AP Psychology Topic 2.1 - Perception

EQ: How do internal and external factors influence perception?

I. Perceptual Systems

Processing Incoming Information - Begins with sensory input, where stimuli from the environment are detected by our sensory organs, such as the eyes and ears, before being interpreted by the brain.
How We Perceive the World - Our perceptions are shaped not only by the raw sensory data we receive but also by our prior experiences, expectations, and cultural context, all of which contribute to how we interpret and understand the stimuli around us.
Context, Expectations, and Cultural Effects - These factors play a significant role in how individuals perceive events and situations, influencing our judgments, reactions, and overall understanding of the world.
Gestalt Psychology - A theory that emphasizes the human ability to perceive patterns and wholes, arguing that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, which plays a crucial role in understanding how we organize sensory information into meaningful experiences.
Attention - The selective focus on specific stimuli, allowing us to enhance our perception of certain elements while disregarding others, thus shaping our overall understanding and reaction to our environment.

II. Visual Perceptual Processes

Visual Perceptual Constancies - The tendency to perceive objects as stable and unchanging despite changes in sensory input, including size, shape, and color constancy, which allows us to maintain a consistent understanding of objects across varying conditions.
Apparent Movement - The perception of motion in stationary objects, often explained through phenomena such as the "stroboscopic effect" or "phi phenomenon," where the brain fills in gaps between images to create the illusion of movement.

III. Key Terms

Apparent movement - When something looks like it’s moving even though it’s not (like lights blinking in a pattern that looks like motion).
Attention - Focusing your awareness on certain things while ignoring others.
Binocular depth cues - Clues about how far things are that need both eyes, like how each eye sees a slightly different image.
Bottom-up processing - When your brain builds understanding starting from the actual sensory input (like shapes, colors, sounds) and works up to meaning.
Change blindness - Not noticing big changes in a scene because your attention is focused elsewhere.
Closure - Your brain filling in gaps to see a complete image, even if parts are missing.
Cocktail party effect - The ability to focus on one voice or sound in a noisy environment, like picking out your name in a loud room.
Cognition - All the mental processes related to thinking, knowing, remembering, and problem-solving.
Context - The situation or background in which something happens that helps you understand it.
Convergence - A depth cue that comes from how much your eyes turn inward to look at something close.
Cultural expectations - Beliefs or behaviors we learn from our culture that influence how we see or understand things.
Depth perception - The ability to judge how far away something is or see in 3D.
Expectations - What you believe or predict will happen, which can influence what you notice or perceive.
External sensory information - Signals from the outside world (like sights, sounds, smells) that your brain takes in through the senses.
Figure-and-ground perception - Recognizing an object (figure) as separate from the background (ground).
Gestalt psychology - A way of thinking that says we see whole forms or patterns, not just small parts.
Grouping - The brain's way of organizing things into groups based on similarities, patterns, or proximity.
Inattentional blindness - Not seeing something right in front of you because your attention is elsewhere.
Internal prior expectations - What your mind already believes or expects, which can shape how you perceive new things.
Interposition - When one object blocks part of another, it looks closer to us.
Linear perspective - A depth cue where parallel lines appear to meet in the distance (like railroad tracks).
Monocular depth cues - Clues about depth that only need one eye, like size or shadows.
Perception - How your brain interprets and makes sense of what you see, hear, and feel.
Perceptual constancy - Recognizing objects as the same even if they look different under different lighting or angles.
Perceptual set - A mental “readiness” to see things in a certain way based on experience or expectation.
Proximity - Things that are close together are seen as a group.
Relative clarity - Objects that are clearer and more detailed look closer than blurry ones.
Relative size - If two objects are usually the same size, the smaller one looks farther away.
Retinal disparity - The slight difference between what your left and right eyes see, which helps with depth perception.
Schema - A mental framework or pattern that helps you understand and organize information.
Selective attention - Focusing on one thing while ignoring other distractions.
Selective inattention - When you purposely or unknowingly ignore something, often because you're focused on something else.
Similarity - Things that look alike are seen as part of the same group.
Texture gradient - The more detail you see in a surface, the closer it appears; less detail makes it look farther away.
Top-down processing - Using what you already know, believe, or expect to make sense of what you’re seeing or experiencing.
Visual perceptual processes - The steps your brain takes to understand what your eyes are seeing.