Unit ii

Perception

The study of sensation is concerned with the initial contact between organisms and their physical
environment. It focuses on describing the relationship between various forms of sensory stimulation
(including electromagnetic and sound waves and physical pressure) and how these inputs are registered by
our sense organs (the eyes, ears, nose, tongue, and skin). In contrast, the study of perception is concerned
with identifying the processes through which we interpret and organize sensory information to produce our
conscious experience of objects and relationships among objects. It is important to remember that perception
is not simply a passive process of decoding incoming sensory information. If this were the case, we would
lose the richness of our everyday stream of conscious experiences.

WHAT IS PERCEPTION?
Perception: The process through which we select, organize, and interpret input from our sensory receptors.

In our interaction with the physical outside world, it is necessary to process information from it for the
purpose of making sense of the world and also making ourselves safe and reassured.This process of sensing
the outside world is completed by our perception, which, with our sensory organs, allows us to recognize
and identify the existence of all kinds of stimuli and then evaluate and give meanings to them.

Thus, Perception may be defined as the dynamic psychological process responsible for attending to,
organising and interpreting sensory data. The word “perception” comes from the Latin words perceptio,
percipio, and means “receiving, collecting, action of taking possession, and apprehension with the mind or
senses.”

1) PERCEPTUAL PROCESSING
From a psychological point of view, the process of sensation, on the one hand, and perception, on the other,
work together through what are termed respectively `bottom-up' and `top-down' processing.

 THE BOTTOM-UP APPROACH

Combination and interpretation of “whole”

Breakdown/analysis of stimuli (e.g., feature detection)

Detection of individual stimulus elements

In bottom-up processing, the system takes in individual elements of the stimulus and then combines them
into a unified perception.In other words the term bottom-up (or data-driven) essentially means that the
perceiver starts with small bits of information from the environment and combines them in various ways to
form a percept. A bottom-up model of perception and pattern recognition might describe your seeing edges,
rectangular and other shapes, and certain lighted regions and putting this information together to “conclude”
you are seeing the scene outside your window. That is, you would form a perception from only the
information in the distal stimulus.

For example your visual system operates in a bottom-up fashion as you read. Its feature detectors analyse the
elements in each letter of every word and then recombine them into your visual perception of the letters and
words.

How it works?

The theory of bottom-up processing was introduced by psychologist E. J. Gibson, who took a direct
approach to the understanding of perception. Rather than being dependent upon learning and context,
Gibson felt that perception was a “what you see is what you get” process. 1 He argued that sensation and
perception are the same thing.

Because Gibson’s theory suggests that processing can be understood solely in terms of environmental
stimuli, it is something referred to as the ecological theory of perception.

The bottom-up processing works like this:

1. We experience sensory information about the world around us, such as light levels from our
environment.
2. These signals are brought to the retina. Transduction transforms these signals into electrical impulses
that can then be transmitted.
3. Electrical impulses travel along visual pathways to the brain, where they enter the visual cortex and
are processed to form our visual experience.

This approach to understanding perception is an example of reductionism. Rather than looking at perception
more holistically, including how sensory information, visual processes, and expectations contribute to how
we see the world, bottom-up processing breaks the process down into its most basic elements.

 Top-down processing

Concept, expectation

Guides analysis (Yes? No?)

Interpretation of incoming stimuli

On the other hand, `top-down' phase concerns the mental processing that allows us to order, interpret and
make sense of the world around us.
Basically in top-down (also called theory-driven or conceptually driven) processing, the perceiver’s
expectations, theories, or concepts guide the selection and combination of the information in the pattern-
recognition process. One of the key characteristics of top-down processing concerns our need to make sense
of our environment and our search for meaning.

Top-down processing is occurring as you interpret the words and sentences constructed by the bottom-up
process. Here you make use of higher-order knowledge, including what you have learned about the meaning
of words and sentence construction. Indeed, a given sentence may convey a different personal meaning to
you than to another person if you relate its content to some unique personal experiences. Top-down
processing accounts for many psychological influences on perception, such as the roles played by our
motives, expectations, previous experiences, and cultural learning.
 How it works?

The Stroop Effect: One classic example of top-down processing in action is a phenomenonknowns
asthe Stroop effect. In this task, color words are printed in other colors. So, for example, the word "Red"
might be printed in blue, the word "Pink" might be printed in white, and so on. Participants are asked to say
the color of the word but not the actual word itself. When reaction times are measured, people are much
slower at saying the correct color when the color and the word are not the same. Top-down processing
explains why this task is so difficult. People automatically recognize the word before they think about the
color, making it easier to read the word aloud rather than to say the color of the word.

Typos: When you are reading a block of text, you might find yourself not even noticing typos and other text
errors. As you read along, the preceding words provide context about what you can expect to read next.
Because of this, your brain often simply fills in missing details and corrects errors as you read so that you do
not even notice such mistakes.

