ch4 NBFC Perceptual Processes and the Visual System

These flashcards encompass key concepts related to perceptual processes and the visual system, including definitions and explanations of significant principles and phenomena.

Reversible Figures

A drawing that can be interpreted in two different ways, shifting back and forth.

Perceptual Set

A readiness to perceive a stimulus in a particular way.

Inattentional Blindness

The failure to see unexpected objects in a visual display.

Feature Analysis

The process of assembling specific elements into a more complex form.

Bottom-up Processing

Processing that moves from the whole to individual elements.

Top-down Processing

Processing that formulates perceptual hypotheses about the nature of the stimulus as a whole.

Gestalt Principles

Psychological principles stating that the whole is more than the sum of its parts.

Closure

The tendency of viewers to supply missing elements to complete a familiar figure.

Proximity

Elements that are close to one another tend to be grouped together.

Similarity

Elements that are similar are grouped together.

Simplicity

Viewers tend to organize elements in the simplest way possible.

Continuity

The tendency to see elements in ways that produce smooth continuation.

Distal Stimuli

Stimuli that exist outside the body.

Proximal Stimuli

Energies impinging on sensory receptors.

Perceptual Hypothesis

An inference about which distal stimuli could be responsible for proximal stimuli sensed.

Binocular Cues

Cues about distance from both eyes together.

Monocular Cues

Cues about distance from a single eye.

Perceptual Constancies

The experience of stable perceptions amid constantly changing stimuli.

Visual Illusions

Discrepancies between visual appearance and physical reality.

Müller-Lyer Illusion

A famous optical illusion that involves lines of the same length appearing different due to the orientation of arrows at their ends.