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Myers’ PSYCHOLOGY

(7th Ed)

Chapter 6 Perception

James A. McCubbin, PhDClemson University

Worth Publishers

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QUICK! Describe what you see…

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X Marks the spot!Stare at the “X”…What do you see??

Selective Attention: focus of conscious awareness on a particular stimulus

Per second our 5 senses take in about 11 million bits of info

We have to selectively attend

What is the cocktail party effect?

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Change Blindness: We are “blind to change” What’s going on here?

See “Door Study” In Psy video Files

Also…See ”Funny example…” in Video Files

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Perceptual Illusions: Which illusion is this one?

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Perceptual Organization: Using Muller-Lyer Illusion in drawings

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Perceptual Illusions: Big person, tiny person..See “Best Illus. ever”

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Perceptual Illusions: How did this happen?? (slide 39/p. 246)

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Perceptual Organization: Size-Distance Relationship (slide 5/6) Trapezoidal Room Illusion

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Perceptual Illusions: Which disks look farther away?

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Perceptual Illusions

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Perceptual Illusions: What do the pale lines in w/in the black look like? Do they seem to “continue” (tied together)?

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Perceptual Illusions: Describe this drawing…See p. 235 & Hold book upside down & look…Is it the same thing or not?

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Perceptual Organization: Gestalt Visual Capture: tendency for vision to

dominate the other senses EX: Watching movie & know the projector

is behind us w/ speakers…But where do we perceive the sound as coming from?

Gestalt: German word for “form” or “whole”

--refers an organized whole Our tendency to bring pieces of info into

meaningful wholes. Our brain tends to organize info…we

don’t like fragments There are 5 basic principles of grouping…

(or gestalt principles)…

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Perceptual Organization: Gestalt

Grouping: the perceptual tendency to organize stimuli into coherent groups

Grouping Principles1. proximity--group of nearby figures2. similarity--group of similar figures 3. continuity--perceive continuous patterns4. closure--fill in gaps5. connectedness--spots, lines, & areas are

seen as unit when connected

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Perceptual Organization: Grouping (Gestalt) Principles

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Gestalt: EX: 4 lines…or a square?Explains how we group sensations & fill in gaps

to make sense of our world.4 Gestalt Principles: proximity,

continuity, similarity, simplicity, & closure.

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Perceptual Organization: Illusory (illusions) Contours (edges or shapes…)

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Perceptual Organization Figure & Ground--organization of the visual field into objects (figures) that

stand out from their surroundings (ground)

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Face/vase? A

B: this one is several…

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Perceptual Organization: Closure: We see what…?

A B Gestalt

grouping principles are at work here.

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Gestalt continuity:

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Perceptual Organization: Using Grouping Principles:

Gestalt grouping principles are at work here…

Which?(see slide 42)

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Perceptual Organization: Grouping Principles

Impossible doghouse

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Gestalt: Interesting info…

Max Wertheimer - a founder of the Gestalt school is famous for discovery of the phi phenomenon, the experience of apparent motion when there is none. 

Kurt Koffka -  wrote the first book on the principles of Gestalt psychology in 1935. 

Wolfgang Kohler - developed the theory of insight and generalization of knowledge. 

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Perceptual. Organization:

Depth Perception

ability to see objects in 3 dimensions allows us to judge distance using

binocular & monocular cues Binocular cues

retinal disparity images from the two eyes differ …make your

finger move! “finger sausage” closer the object, the larger the disparity

convergence neuromuscular cue two eyes move inward for nearer objects …

follow that finger!

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Depth Perception: How early can babies perceive depth?

Visual Cliff

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Perceptual Organization:

Depth Perception 8 Monocular Cues: needing 1 eye only: (see Baseball slide 26 Find Ex’s of

each) Relative size: smaller image is more

distant -little players in back = farther away Interposition: closer object blocks distant

object -legs of guys in front block other guys Relative clarity: hazy (blurred) object seen

as more distant…fans in the distance + last guy gets blurry

Texture: less detail coarse = close fine = distant

These all help us see “depth” (4 more #28)

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Relative Texture (course vs. fine) & Clarity (clear vs. hazy)

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Perceptual Organization: Depth Perception

Relative Size

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Perceptual Organization: Depth Perception: Interposition: “A” purposely confuses figure/ground using interposition… “B” uses interposition to show depth…look at baby on her lap A

B

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Percept. Organiz.: Depth Perception

Monocular Cues (cont.) relative height

higher objects seen as more distant relative motion (motion parallax)

closer objects seem to move faster linear perspective

parallel lines converge with distance relative brightness

closer objects appear brighter

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relative brightnesscloser objects appear brighter

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Relative height: higher objects seen as more distant& Linear perspective: parallel lines converge to show distance

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Depth Perception:Which line is longer?

Relative Height

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Illusion of Perceived Motion:

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This + next 2 slides: Are any of these items moving? Or are they perfectly still??

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Illusion of motion

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Now…focus completely on ONE single “almond”…What happens?

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Non digital photography

w/ stroboscopic lamp& varying speeds (sometimes used in

discos or nightclubs). Long, slow shutter speeds– w/multiple exposures

Perceived motion:

Stroboscopic(Think “strobe light”)

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Perceptual Organization: Depth Perception

4 Illusory Depth:

These “stairs” are just cut out from

paper…& are just lying on the table...

How does it work?

