Psychology Chapter 6

• Selective attention- the focusing of conscious awareness on a particular stimulus,

as in the cocktail party effect
• Inattentional blindness- failing to see visible objects when our attention is
directed elsewhere
• Visual capture- the tendency for vision to dominate the other senses
• Gestalt- on organized whole; emphasize information into meaningful wholes
• Figure-ground- the organization of the visual field into objects (the figures) that
stand out from their Surroundings (the ground)
• Grouping- the perceptual tendency to organize stimuli into coherent groups
• Depth perception- the ability to see objects in 3-d although the images that strike
the retina are 2-d; allows us to judge distance
• Visual cliff- a lab device for testing depth perception in infants and young animals
• Binocular cues- depth cues, such as retinal disparity and convergence, that
depend on the use of two eyes
• Retinal disparity- a binocular cue for perceiving depth: by perceiving images from
the two eyeballs, the brain computes distance- the greater the disparity
(difference) between the two images, the closer the object
• Convergence- a binocular cue to perceiving depth; the extent to which eyes
converge inward when looking at an object. The greater the inwards strain, the
closer the object
• Monocular cues- depth cues, such as interposition and linear perspective,
available to either eye alone
• Phi phenomenon- an illusion of movement created when two or more adjacent
lights blink on and off in quick succession
• Perceptual constancy- perceiving objects as unchanging even as illumination and
retinal images change
• Perceptual adaptation- in vision, the ability to adjust to an artificially displaced or
even inverted visual field
• Perceptual set- a mental predisposition to perceive one thing and not the other
• Human factors psychology- a branch of psychology that explores how people
and machines interact and how machines and physical environments can be
made safe and easy to use
• Extrasensory perception (ESP)- the controversial claim that perception can occur
apart from sensory input
• Parapsychology- the study of paranormal phenomenon, including ESP and
psycho kinesis

I. Perception
a. Def- the selection, organization, and interpretation of sensations
b. Selective Attention
 i. Cocktail party effect- zooming into what is of greatest interest at
the moment
II. Perceptual Illusions-
a. helps us to understand the concepts involved in processing, organizing,
and interpreting info from senses—(ex-visuals)
b. Visual capture-vision overrides other senses—ex-thinking sound is
coming from the screen at movies.
III. Perceptual Organization-
a. process of organizing sights, sounds, etc. into what we already know
through our experiences.
b. Gestalt principle- “form” or “whole”
i. Early form of psych. that studied how we integrate pieced to
form a whole
ii. Important because they brought the whole cognitive (thinking,
organizing, arranging) concept to psychology
c. Figure ground-
i. tendency to zoom in on a figure and put it on a “background”
ii. Proximity-ex. People sitting/standing by each other-assume they
are together
iii. Similarity-grouping like things together
iv. Continuity—continuation of the “line”
v. Closure—tendency to fill in the gaps
vi. Correctedness—tendency to “fix” things-ex-rounded corners on a
triangle
d. Depth Perception—tendency to see things in 3D so that we can judge
distance.
i. Seems in to partly innate-babies on the cliff experiments.
ii. Binocular cues-our 2 eyes see 2 different things=retinal disparity-
brain weaves the 2 together to give a good estimate of different
objects-similar to using 3D photography which uses 2 different
cameras
iii. Monocular cues-adjusting to using just one eye to judge distance
or relative height=relative clarity (closing one eye to see more
clearly)—in art, closer objects appear clearer and than objects in a
distance—true skill of great artists.
1. Linear perspective-convergence of lines at a distance-ex.
Runway
e. Motion Perception
i. Phi phenomena-when two adjacent stationery lights blink off and
on in such quick succession that an illusion of movement is created
—Times Square
ii. Stroboscopic movement-quick, successive, briefly flashed
images as in animated cartoons.
 f. Perceptual Constancy-perceiving objects correctly regardless of
distance, light, angle=ex. A horse is a horse of course, of course,
regardless of where you stand in relation to the horse.

IV. Interpretations
a. Critical period in perceptual development-use it or lose it.
i. Color and figure ground are all that seem to be innate.
ii. Immanuel Kant=perceptual understanding comes from inborn ways
of organizing sensory experiences. If there is no exposure, neural
connections in the brain will not be formed.
b. Perceptual adaptations-with time, humans can adapt to all kinds of
topsy-turvy if they have to-ex. Upside down glasses. (Some other animals
cannot adapt)
c. Perceptual set-mental predisposition to hear or see things that are not
there.=ex. SEX in the clouds in Lion King/Aladdin myths/Wizard of Oz
i. -set has value in that it enhances our ability to read and understand
context cues/ not good when we tend to stereotype what we
see/hear/read (see examples)
V. ESP: perception apart from sensory input
a. Terminology:
i. Clairvoyance- seeing things
ii. Telepathy- passing information through thoughts
iii. Precognition- perceive/ predict future events
b. most scientists are skeptical about ESP
c. people want to believe in it