Unit 7: Perception (cont.)

                         Perceptual Constancies
Perceiving objects as unchanging (having constant lightness, color, shape, and size) even when our retinal images of them change.  For example:
Shape Constancy: We perceive the form of familiar objects as constant even when our retinal images of them change.
Size Constancy: We perceive familiar objects to maintain a constant size even when their distance from us changes.
Lightness Constancy: We perceive an object as having a constant lightness even when its illumination varies.

                      Some Visual Illusions

The Ponzo Illusion (in two forms)

                         Picture

                                      
The Ames Room                              Muller-Lyer Illusion
                                                         

    

**Please see your textbook for explanations of these illusions.

                       Sensory Deprivation
People blind from birth, who later have their vision restored, can distinguish figure-ground relationships, can sense colors, but have great difficulty recognizing objects that they were familiar with by touch.

 Similarly, Blakemore & Cooper found that kittens whose vision was restricted to only seeing vertical lines during a critical period of development, later could not see horizontal lines.   
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 another (e.g., seeing the Lock Ness Monster instead of a piece of driftwood because of your beliefs).
Context Effects: Any given stimulus may trigger radically different perceptions depending on the surrounding environment or circumstances.  Culture may have a great impact on context and perception.

Human Factors Psychology: A branch of psychology that explores how people and machines interact and how machines and physical environments can be adapted to human behaviors.

           Extrasensory Perception (ESP)
The controversial claim that perception can occur apart from sensory input.
Telepathy: Mind to mind communication
Clairvoyance: The sensing of remote events that are presently occuring.
Precognition: The sensing of future events.
Telekinesis (psychokinesis): Ability to affect objects with the power of the mind.
Parapsychologists: Psychologists who study paranormal occurrences, including claims of ESP.

See HANDOUTS


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