GCSE Psychology- Perception

Sensation

Information received by the sense receptors

Perception

the process of organizing and interpreting sensory information,

Müller-Lyer illusion

misinterpretation of depth cue-

Ingoing fins are shaped like the outside of a building projecting out.
Outgoing fins are shaped like the inside corner of a room which is stretching away from us.
This gives the illusion of distance/nearness.
We mentally scale up the line that appears closer (outgoing fins) so it appears longer.

Rubin's vase

ambiguous figure

monocular depth cues

Interpreting information from one eye

binocular depth cues

interpreting the way both eyes detect information

convergence

A binocular cue for perceiving depth

Muscles round our eyes work harder when objects are close. This information is sent to the brain to give information about depth and distance.

retinal disparity

a binocular cue, the difference between the left and right eye’s view which the brain receives to give information about depth and distance.

occlusion

objects that are closer will sometimes obscure objects that are further away

relative size

a monocular cue for perceiving depth; the smaller retinal image is farther away

Height in Plane (Monocular Cue)

near objects are low in the visual field; more distant ones are higher up

linear perspective

A monocular cue for perceiving depth; the more parallel lines converge, the greater their perceived distance.

Gibson's Theory of Direct Perception

sensation and perception are the same thing,Our ability to perceive is innate – we don’t need to learn it. motion parallax tells the brain how fast we are moving

Gibson's evaluation

real world meaning- high ecological validity from soldiers in ww2/

cant explain visual illusions- more to perception/

evidence- visual cliff experiment

Gregory's constructivist theory of perception

Perception is influenced by our assumptions and expectations as well as our knowledge, visual cues help the brain make inferences, perception depends on experience which is learned

Gregory's evaluation

Cultural differences in perception-different experiences influence perception/

visual illusions- illusions are made to fool us/

perception in babies-they prefer faces

Hudson's theory

To see if different cultures perceived information in a photo differently

Hudson's evaluation

Language barrier/

No control groups/

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Gilchrist and Nesberg

what effect food deprivation has on the perception of food pictures, Two groups of students: one group deprived of food for 20 hours and a control group, Students were shown four slides, each one showing a meal.The picture was shown again, but dimmer, and participants had to adjust the lighting to make it look the same as it did before. Participants perceived the food as brighter the longer they were deprived of food.

Gilchrist and Nesberg evaluation

Sanford also found similar results/

ethical issues/

not like everyday life

motion parallax

the perception of motion of objects in which close objects appear to move more quickly than objects that are farther away

Factors that affect perception

Motivation/

emotion/

culture

expectations

perceptual set

a mental predisposition to perceive one thing and not another

Bruner and Minturn’s Study

whether an ambiguous figure was seen differently if the context of the figure was changed.

An independent groups design was used where participants were either presented with a sequence of letters or a sequence of numbers with the same ambiguous figure in the middle.
The ambiguous figure could be seen as either the letter B or as the number 13.
Participants had to report and also draw what they saw.

Bruner and Minturn’s Study evaluation

artificial task-lacks validity

independent groups design- participant variable

real world application-explains serious mistakes made

Ponzo illusion

Converging lines give the illusion of distance.
The brain uses size constancy and mentally scales up the more distant line while mentally scaling down the closer line.

Necker cube

The same image of a cube can be perceived as either pointing upwards to the right, or downwards to the left.

Kanisza triangle

Illusory contours to create the impression that a second triangle is overlapping the first one.

Ames room

misinterpreted depth cue

room the shape of a trapezoid

people seen as different sizes even though they are the same