 Benefits and Weaknesses of Top-Down Processing

 In a world where we are surrounded by virtually limitless sensory experiences and information, top-
down processing can help us to quickly make sense of the environment.
 This type of processing can be useful when we are looking for patterns in our environment, but it can
also hinder our ability to perceive things in new and different ways.
 Our bias toward viewing objects in a certain way based on our experiences, beliefs, and expectations,
is known as a perceptual set

2)Role of attention in perception

As one read these words, 100 million sensory messages may be clamouring for attention. Only a few of
these messages register in awareness; the rest one perceive either dimly or not at all. But one can shift your
attention to one of those unregistered stimuli at any time. (For example, how does the big toe of your right
foot feel right now?) Attention, then, involves two processes of selection:
(1) focusing on certain stimuli and
(2) filtering out other incoming information (Luck &Vecera, 2002).
These processes have been studied experimentally through a technique called shadowing. Participants wear
earphones and listen simultaneously to two messages, one sent through each earphone. They are asked to
repeat (or shadow) one of the messages word for word as they listen. Most participants can do this quite
successfully, but only at the cost of not remembering what the other message was about. Shadowing
experiments demonstrate that we cannot attend completely to more than one thing at a time. But we can shift
our attention rapidly back and forth between the two messages, drawing on our general knowledge to fill in
the gaps (Bonnel&Hafter, 1998; Sperling, 1984). Inattentional Blindness Electrical recording and brain-
imaging studies have shown that unattended stimuli register in the nervous system but do not enter into
immediate experience (Itti& Rees, 2005). In the visual realm, scientists have coined the term inattentional
blindness to refer to the failure of unattended stimuli to register in consciousness (Mack, 2003). We can look
right at something without “seeing” it if we are attending to something else. In one study, several
experienced pilots training on flight simulators were so intent on watching the landing instruments, such as
the airspeed indicator on theplane’s windshield, that they directed their plane onto a runway containing
another aircraft (Haines, 1991). In another instance, research participants who were counting the number of
passes made during a videotaped basketball game did not notice a man wearing a gorilla suit who stopped to
thump his chest as he walked across the court, even though he remained in clear sight for more than 5
seconds (Simons &Chabris, 1999). Inattentional blindness is surely relevant to findings that cell phone
conversations significantly reduce driving performance in experimental studies (e.g., Golden et al., 2003).
It’s a bad idea to drive and yack at the same time. It's also a bad idea to drink and drive, as alcohol ingestion
increases inattentional blindness (Clifasefiet al., 2006).
Environmental and Personal Factors in Attention
Attention is strongly affected by both the nature of the stimulus and by personal factors. Stimulus
characteristics that attract our attention include intensity, novelty, movement, contrast, and repetition.
Advertisers use these properties in their commercials and packaging (Figure 5.30). Internal factors, such as
our motives and interests, act as powerful filters and influence which stimuli in our environment we will
notice. For example, when we are hungry, we are especially sensitive to foodrelated cues. Abotanist walking
through a park is especially attentive to the plants; a landscape architect attends primarily to the layout of the
park. People are especially attentive to stimuli that might represent a threat to their well-being, a tendency
that would clearly have biological survival value (Izard, 1989; Oehman et al., 2001). A study by Christine
and Ranald Hansen (1988) illustrates this tendency. They presented slides showing groups of nine people. In
half of the pictures, all of the people looked either angry or happy. In the other half, there was one discrepant
face, either an angry face in a happy crowd or a happy face in an angry crowd. Participants were asked to
judge as quickly as possible whether there was a discrepant face in the crowd, then press “yes” or “no”
buttons attached to electrical timers. The dependent variable was the length of time required to make this
judgment, measured in milliseconds (thousandths of a second).

Attentional processes are based both on innate biological factors and on past experiences that make certain
stimuli important or meaningful to us. Advertisers are adept at using attentiongetting stimuli to attract
potential customers to their products. Sometimes, however, the process backfires.

Have you ever stopped to wonder why we perceive the visual world as being composed of distinct objects?
After all, the information sent by the
retina reflects nothing but an array of varying intensities and frequencies of light energy. The light rays
reflected from different parts of a single object have no more natural “belongingness” to one another than
those coming from two different objects. Yet we perceive scenes as involving separate objects, such as trees,
buildings, and people. These perceptions must be a product of an organization imposed by our nervous
system (Jenkin& Harris, 2005; Matthen, 2007). This top-down process of perceptual organization occurs so
automatically that we take it for granted. But Dr.Richard, a prominent psychologist who suffered brain
damage in an accident, no longer does.
3)Perceptual organization
Dr. Richard reported that if he saw a person, he sometimes would perceive the separate parts of the person
as not belonging together in a single body. But if all the parts moved in the same direction, Dr. Richard then
saw them as one complete person. At other times, he would perceive people in crowds wearing the same
color clothes as “going together” rather than as separate people. He also had difficulty putting sights and
sounds together. Sometimes, the movement of the lips did not correspond to the sounds he heard, as if he
were watching a badly dubbed foreign movie. Dr.Richard’s experience of his environment was thus
disjointed and fragmented. (Sacks, 1985, p. 76)
Gestalt Principles of Perceptual Organization Early in the 20th century, psychologists from the German
school of Gestalt psychology set out to discover how we organize the separate parts of our perceptual field
into a unified and meaningful whole. Gestalt is the German term for “pattern,” “whole,” or “form.” Gestalt
theorists were early champions of top-down processing, arguing that the wholes we perceive are often more
than (and frequently different from) the sum of their parts. The Gestalt theorists emphasized the importance
of figure-ground relations, our tendency to organize stimuli into a central or foreground figure and a
background. In vision, the central figure is usually in front of or on top of what we perceive as background.
1. Figure and Ground: What Stands Out?
Figure-ground perception refers to the tendency of the visual system to simplify a scene into the main
object that we are looking at (the figure) and everything else that forms the background (or ground). The
concept of figure-ground perception is often illustrated with the classic "faces or vases" illusion, also
known as the Rubin vase. Depending on whether you see the black or the white as the figure, you may
see either two faces in profile (meaning you perceive the dark color as the figure) or a vase in the center
(meaning you see the white color as the figure).

