12/3/2013

The minds interpretation of sensations

Marian M. Miguel-Lagundino, MA
Instructor

Perception produces
and justifies
subjective reality

Perception is
influenced by own
personal
characteristics and
background.

Transforms senseless information from the

external environment into an organized
experience

Perception is not
constant between
people or even within
a person

Form. Shape. Figure.

There are different rules our mind follows in creating our

interpretations of the world we live in.

http://www.humblelibertarian.com/2012/02/cultural-differences.html

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Gestalt laws of organization

Objects in our
environment are
grouped together
and perceived as one
entity based on
similarity

We group entities based on nearness in space

or distance

Images we see and

focus on in the world
are figures, while
those blurred in the
background or in our
peripheral vision are
ground

Seeing a whole
image even if it is not
because some parts
are missing.

Seeing whole,
uninterrupted figures
even if parts of them
are unseen
Allows us to perceive
two objects even
when one overlaps
with another

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Seeing objects move

in the same direction,
at almost the same
speed, we perceive
the entire group of
these objects as a
unified whole

Object is perceived
as a certain constant
size despite its
nearness to you

Tendency to see
color and brightness
as remaining at the
same intensity even
when illumination is
changing

Perceptual constancies

Regardless of the
angle of your view of
an object, its shape is
constant in your
perception

Categories of perception

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Monocular cues

Relative size

Texture gradient

Motion parallax

Interposition

Seeing depth even with just one eye

Binocular cues
Seeing depth with both eyes

RETINAL DISPARITY: merging of slightly different

images coming from our two eyes

Aerial perspective

Linear perspective

We perceive motion
through the natural
movements of the
eyes

Stroboscopic effect: two

different sources of light
are flashed in fast
succession and we see
one light moving back
and forth