AP Psych. 2.1a-2.1b

selective attention

focusing

conscious awareness on a

particular stimulus.

Change blindness

failing

to notice changes in the

environment; a form of

inattentional blindness,

perceptual set

a mental

predisposition to perceive one

thing and not another.

gestalt

an organized

whole. Gestalt psychologists

emphasized our tendency to

integrate pieces of information

into meaningful wholes.

figure-ground

the organization

of the visual field into objects

(the figures) that stand out from

their surroundings (the ground).

grouping

the perceptual tendency to organize stimuli into coherent groups.

depth perception

the ability to

see objects in three dimensions,

although the images that strike

the retina are two-dimensional;

allows us to judge distance.

visual cliff

a laboratory device

for testing depth perception in

infants and young animals.

binocular cue

a depth cue, such as a retinal disparity, that depends on the use of two eyes.

convergence

a cue to nearby object’s distance, enabled by the brain combining retinal images.

retinal disparity

a binocular

cue for perceiving depth. By

comparing retinal images from

the two eyes, the brain computes

distance - the greater the

disparity (difference) between

the two images, the closer the

object.

monocular cue

a depth cue,

such as interposition or linear

perspective, available to either

eye alone.

stroboscopic movement

an illusion of continuous

movement (as in a motion

picture) experienced when

viewing a rapid series of slightly

varying still images.

phi phenomenom

an illusion

of movement created when two

or more adjacent lights blink on

and off in quick succession.

autokinetic effect

the illusory

movement of a still spot of light

in a dark room.

perceptual constancy

perceiving objects as unchanging

(having consistent color,

brightness, shape, and size)

even as illumination and retinal

images change.

color constancy

perceiving

familiar objects as having

consistent color, even if

changing illumination alters the

wavelengths reflected by the

object.

perceptual adaptation

the

ability to adjust to changed

sensory input, including an

artificially displaced or even

inverted visual field.