When looking at a visual scene, people tend to look for ways to differentiate between the figure and ground
Some ways that people accomplish this include:

 Blurriness: Objects in the foreground tend to be crisp and distinct while those in the background are
blurry or hazy.
 Contrast: The high contrast between objects can lead to the perception of figure and ground. The
Rubin vase is one example.
 Size: Images that appear to be larger will be perceived as closer and part of the figure while those
that are smaller will seem further away and part of the background.
 Separation: An object isolated from everything else in a visual scene is more likely to be seen as a
figure versus background.

Examples

The "faces or vases" illustration is one of the most frequent demonstrations of figure-ground. What you see
when you look at the faces or vases illusion depends on whether you see the white as the figure or the black
as the figure.If you see the white as the figure, then you perceive a vase. If you see the black as the figure,
then you see two faces in profile.

2. Principles Of Grouping (Gestalt Laws Of Grouping)

The Principles of Grouping (or Gestalt Laws of Grouping) are a set of principles in psychology that were
first proposed by Gestalt psychologists to account for the observation that humans naturally perceive objects
as organized patterns and objects. This perceptual tendency to perceive patterns and connectedness is a
principle known as Prägnanz. Gestalt psychologists argued that these principles exist because the mind has
an innate disposition to perceive patterns in the stimulus based on certain rules.

These principles are organized into five categories: Proximity, Similarity, Continuity, Closure,
and Connectedness.

 Law of proximity:
According to the law of proximity, things that are near each other seem to be grouped together. 4 In the
above image, the circles on the left appear to be part of one grouping while those on the right appear to
be part of another. Because the objects are close to each other, we group them together.

 Law of similarity:

The law of similarity suggests that things similar things tend to appear grouped together. Grouping can
occur in both visual and auditory stimuli. In the image above, for example, you probably see the groupings
of colored circles as rows rather than just a collection of dots.
 Law of continuity:

The law of continuity holds that points that are connected by straight or curving lines are seen in a way that
follows the smoothest path. Rather than seeing separate lines and angles, lines are seen as belonging
together.
 Law of closure:
According to the law of closure, things are grouped together if they seem to complete some entity. 1 Our
brains often ignore contradictory information and fill in gaps in information. In the image above, you
probably see the shapes of a circle and rectangle because your brain fills in the missing gaps in order to
create a meaningful image.
 Law of connectedness:

The law of unified connectedness states that elements that are connected to each other using colors, lines,
frames, or other shapes are perceived as a single unit when compared with other elements that are not linked
in the same manner.
4)Perception: hypothesis testing:
Perceptual schema:perceptual schema. a mental model that provides a frame for interpreting information
entering the mind through the senses or for activating an expectation of how a particular perceptual scene
may look.

One assumption of this conceptualization is that perception involves testing hypotheses, and that once a
hypothesis is established it may prevent or delay the acceptance of an alternative hypothesis. This
interpretation thus attributes the negative effect of prior experience to the formation of incorrect hypotheses
about the identity of the stimulus that, once established, become resistant to modification. Identification is
therefore impaired as a result of prior experience because the subject is seeking to confirm or disconfirm an
inappropriate hypothesis; without this prior experience, the subject is not encumbered by an inappropriate
hypothesis and he need only evaluate the currently available information without any predispositions. Such
an interpretation of this phenomenon is far from satisfactory since it provides no explanation of how
hypotheses are generated in the first place, nor any description of the mechanism of hypothesis generation
and verification. Nonetheless, it appears that only an interpretation of this type can account, even if only
superficially, for the negative-effect-of-prior-experience phenomenon. The existence of this phenomenon,
therefore, can be taken as evidence in support of the conceptualization of perception as a process of
hypothesis testing.

for example, that a person approaches you and calls out your name. Who is thisperson? If the stimuli match
your internal schemas of your best friend’s appearance and voice closely enough, you identify the person as
your friend (McAdams & Drake, 2002). Many political cartoonists have an uncanny ability to capture the
most noteworthy facial features of famous people so that we can easily recognize the person represented by
even the simplest line sketch. Perception is, in this sense, an attempt to make sense of stimulus input, to
search for the best interpretation of sensory information we can arrive at based on our knowledge and
experience. Richard L. Gregory (1966, 2005) suggested that each of our perceptions is essentially a
hypothesis about the nature of the object or, more generally, the meaning of the sensory information. The
perceptual system actively searches its gigantic library of internal schemas for the interpretation that best fits
the sensory data. In some instances, sensory information fits two different internal representations, and there
is not enough information to permanently rule out one of them in favor of the other.

