PSYCHOLOGY - perception key terms

Perception

The organisation and interpretation of sensory information in order to understand the world around us.

Sensation

The physical stimulation of sense receptors by the environment

Binocular depth cues

Cues that are only detected when both eyes are used

Convergence

How hard the eye muscles have to work to view objects

Height in plane

Objects that are higher up the visual field appear further away

Linear perspective

When parallel lines converge in a way that suggests distance

Monocular depth cues

Perceptual cues that can be detected with one eye

Occlusion

Objects that obscure or are in front of others appear further away

Relative size

Smaller objects in the visual field appear further away

Retinal disparity

Teh way your left and right eyes see different images

Visual constancies

Our ability to see a n object as the same

Visual cues

Visual information from the environment about movement, distance and where things are in relation to each other

Ambiguity

The way in which some images or stimuli can be perceived in more than one way.

Fiction

When a figure is perceived even though it is not part of the image or stimulus

Misinterpreted depth cues

The brain sees a linear perspective in a picture, creating the impression of distance and accidentally applies size constancy.

Size constancy

The brain’s ability to perceive familiar objects as the same size.teh uncon

Visual illusions

The unconscious mistakes of perception.

Direct theory

Motion parallax

Things that are closer, appear to be moving faster than things further away

Nature

Aspects of behaviour that are inherited

Constructive theory

The argument that we make sense of the world around us by building our perception based on the incoming data.

Inference

A lot of what we perceive in the world around us is incomplete sop the brain will fill the gaps in our sensory experience

Nuture

Perceptual set

A tendency or readiness to notice or prefer certain aspects of the sensory environment whilst noticing less or ignoring others

Culture

The social world that surrounds us

Emotion

A strong feeling or mood that has important r motivational properties

Motivation

Forces that drive your behaviour

Expectation

A belief about what is likely to happen based on past experience