Daily Focus 3.1

1. Continued on next slide. Daily Focus 3.1

2. Answers: 1. No; the fish on the left appears larger. 2. Perception is affected by its relationship to the other objects in the picture.  3. You perceive size in relation to distance. The fish on the left is closer. Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the answers. Daily Focus 3.2

3. Reader’s Guide Main Idea • The way we interpret sensations and organize them into meaningful experiences is called perception.  Objectives • Outline the principles involved in perception.  • Describe how we learn to perceive and what illusions are. Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the information. Section 3 begins on page 223 of your textbook. Section 3-1

4. Reader’s Guide (cont.) Vocabulary • Gestalt  • subliminal messages  • motion parallax  • constancy  • illusions  • extrasensory perception (ESP)  Click the Speaker button to listen to Exploring Psychology. Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the information. Section 3 begins on page 223 of your textbook. Section 3-2

5. Introduction • Perception goes beyond reflexive behavior and allows us to confront changes in our environment.  • Perceptual thinking is essential for us to adapt to change.  • People do not usually experience a mass of colors, noises, temperatures, and pressures.  • Rather, we see cars and buildings, hear voices and music, and feel pencils, desks, and physical contact. Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the information. Section 3-3

6. Introduction (cont.) • People do not merely have sensory experiences; we perceive objects.  • The brain receives information from the senses and organizes and interprets it into meaningful experiences–unconsciously.  • This process is called perception. Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the information. Section 3-4

7. Principles of Perceptual Organization • Through the process of perception, the brain is always trying to make sense out of the confusion of stimuli.  • The brain makes sense of the world by creating “wholes” out of bits and pieces of information in the environment.  • Each “whole” that is organized by the brain is called a Gestalt. Gestalt the experience that comes from organizing bits and pieces of information into meaningful wholes Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the information. Section 3-5

8. Principles of Perceptual Organization (cont.) • Gestalt psychologists have tried to identify the principles the brain uses in constructing perceptions (Koffka, 1963).  • Principles that people use in organizing patterns are proximity, continuity, similarity, simplicity, and closure.  • The Gestalt principles of organization help explain how we group our sensations and fill in gaps to make sense of our world. Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the information. Section 3-6

9. Gestalt Principles Figure 3-1

10. Figure-Ground Perception • One form of perceptual organization is the division of experience into figure and ground.  • Figure-ground perception is the ability to discriminate properly between a figure and its background.  • Figure and ground are important in hearing as well as in vision. Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the information. Section 3-7

11. What Is It? What did you see the first time you looked at this illustration–a vase or two profiles? People invariably organize their experience into figure and ground. Figure 3-2

12. Perceptual Inference • Often we have perceptions that are not based entirely on current sensory information.  • The phenomenon of filling in the gaps in what our senses tell us is known as perceptual inference (Gregory, 1970).  • Perceptual inference is largely automatic and unconscious; thus, it often depends on experience.  • On the other hand, we are probably born with some of our ability to make perceptual inferences. Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the information. Section 3-8

13. Learning to Perceive • In large part, perceiving is something that people learn to do.  • Experiments with human beings have also shown that active involvement in one’s environment is important for accurate perception.  • Learning to perceive is influenced by our needs, beliefs, and expectations. Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the information. Section 3-9

14. Defying Basic Geometric Laws Figure 3-3

15. Subliminal Perception • In 1957, Vance Packard divulged that advertisers were using a revolutionary breakthrough in marketing techniques: subliminal advertising.  • This concept used subliminal messages, brief auditory or visual messages presented below the absolute threshold so that there is less than a 50 percent chance that they will be perceived. subliminal messages brief auditory or visual messages that are presented below the absolute threshold Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the information. Section 3-10

16. Subliminal Perception (cont.) • The idea for subliminal ads was a natural outgrowth of a long series of controversial studies on subliminal perception–the ability to notice stimuli that affect only the unconscious mind.  • Even if it is possible for people to perceive information at very low levels of intensity, there is no clear evidence that these weak, often limited messages would be more powerful in influencing people than would conscious messages. Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the information. Section 3-11

17. Depth Perception • Depth perception, which is the ability to recognize distances and three-dimensionality, develops in infancy.  • Psychologists have placed infants on large tables and found that they most likely will not crawl over the edge.  • Infants seem able to perceive that it is a long distance to the floor. Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the information. Section 3-12