An apparently well-documented but largely ignored phenomenon which is of great importance to the
theoretical conceptualization of the perceptual process is that prior impoverished experience with a visual
stimulus impairs the subsequent identification of that stimulus. Independent studies (i.e., Bruner & Potter,
1964; Potter, 1966; Wyatt & Campbell, 1951) have reported that "if a subject is initially exposed to a blurred
image that he cannot recognize, subsequent recognition of the image in clearer form is substantially
delayed" (Bruner & Potter, 1964). Although certainly not a detailed explanation, an interpretation of this
phenomenon can be derived from the conceptualization of perception as an active process involving the
generation, testing, and verification of hypothesis.

One assumption of this conceptualization is that perception involves testing hypotheses, and that once a
hypothesis is established it may prevent or delay the acceptance of an alternative hypothesis. This
interpretation thus attributes the negative effect of prior experience to the formation of incorrect hypotheses
about the identity of the stimulus that, once established, become resistant to modification. Identification is
therefore impaired as a result of prior experience because the subject is seeking to confirm or disconfirm an
inappropriate hypothesis; without this prior experience, the subject is not encumbered by an inappropriate
hypothesis and he need only evaluate the currently available information without any predispositions. Such
an interpretation of this phenomenon is far from satisfactory since it provides no explanation of how
hypotheses are generated in the first place, nor any description of the mechanism of hypothesis generation
and verification. Nonetheless, it appears that only an interpretation of this type can account, even if only
superficially, for the negative-effect-of-prior-experience phenomenon. The existence of this phenomenon,
therefore, can be taken as evidence in support of the conceptualization of perception as a process of
hypothesis testing.

5)Perceptual sets:
A perceptual set—a readiness to perceive stimuli in a particular way. Sometimes, believing is seeing.
Perceptual set theory stresses the idea of perception as an active process involving selection, inference and
interpretation.

The concept of perceptual set is important to the active process of perception. Allport (1955) defined
perceptual set as:

A perceptual bias or predisposition or readiness to perceive particular features of a stimulus.'

Perceptual set is a tendency to perceive or notice some aspects of the available sensory data and ignore
others. According to Vernon, 1955 perceptual set works in two ways:

(1) The perceiver has certain expectations and focuses attention on particular aspects of the sensory data:
This he calls a Selector'.

(2) The perceiver knows how to classify, understand and name selected data and what inferences to draw
from it. This she calls an 'Interpreter'.
It has been found that a number of variables, or factors, influence perceptual set, and set in turn influence
perception. The factors include:

 Expectation and Perceptual Set

(a) Bruner & Minturn (1955) illustrated how expectation could influence set by showing participants an
ambiguous figure '13' set in the context of letters or numbers The physical stimulus '13' is the same in each
case but is perceived differently because of the influence of the context in which it appears. We EXPECT to
see a letter in the context of other letters of the alphabet, whereas we EXPECT to see numbers in the context
of other numbers.

(b) We may fail to notice printing/writing errors for the same reason.

(c) A study by Bugelski and Alampay (1961) using the 'rat-man' ambiguous figure also demonstrated the
importance of expectation in inducing set. Participants were shown either a series of animal pictures or
neutral pictures prior to exposure to the ambiguous picture. They found participants were significantly more
likely to perceive the ambiguous picture as a rat if they had had prior exposure to animal pictures.

 Motivation / Emotion and Perceptual Set

Allport (1955) has distinguished 6 types of motivational-emotional influence on perception:

(i) Bodily needs (e.g. physiological needs)
(ii) Reward and punishment
(iii) Emotional connotation
(iv) Individual values
(v) Personality
(vi) The value of objects.
(a) Sandford (1936) deprived participants of food for varying lengths of time, up to 4 hours, and then
showed them ambiguous pictures. Participants were more likely to interpret the pictures as something to do
with food if they had been deprived of food for a longer period of time. Similarly Gilchrist &Nesberg
(1952), found participants who had gone without food for the longest periods were more likely to rate
pictures of food as brighter. This effect did not occur with non-food pictures.

(b) A more recent study into the effect of emotion on perception was carried out by Kunst- Wilson &Zajonc
(1980). Participants were repeatedly presented with geometric figures, but at levels of exposure too brief to
permit recognition.

