2.1: Perception - Unit 2 Cognition


Module 2.1a Perception: Influences on Perception

2.1-1 Selective Attention

  1. Identify the four internal factors that interact with external stimulus information.

    • Attention

    • Expectation

    • Motivations

    • Emotions

  1. What is selective attention?

    • Focusing conscious awareness on a particular stimulus

  2. What is inattentional blindness?

    • Failing to see visible objects when our attention is directed elsewhere

  3. What is change blindness?

    • Failing to notice changes in the environment (form of inattentional blindness)


2.1-2 Expectations, Context, Motivation, Emotion

  1. Explain perceptual set.

    • A mental predisposition to perceive one thing and not another

  2. Identify some of the stereotypes that “color our perception” everyday. (Know at least 4)

    • Culture

    • Ethnicity

    • Gender

    • Income

    • Age

    • Abilities

  3. What three things can affect our interpretations?

    • Immediate context

    • Motivation

    • Emotion


Module 2.1b Perception: Perceptual Organization and Interpretation

2.1-3 Perceptual Organization

  1. Gestalt mean?

    • Form or whole (given figures and explain how it is gestalt psychology)

  2. What do Gestalt psychologists emphasize?

    • Tendency to integrate pieces of information into meaningful wholes

  3. Explain the following terms:

    • 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


2.1-4 Depth Perception

  1. Explain the following terms:

    • Depth Perception: ability to see objects in three dimensions although the images that strike to retina are two dimensional; allows us to judge distance

    • Visual Cliff: laboratory device for testing depth perception in infants and young animals

    • Binocular Cues: a depth cue, such as 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 between the two images, the closer the object

    • Monocular Cues: a depth cue, such as interposition or linear perspective, available to either eye alone

    • Stroboscopic Movement: an illusion of continuous movement created when viewing a rapid series of slightly varying still images

    • Phi Phenomenon: an illusion of movement created when two or more adjacent light blink on and off in quick succession

    • Autokinetic Effect: the illusory movement of a still spot of light in a dark room


2.1-5 Perceptual Constancy

  1. Perceptual Constancy: perceiving objects as unchanging (having consistent color, brightness, shape, and size) even as illumination and retinal images change

  2. Color Constancy: perceiving similar objects as having consistent color, even if changing illumination alters the wavelengths reflected by the object


2.1-6 Experience and Visual Perception 

  1. What is perceptual adaptation?

    • ability to adjust to changed sensory input, including an artificially displaced or even inverted visual field