AP Psychology Key Terms 2.1a-2.1b
Selective Attention-focusing of conscious awareness on a particular stimulus, often at the exclusion of others.
Inattentional blindness-psychological lack of attention that is not associated with any vision defects or deficits but results in an individual failing to perceive an unexpected stimulus that is in plain sight.
Change blindness-failure to notice changes in an environment such as changes in a person, object, or scene, often due to selective attention.
Perceptual set-mental predisposition to perceive one thing and not another, influenced by experiences, assumptions, and expectations.
Gestalt psychology-whole of anything is greater than its parts, focusing on how we organize sensory information into meaningful wholes.
Figure-Ground -organization of the visual field into objects (figures) that stand out from their surroundings (ground).
Grouping -perceptual tendency to organize stimuli into coherent groups, using principles like proximity, similarity, continuity, closure, and connectedness.
Depth Perception -ability to see objects in three dimensions although the images that strike the retina are two-dimensional, allowing us to judge distance.
The Visual Cliff -laboratory device for testing depth perception in infants and young animals, demonstrating that it is at least partly innate.
A Binocular cue-depth cue, such as retinal disparity, that depends on the use of both eyes.
Convergence-binocular cue for perceiving depth; the extent to which the eyes converge inward when looking at an object, with greater inward strain indicating closer objects.
Retinal disparity-binocular cue for perceiving depth, by comparing images from the two eyeballs, which the brain calculates distance; the greater the disparity between the two images, the closer the object.
A Monocular Cue-depth cue, such as interposition or linear perspective, available to either eye alone.
Stroboscopic movement-perception of continuous movement in a rapid series of slightly varying images, as in a film.
The Phi Phenomenon-illusion of movement created when two or more adjacent lights blink on and off in quick succession.
The Autokinetic Effect- perceived motion of a stationary object in the dark, often attributed to small, involuntary eye movements.
Perceptual Constancy is perceiving objects as unchanging (having consistent shapes, sizes, lightness, and color) 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- ability to adjust to an artificially displaced or even inverted visual field, demonstrated by prism glasses.