Then, on each of a series of test trials, participants were presented a pair of geometric forms, one of which
had previously been presented and one of which was brand new.

The hypothesis for this study was based on a well-known finding that the more we are exposed to a stimulus,
the more familiar we become with it and the more we like it. Results showed no discrimination on the
recognition test - they were completely unable to tell old forms from new ones, but participants could
discriminate on the feeling test, as they consistently favoured old forms over new ones. Thus informat ion
that is unavailable for conscious recognition seems to be available to an unconscious system that is linked to
affect and emotion.

 Culture and Perceptual Set:

(a) Deregowski (1972) investigated whether pictures are seen and understood in the same way in different
cultures. His findings suggest that perceiving perspective in drawings is in fact a specific cultural skill,
which is learned rather than automatic. He found people from several cultures prefer drawings which don't
show perspective, but instead are split so as to show both sides of an object at the same time.

In one study he found a fairly consistent preference among African children and adults for split-type
drawings over perspective-drawings. Split type drawings show all the important features of an object which
could not normally be seen at once from that perspective. Perspective drawings give just one view of an
object. Deregowski argued that this split-style representation is universal and is found in European children
before they are taught differently.

(b) Hudson (1960) noted difficulties among South African Bantu workers in interpreting depth cues in
pictures. Such cues are important because they convey information about the spatial relationships among the
objects in pictures. A person using depth cues will extract a different meaning from a picture than a person
not using such cues.

Hudson tested pictorial depth perception by showing participants a picture like the one below. A correct
interpretation is that the hunter is trying to spear the antelope, which is nearer to him than the elephant. An
incorrect interpretation is that the elephant is nearer and about to be speared.

6)Perceptual Constancies:Perceptual constancies—our tendency to perceive aspects of the

world as unchanging despite changes in the sensory input we receive from them.
 Size Constancy
 The principle of size constancy relates to the fact that the perceived size of an object remains the
same when the distance is varied, even though the size of the image the object casts on the retina
changes greatly.
 For example, seeing a friend walking toward you, though still several blocks away. Distant objects—
including cars, trees, and people—cast tiny images on your retina. Yet we perceive them as being of
normal size. Two factors seem to account for this tendency: size–distance invariance and relative
size.
 The principle of size–distance invariance suggests that when estimating the size of an object, we take
into account both the size of the image it casts on our retina and the apparent distance of the object.

Size constancy based on distance cues causes us to perceive the person in the background as being of
normal size. When the same stimulus is seen in the absence of the distance cues, size constancy breaks
down. The two person no longer look similar in size, nor do the photographic images of the man in the shirt.
 Shape Constancy
 The principle of shape constancy refers to the fact that the perceived shape of an object does not alter
as the image the object casts on the retina changes. For example, all of us know that coins are round;
yet we rarely see them that way. Flip a coin into the air: although you continue to perceive the coin
as being round, the image that actually falls onto your retina constantly shifts from a circle to various
forms of an ellipse.

The principle of shape constancy allows us to recognize this object as a rectangular door, despite the fact
that the image cast on the retina changes as the door opens or closes.
 Brightness Constancy
 The principle of brightness constancy refers to the fact that we perceive objects as constant in
brightness and color, even when they are viewed under different lighting conditions. Thus, we will
perceive a sweater as dark green whether indoors or outdoors in bright sunlight. Brightness
constancy apparently prevails because objects and their surroundings are usually lighted by the same
 illumination source, so changes in lighting conditions occur simultaneously for both the object and
its immediate surroundings.

In broad daylight the shirt will appear to be much brighter than the pants. But if the sun is covered by thick
clouds, even though the pants and shirt have less light to reflect than previously, the shirt will still appear to
be just as much brighter than the pants as before.

The ability to adapt to a spatial world requires that we make fine distinctions involving distances and the
movement of objects within the environment. Humans are capable of great precision in making such
judgments. Consider, for example, the perceptual task faced by a baseball batter (Figure 5.39). A fastball
thrown by the pitcher at 90 miles per hour from 60 feet will reach the batter who is trying to hit it in about
42/100 of a second. Acurveball thrown at 80 miles per hour will reach the hitting zone in 47/100 of a
second, a difference of only 5/100 of a second, but a world of difference for timing and hitting the pitch.
Within the first 6 to 8 feet of a ball’s flight from the pitcher’s hand (an interval of about 25/1,000 of a
second), the batter must correctly judge the speed, spin, and location of the pitch. If any of the judgments are
wrong, the hitter will probably be unable to hit a fair ball, for the ball will be in the bat’s contact zone for
only 2/1,000 of a second (Adair, 1990).

7)Perception of depth, distance and movement

 DEPTH AND DISTANCE PERCEPTION

One of the more intriguing aspects of visual perception is our ability to perceive depth. The retina receives
information in only two dimensions (length and width), but the brain translates thesecues into three-
dimensional perceptions. It does this by using both monocular depth cues, which require only one eye, and
binocular depth cues, which require both eyes.