18. The Necker Cube The Necker cube is an ambiguous figure. You can will yourself to see it as if you were looking down on it, with corner X closest to you, or as if you were looking up at it, with corner Y closest to you. Figure 3-4

19. Monocular Depth Cues • People use many monocular depth cues to perceive distance and depth.  • Monocular depth cues are cues that can be used with a single eye.  • Four of the monocular cues external to us that we use are:  • relative height • interposition • light and shadows • texture-density gradient Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the information. Section 3-13

20. Monocular Depth Cues (cont.) • Another cue is motion parallax–the apparent movement of objects that occurs when you move your head from side to side or when you walk around.  • Two other distance cues are linear perspective and relative motion. motion parallax the apparent movement of stationary objects relative to one another that occurs when the observer changes position Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the information. Section 3-14

21. Binocular Depth Cues • Binocular depth cues depend upon the movement of both eyes.  • For example, convergence is the process by which your eyes turn inward to look at nearby objects.  • Another cue is the information provided by retinal disparity.  • Because each of your eyes occupies a different position, each eye receives a slightly different image. That difference is retinal disparity. Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the information. Section 3-15

22. Constancy • When we have learned to perceive certain objects in our environment, we tend to see them in the same way, regardless of changing conditions.  • Despite changing physical conditions, people are able to perceive objects as the same by the processes of size, shape, brightness and color constancy. constancy the tendency to perceive certain objects in the same way regardless of changing angle, distance, or lighting Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the information. Section 3-16

23. Constancy (cont.) • An example of size constancy will illustrate how we have an automatic system for perceiving an object as being the same size whether it is far or near.  • Distance information compensates for the enlarging eye image to produce size constancy.  • If information about distance is eliminated, your perception of the size of the object begins to correspond to the actual size of the eye image. Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the information. Section 3-17

24. Shape Constancy We perceive the opening door as being rectangular in shape, although our view of the shape of it changes as it opens. Figure 3-5

25. Illusions • Illusions are incorrect perceptions.  • Illusions can be useful in teaching us about how our sensation and perceptual systems work.  • Illusions are created when perceptual cues are distorted so that our brains cannot correctly interpret space, size, and depth cues. illusions perceptions that misrepresent physical stimuli Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the information. Section 3-18

26. Extrasensory Perception • We are fascinated by things that cannot be seen, easily explained, or often even verified, such as flying saucers, atoms, genes, and extrasensory perception.  • Extrasensory perception(ESP)–receiving information about the world through channels other than the normal senses–is a hotly debated topic. extrasensory perception (ESP) an ability to gain information by some means other than the ordinary senses Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the information. Section 3-19

27. Extrasensory Perception (cont.) • There are four types of ESP:  • Clairvoyance is perceiving objects or information without sensory input.  • Telepathy involves reading someone else’s mind or transferring one’s thoughts.  • Psychokinesis involves moving objects through purely mental effort.  • Precognition is the ability to foretell events.  • Many people are convinced that ESP exists because of an intense personal experience that can never be scientifically validated. Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the information. Section 3-20

28. Extrasensory Perception (cont.) • Many scientists do not accept the results of experiments supporting ESP because the findings are highly unstable.  • One basic principle of scientific research is that one scientist should be able to replicate another scientist’s results.  • Not only do different ESP experiments yield contradictory findings but also the same individual seems to show ESP on one day but not on the next. Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the information. Section 3-21

29. Section Assessment Review the VocabularyDescribe the Gestalt principles of organization. How do these principles help us organize reality? Gestalt principles of organization are proximity, similarity, closure, continuity, and simplicity. They help us organize perceptual information in a way that allows us to create a whole. Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the answer. Section 3-Assessment 1

30. Section Assessment (cont.) Visualize the Main Idea Use a graphic organizer similar to the one shown on page 231 of your textbook to list and briefly describe monocular depth cues. Answers should reflect an understanding of monocular depth cues, which include relative height, interposition, light and shadows, texture-density gradient, motion parallax, linear perspective, and relative motion. Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the answer. Section 3-Assessment 2

31. Section Assessment (cont.) Recall InformationWhat are the binocular depth cues? How do they help us judge reality? Binocular depth cues depend on the movement of both eyes. Convergence is when our eyes turn inward to view objects that are close. Large retinal disparity means the object is close; small retinal disparity means the object is farther away. These cues help us judge distance. Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the answer. Section 3-Assessment 3

