Basics of Psychology PERCEPTION

Perception Color perception 1

1. Absolute threshold 1) Young-Helmholtz theory (trichromatic theory)
• The minimum magnitude of a stimulus that can be realiably
discriminated from no stimulus at all (1850’s)
2. Signal-detection theory – We can perceive 3 colors: blue, green, red.
• Standard way of understanding how errors are made in many diverse – Criticism: Why don’t exist blueish-yellow or
situation
• The perception: Can I distinguish the stimulus and the noise? reddish-green?
Respond Respond
Present Absent
Stimulus
Hit Miss
Present
Stimulus
False alarm Correct rejection
Absent
• How many is the hit rate and the false-alarm rate?
It isn’t enough to measure the percent of Hit. We have to measure the hit rate
and the false-alarm rate together.
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• The sensibility of man is different.

Color perception 2 Color perception 3

2) Hering’s opponent process theory (1872)
– the visual system interprets color in an
antagonistic way: red vs. green, blue vs. yellow
– These are two values. These two values determine
the color.
3) Hurvich és Jameson: dual process theory
(1957) – integration of two previous theory
– The retina contains three types of cones: the
retina's three types of cones are preferentially
sensitive to blue, green, and red
(The retina contains two types of photoreceptors, rods and cones.)
– The thalamus contains two types of opponent
color cells

– These 2 system creates together the colors

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 Perception: perceptual constancy Color constancy
The perception is constant even though the
environment changes.
The perception of an object is constant even
though our sensation of the object changes.
We can perceive the objects compared to
environment.
1. Lightness and color constancy
2. Shape constancy and distance constancy
3. Size constancy
7 How many colors are in the picture? 8

Size constancy Shape constancy

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Emmert’s experiment Ames room

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 Perception of distance Relative size - when objects are equal size, the
1. Monocular distance cues closer one will take up more of your visual field
• Relative size Occlusion - when one object partially covers another
• Occlusion Relative height - objects that are higher in the field of
• Relative height vision are more distant
• Perspective convergence Perspective convergence - parallel lines appear to
• Familiar size come together in the distance
• Motion parallax Familiar size - distance information based on our
• Atmospheric perspective knowledge of object size
• Texture gradient Motion parallax - close objects in direction of
2. Binocular distance cues movement glide rapidly past but objects in the
distance appear to move slowly
• Binocular parallaxis
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Questions
The basic of binocular parallax is the • Show Signal-detection theory!
Binocular disparity - differences in images between
the two eyes • Show the color perception theories!
• Which types of perception of distance
Others: exist?
Texture gradient - equally spaced elements are more
closely packed as distance increases
• What does Perceptual constancy means?
Atmospheric perspective - distance objects are fuzzy
Which types of perceptual constancy exist?
and have a blue tint

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AnKolTqkK64
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