Monocular Depth CuesJudging the relative distances of objects is one important key to perceiving depth.
When artists paint on a flat canvas, they depend on a variety of monocular cues to create perceptions of
depth in their pictures. One such cue is patterns of light and shadow. The 20th-century artist M. C. Escher
skillfully used light and shadow to create the threedimensional effect shown in Figure The depth effect is as
powerful if you close one eye as it is when you use both.

Monocular cues are actually a collection of cues that help us see an object properly using just one eye. These
are as follows:

1. Relative Size:

The relative size of an object serves as an important monocular cue for depth perception. It works like this:
If two objects are roughly the same size, the object that looks the largest will be judged as being the closest
to the observer. This applies to both three-dimensional scenes as well as two-dimensional images. Two
objects on a piece of paper are the same distance away, yet size difference can make the larger object appear
closer and the smaller object appear farther away.

2. Interposition

When to objects partially cover each other (overlap), the one that is seen behind appears further away than
the actual distance. In essence, this information merely enables the observer to create an intuitive disposition
of relative closeness.When one object overlaps another, the object that is partially obscured is perceived as
being farther away. For example, if you see two figures standing in the distance and one figure overlaps and
occludes the other one, you will perceive the occluded figure as being behind the non-occluded one. This
allows you to judge how objects are placed in relation to one another and contributes to your experience of
depth in the world around you.

3. Aerial Perspective

This case of depth cue refers to objects that tend to look unclear or quite blurry compared to one at a closer
distance due to the influence of the atmosphere Because objects in the distance tend to appear hazier, this
cue tells us that blurry objects tend to be further away.

4. Linear Perspective
It allows an observer to perceive the depth of an area when viewing parallel lines that seem to converge at
infinity at first., linear perspective, refers to the perception that parallel lines converge, or angle toward one
another, as they recede into the distance. Thus, if you look down railroad tracks, they appear to angle toward
one another with increased distance, and we use this as a depth cue. The same occurs with the edges of a
highway or the sides of an elevator shaft. Interposition, in which objects closer to us may cut off part of our
view of more distant objects, provides another cue for distance and depth. An object’s height in the
horizontal plane provides another source of information. For example, a ship 5 miles offshore appears in a
higher plane and closer to the horizon than does one that is only 1 mile from shore.

5. Texture Gradient

Another essential monocular cue is the use of texture to gauge depth and distance. When you're looking at
an object that extends into the distance, such as a grassy field, the texture becomes less and less apparent the
farther it goes into the distance. As you look out over a scene, the objects in the foreground have a much
more apparent texture. The asphalt of the road looks rough and bumpy. The vegetation in the field looks
distinctive, and you can easily distinguish one plant from another.

As the scene recedes into the distance, these texture cues become less and less apparent. You cannot detect
every single tree on the mountain in the distance. Instead, the vegetation covering the mountains simply
looks like an indistinct patch of green color. These texture differences serve as important monocular cues for
gauging the depth of objects that are both near and far.

6. Motion Parallax

In this case, monocular depth cue causes that are around an observer in motion, pass by faster than the one
that is farther away. That is, the farther something appears, the slower it seems to pass away from the
observer.

How Do You Use Molecular Cues?

Its application is versatile in many instances; you can try to observe visually how you easily tell the depth
when at the top of a staircase, corners of buildings appear larger and more textured which makes it seem
closer, objects far away seem smaller and thus, gives us a judgement of its apparent size. All these situations
contribute to the depth perception of monocular cues, typically.
 Binocular Depth Cues:
The most dramatic perceptions of depth arise with binocular depth cues, which require the use of both eyes.
For an interesting binocular effect, hold your two index fingers about 6 inches in front of your eyes with
their tips about 1 inch apart. Focus on your fingers first, then focus beyond them across the room. Doing so
will produce the imageof a third finger between the other two. This third finger will disappear if you close
either eye. Most of us are familiar with the delightful depth experiences provided by View-Master slides and
3-D movies watched through special glasses. These devices make use of the principle of binocular
disparity,in which each eye sees a slightly different image. Within the brain, the visual input from the two
eyes is analyzed by feature detectors that are attuned to depth (Howard, 2002; Livingstone & Hubel, 1994).
Some of the feature detectors respond only to stimuli that are either in front of or behind the point on which
we are fixing our gaze. The responses of these depth-sensitive neurons are integrated to produce our
perception of depth (Goldstein, 2002).

Retinal Disparity : the difference in the 2 images seen by each eye due to the difference in angle each is
viewing an object It addresses the fact that our two eyes each see different images. Our eyes are separated by
an average distance of 6.3cm on our face, this means they each see life from a slightly different angle. This
point is illustrated best if you hold your hand out in front of you and look at it through one eye at a time.
You’ll notice that the image “shifts” slightly each time.

Our brain effectively triangulates the distance to an object, using the two different images that are eyes
present to us. It seamlessly merges these two images into the picture that we see that contains the 3D
information that is crucial to us. The larger the difference (disparity) in the 2 images, the closer an object is
to you. A far away object contains little disparity in the 2 images seen by each eye. This time if you hold out
your hand in front of you, but now start close to your face then slowly move it away. You’ll notice that the
image seen through each eye will be more similar with increasing distance from you.

