characteristics.

Simplicity

Organizing information into the simplest structure possible.

Common Fate

Perceiving objects moving together as part of a group.

Symmetry

Viewing symmetrical elements as part of a unified whole.

Bottom-Up Processing

Perception that starts with raw sensory input, building up to a complete understanding.

Top-Down Processing

Perception influenced by prior knowledge or expectations.

Stroboscopic Motion

A visual phenomenon where a series of static images shown in rapid succession creates the illusion of continuous motion (e.g., how animations or flipbooks work).

selective attention

focusing conscious awareness on specific stimuli

inattentional blindness

missing visible object when focused elsewhere

change blindness

failing to notice changes in the environment

depth perception

ability to perceive 3d space from 2d images on retina

cocktail party effect

Filtering noise to focus on one stimulus (e.g., hearing your name).

monocles clues (one eye)

Linear perspective, interposition, relative size, height, clarity, and light/shadow.

binocular clues

Retinal Disparity: Comparing images from both eyes.

• Convergence: Eye muscle movement indicating object distance.

Gait control theory

conductive hearing loss

Problems in the outer or middle ear that block sound from reaching the inner ear.

sensorineural hearing loss

Damage to the inner ear (cochlea) or the auditory nerve.