(See Slide 38/p. 245)

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Perceptual Organization: Depth Perception

Illusory Depth

Explanation

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Depth Perception: Artists’ use of these:

WHICH types of Perspective Techniques do you see?

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ID depth cues in this painting by Gustav Callibotte: Paris on a Rainy Day

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Cimabue, 1200’s:The Madonna &

Jesus

Note how “flat” these figures appear...

Artists had not yet learned to use techniques to show

depth

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Perceptual Organization: Depth Perception

Light and Shadow

Which appears to go in… &

Which appears in front?

WHY?

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Perceptual Constancy (staying constant)

perceiving objects as unchanging even as illumination & retinal image change

--color --shape --size -brightness

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Monocular cues for distancea) Fooled by which cues?b) Ponzo illusion…which cue is wrong here?

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Perceptual Organization- Brightness Contrast (p. 247)Squares A & B: 1 darker or lighter…or same?

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Sensory Restriction (p. 249):Blakemore & Cooper, 1970

Kittens raised without exposure to horizontal lines later had difficulty perceiving horizontal bars

Need to “learn to see” these when we are v. young

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Perceptual Interpretation Perceptual Adaptation

(Vision) ability to adjust to an artificially displaced visual field prism glasses: Touch the dot!!

Perceptual Set (What do you see???) A mental predisposition to perceive one

thing & not another We tend to see what we expect to see…or

hear…remember the “backwards masking? Who was more likely to hear it?

ALSO…what we are USED to seeing/hearing in a certain situation

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Perceptual Set: “Schemas” What you see in the center is

influenced by perceptual set , or mental disposition

EX: If we know a pair are mother & child, we “see” a resemblance

Based on schemas we have as to what we will see next

How can this affect what we see? Jesus on a tortilla… word ”Allah” on a sliced potato…etc

STRONGLY affected by context effects: If you see a waiter from your favorite restaurant at K-Mart, you may KNOW you know them…but in that context not be able to recognize them….

2 Philosophers’ ideas & perceptual set:Immanuel Kant:  The mind shapes

experience…EX: the concepts of space and time were programmed into the human brain

So…Perception depends on innate ways of organizing sensory

experienceLocke:  Perception is based on experienceWe’re born a “blank slate (tabula rasa)

on which experience teaches us…)

Which would relate more to bottom-up?

Which to top-down??54

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Perceptual Set: Schemas What you see is what you get? Or is it what you expect to see is what you get?? See P. 252 “anti-caricature” real person?

Flying Saucers or Clouds?

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Culture & perceptual set: (p.254) What is in the picture? What did Western cultures see?What did East African cultures see?--------------------

**WHAT do YOU see??? (1/2 leave)

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What we see or know before hand influences what we see next…Famous experiment for Perceptual Set:

Group 1: Shown drawings of various animalsGroup 2: Shown drawings of human faces Control group: Shown no pictures beforehand.

-81% of the control group reported seeing the ambiguous image as a man rather than a rat.

-The more pictures of animals that the 'animal' group saw b4, the more likely to see a rat rather than a man (w/ 4 prior images of animals, 100% then saw a rat).

WHAT do YOU see??? (1/2 leave room!)

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Identify EACH…

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Is it a man…or a mouse? Prior experience DOES influence what we see…

Identify EACH

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Is it a man…or a mouse? Prior experience DOES influence what we see… If they saw the faces FIRST, 73-80% subsequently saw a

man rather than a rat.

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Wife or Mother-in-Law:? Age & “P-S”…

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QUICK!!!!! In 15 seconds…Count the" F’s" in the following

text:

FINISHED FILES ARE THE RESULT OF YEARS OF SCIENTIFIC STUDY COMBINED WITH THE EXPERIENCE OF YEARS...

Write down how many…

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THERE ARE 6 -- no joke.

FINISHED FILES ARE THE RESULT OF YEARS OF SCIENTIFIC STUDY COMBINED WITH THE EXPERIENCE OF YEARS...

This has to do with the way we perceive words…The brain has trouble perceiving "OF".

3 is normal, 4 is quite rare all 6 exceptional…

…..unless you HAVE seen this before..

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The Stroop Effect: Name the color of the squares. (next… color of wd.)

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Now... NAME the color of the wordsThis is called the __?__ effect

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Human Factors Psychology explores how people & machines interact explores how to adapt machine & physical

environments to human behaviors EX: My VCR/DVD/TV situation…Could someone

make a fortune making that easy to coordinate??!

Natural mapping: Stove design below: -Using the way the brain understands makes itmore functional

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Perceptual Set: Human Factors Read P. 255-6: Used for pilot error reduction Application

Actualdescent

path

Pilot’s perceiveddescent path

Altitude looksthis much higher

20 18 16 14 12 10 8 6 4 2Distance from runway (miles)

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6

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Altitude(thousands

of feet)

Biopsychosocial perspective: An interaction of CULTURE…..EXPERIENCE…and

BIOLOGY shape our perceptions of our world

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Is There Extrasensory Perception?Extrasensory Perception: Controversial claim that

perception can occur apart from sensory input Telepathy: reading ppl’s minds Clairvoyance: Seeing something happening

w/o actually being there Precognition: Knowing something b4 it

happensParapsychology: Study of paranormal phenomena

ESP = ? Psychokinesis: moving or bending materials

w/ your mind only

Top 260: What is the final result after 1000’s of experiments on ESP?

How could perceptual set have an effect on someone’s belief that this has happened?

**Know the terms above!!!