3D movies that you see at the theater are a great example of retinal disparity. The technology uses this
binocular cue to great effect and tricks our brains into seeing a greater depth of field. The movie is filmed
with 2 cameras each representing a slightly different view of the scene. We then wear special glasses that
enable the left eye only to see the image from the left camera, and the right eye only the right camera.
Binocular Convergence
Binocular convergence is the other important cue that enables us to determine how near or far things are
away from us. It refers to the amount of rotation your eyes have to do to focus on an object. Your eye
muscles must contract and relax in order for you to focus on objects at different distances. The brain
processes these muscle movements into information that is used for depth perception. Binocular
convergence is in short, the amount of inward rotation your eyes have to do in order to focus on an object.
Binocular convergence is a proprioceptive sense (a sense that shows our position in space). It uses the
information from the eye muscles (feedback) to gauge how much the eyes have rotated, and therefore how
far an object is.
Like with retinal disparity, there’s a simple way of observing this binocular cue in action. If you hold a hand
out in front of you at arm’s length, and then slowly bring it closer to your face. Eventually, your eyes will
begin to strain and the image will blur and become 2 images. If done in reverse, starting close to your face
and slowly moving away, you’ll notice the opposite happen. You start with 2 images and finish with just
one.
 Advantages of binocular cues:
 You effectively have a spare eye. If one is lost or damaged you still have one left.
 It gives a wider field of view.
 We can use retinal disparity (see next section) to distinguish distance.
 We can also use binocular convergence (see next section) to distinguish distance.
  We can partially see an object behind an obstacle.
 It allows binocular summation. This improves contrast sensitivity, visual acuity, brightness
perception, and flicker perception.
 Binocular Cues in Nature
 Many herbivores lack a detailed sense of depth perception as their lifestyle simply doesn’t require it.
Open plain herbivores like cows have eyes on the sides of their heads (monocular vision). This gives
them a huge field of vision, which is much greater than our own. This is perfect for spotting any
would-be predators.
 However, it means they have a very poor judgment of distance.Hunters like eagles and big cats have
eyes on the front of their heads. This gives them depth perception which is crucial to a successful
kill. They must know how far away their prey is and when is the optimal time to pounce.
 Some animals that spend time in tree-tops also require good binocular vision. Monkeys are one such
example. They require accurate information about distances to the nearest branches, especially when
moving at speed. Strangely not all tree-dwelling animals have binocular vision like this. Squirrels are
an example of an animal that doesn’t.
 PERCEPTION OF MOVEMENT

The perception of movement is a complex process, sometimes requiring the brain to integrate
information from several different senses. To demonstrate, hold a pen in front of your face. Now, while
holding your head still, move the pen back and forth. You will perceive the pen as moving. Now hold the
pen still and move your head back and forth at the same rate of speed. In both cases, the image of the pen
moved across your retina in about the same way. But when you moved your head, your brain took into
account input from your kinesthetic and vestibular systems and concluded that you were moving but the
pen was not. The primary cue for perceiving motion is the movement of the stimulus across the retina
(Sekuler et al., 2002). Under optimal conditions, a retinal image need move only about one fifth the
diameter of a single cone for us to detect movement (Nakayama & Tyler, 1981). The relative movement
of an object against a structured background is also a movement cue (Gibson, 1979). For example, if you
fixate on a bird in flight, the relative motion of the bird against its background is a strong cue for
perceived speed of movement. The illusion of smooth motion can be produced if we arrange for the
sequential appearance of two or more stimuli. Gestalt psychologist Max Wertheimer (1912)
demonstrated this in his studies of stroboscopic movement, illusory movementproduced when a light is
briefly flashed in darkness and then, a few milliseconds later, another light is flashed nearby. If the
timing is just right, the first light seems to move from one place to the other in a manner
indistinguishable from real movement. Stroboscopic movement (termed the “phi phenomenon” by
Wertheimer) has been used commercially in numerous ways. For example, think of the strings of
successively illuminated lights on theater marquees that seem to move endlessly around the border or
that spell out messages in a moving script. Stroboscopic movement is also the principle behind motion
pictures, which consist of a series of still photographs, or frames, that are projected on a screen in rapid
succession with dark intervals in between. The rate at which the frames are projected is critical to our
perception of smooth movement. Early movies, such as the silent films of the 1920s, projected the stills
at only 16 frames per second, and the movements appeared fast and jerky. Today the usual speed is 24
frames per second, which more perfectly produces an illusion of smooth movement. Television presents
at 30 images per second.