32. Section Assessment (cont.) Think CriticallyHow do illusions demonstrate the difference between sensations and perceptions? Sensations are the sensory input; perceptions are the sometimes inaccurate processing of the stimuli. The illusion is created when our brain misinterprets the sensory stimuli. Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the answer. Section 3-Assessment 4

33. Section Assessment (cont.) Without consulting your textbook, write down five new things that you learned from this chapter. Share your answers. Section 3-Assessment Close

34. Click the mouse button to return to the Contents slide. End of Section 3

35. Section 3: Perception • The Gestalt principles of organization help explain how we group our sensations and fill in gaps to make sense of our world.  • Figure-ground perception is the ability to discriminate properly between figure and ground. • Perceptual inference is the phenomenon of filling in the gaps in what our senses tell us. • Learning to perceive is influenced by our needs, beliefs, and expectations. Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the information. Chapter Summary 5

36. Section 3: Perception (cont.) • People use monocular depth cues and binocular depth cues to perceive distance and depth.  • Incorrect perceptions, created when perceptual cues are distorted, are called illusions. Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the information. Chapter Summary 6

37. Continued on next slide. Chapter Concepts 1

38. Chapter Concepts 2

39. Chapter Concepts 3

40. Exploring the World of Senses From the Classroom of Parran H. Curry-Guy North Education Center, Columbus, OH Background: People rarely consider how their experience of the world is affected by the coordination of their senses. When one of those senses is impaired, people can concentrate on what they experience through their other senses. Continued on next slide. Chapter Activity 1

41. Exploring the World of Senses From the Classroom of Parran H. Curry-Guy North Education Center, Columbus, OH Directions: For this activity you will need to find a partner and a blindfold that your teacher will provide.  Take turns wearing the blindfold and then having your partner lead you around the school and its grounds.  Concentrate on using your other senses to learn as much as you can about your surroundings as you are being guided. Continued on next slide. Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the information. Chapter Activity 2

42. Exploring the World of Senses From the Classroom of Parran H. Curry-Guy North Education Center, Columbus, OH Conclusion: After everybody has had the blindfold experience, discuss with the class what you felt, what sounds you heard, and what smells you encountered. You should also discuss how you felt about not having your sense of sight to guide you. Chapter Activity 3

43. Total color deficiency is the inability to see colors. Everything appears in shades of gray. This rare condition is known as monochromatism. Partial color deficiency, known as dichromatism, is the inability to distinguish one of the primary colors, usually red or green. FYI 2.1

44. In 1990 Anthony Greenwald and his colleagues tested the power of suggestion by switching the labels on two subliminal tapes–one aimed at improving the memory, the other at improving self-esteem. At the end of one month, participants in the study reported an improvement in whatever area the label promised. FYI 3.1

45. When the color preferences of college students in the United States, Kuwait, Iran, and Lebanon were studied, red and blue had the highest preference ranking for Americans only. Red and blue were the lowest-ranked color preferences in Kuwait. Green consistently ranked high among students from all four nations. Studies have been conducted comparing colors preferred by men and women, by religion, and by climate. Cultural Connections 1.1

46. Sensory Dysfunction Recent studies suggest that many autistic children and adults have sensory dysfunction in one or more of their sensory systems including the hearing, vision, tactile, vestibular, or proprioceptive (internal) systems. Autistic children are often over- or under-responsive to sensory input. Specific treatment addressed to their sensory dysfunction can vastly improve their quality of life. For one autistic boy, three weeks of visual training reduced his retinal disparity and improved his eye-hand coordination. Psychology Update 1.1

47. Sensory Deprivation Tanks • Sensory deprivation tanks, specifically flotation tanks, allow you to escape the constraints of gravity. • Proponents claim that in the tank you can easily slip into altered states of consciousness. • The release of endorphins into your bloodstream slows as sensory input diminishes. • Roderick Borrie, Ph.D., recommends the flotation tank as the ideal way to recover from intense competition since stress is reduced, muscles are relaxed, and blood pressure and heart rate drop. Continued on next slide. Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the information. Looking at the Issues 2.1

48. Sensory Deprivation Tanks • While short periods of sensory deprivation may be useful, long periods of deprivation decrease the brain’s efficiency, may cause a partial loss of memory, lower IQ, and may result in hallucinations and personality changes. • Why are limited periods of deprivation useful? • Why are long periods of deprivation harmful? • Do you think that the effects of long-term deprivation can be reversed? Explain. Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the information. Looking at the Issues 2.2

49. Click the mouse button to return to the Contents slide. End of Slide Show