8)ILLUSIONS: FALSE PERCEPTUAL HYPOTHESES

 Illusion:
Our analysis of perceptual schemas, hypotheses, sets, and constancies allows us to understand some
interesting perceptual experiences known as illusions, compelling but incorrect perceptions. Such
perceptions can be understood as erroneous perceptual hypotheses about the nature of a stimulus. Illusions
are not only intriguing and sometimes delightful visual experiences, but they alsoprovide important
information about how our perceptual processes work under normal conditions (Gregory, 2005). Ironically,
most visual illusions can be attributed to perceptual constancies that ordinarily help us perceive more
accurately (Frisby, 1980). For example, size constancy results in part from our ability to use distance cues to
judge the size of objects.
A misrepresentation of a “real” sensory stimulus—that is, an interpretation that contradicts objective
“reality” as defined by general agreement. For example, a child who perceives tree branches at night as if
they are goblins may be said to be having an illusion. An illusion is distinguished from a hallucination, an
experience that seems to originate without an external source of stimulation. Neither experience is
necessarily a sign of psychiatric disturbance, norboth are regularly and consistently reported by virtually
everyone.

 The Nature Of Illusions:

Illusions are special perceptual experiences in which information arising from “real” external stimuli leads
to an incorrect perception, or false impression, of the object or event from which the stimulation
comes.Some of these false impressions may arise from factors beyond an individual’s control (such as the
characteristic behaviour of light waves that makes a pencil in a glass of water seem bent), from inadequate
information (as under conditions of poor illumination), or from the functional and structural characteristics
of the sensory apparatus (e.g., distortions in the shape of the lens in the eye). Such visual illusions are
experienced by every sighted person.

Another group of illusions results from misinterpretations one makes of seemingly adequate sensory cues. In
such illusions, sensory impressions seem to contradict the “facts of reality” or fail to report their “true”
character. (For more-profound philosophical considerations, see epistemology.) In these instances the
perceiver seems to be making an error in processing sensory information. The error appears to arise within
the central nervous system (brain and spinal cord); this may result from competing sensory information,
psychologically meaningful distorting influences, or previous expectations (mental set). Drivers who see
their own headlights reflected in the window of a store, for example, may experience the illusion that
another vehicle is coming toward them even though they know there is no road there.

 Types Of Illusory Experiences

1. Stimulus-distortion illusions:This type of illusory sense perception arises when the environment changes
or warps the stimulus energy on the way to the person, who perceives it in its distorted pattern (as in the case
of the “bent” pencil referred to above).
Auditory phenomena: A common phenomenon is the auditory impression that a blowing automobile horn
changes its pitch as it passes an observer on a highway. This is known as the Doppler effect, for Christian
Doppler, an Austrian physicist, who in 1842 noted that the pitch of a bell or whistle on a passing railroad
train is heard to drop when the train and the perceiver are moving away from each other and to grow higher
when they are approaching each other. The sound heard is also affected by factors such as a wind blowing
toward or away from the person.
Another auditory illusion was described in 1928 by Paul Thomas Young, an American psychologist,
who tested the process of sound localization (the direction from which sound seems to come). He
constructed a pseudophone, an instrument made of two ear trumpets, one leading from the right side of the
head to the left ear and the other vice versa. This created the illusory impression of reversed localization of
sound. While walking along the street wearing the pseudophone, he would hear footsteps to his right when
they actually came from the left.
When two sources of sound in the same vicinity emit sound waves of slightly different frequencies (i.e.,
vibrations per second), there will come intervals when waves from both sources arrive at the ear in phase
(simultaneously) and produce the experience of a combined, louder sound. These intervals of combined
sound will be perceived as “beats,” or periodic alternations of sound intensity. When such auditory beats
occur too rapidly to be discriminated, a harsh, continuous noise, commonly called interference, may result.
Another case of interference results when two tones sounded together produce a subjectively heard third
tone. When this third tone is lower in pitch than the original two, it is called a difference tone; i.e., its
frequency is the difference between the frequencies of the two original tones. When the third tone is higher,
it is called a summation tone; i.e., its frequency is the sum of the frequencies of the two original tones. Piano
tuners depend in part upon their ability to hear these tones in a reliable way when tightening and loosening
the strings in order to reach the correct pitch on the instrument.
2. Optical phenomena or optical illusion:Numerous optical illusions are produced by
the refraction (bending) of light as it passes through one substance to another in which the speed of light is
significantly different. A ray of light passing from one transparent medium (air) to another (water) is bent as
it emerges. Thus, the pencil standing in water seems broken at the surface where the air and water meet; in
the same way, a partially submerged log in the water of a swamp gives the illusion of being bent.

The refraction (bending) of light as it passes from air into water causesan optical illusion: straws in the glass
of water appear broken or bent at the water's surface.Rainbows also result from refraction. As the sun’s rays
pass through rain, the droplets separate (refract) the white light into its component colours. As rays of white
light from any source pass through a prism, they are refracted to give the appearance of a spectrum of
colour, as in the rainbow of a summer morning. Another illusion that depends on atmospheric conditions is
a mirage, in which, for example, the vision of a pool of water is created by light passing through layers of air
above the heated surface of a highway. In effect, cooler layers of air refract the sun’s rays at different angles
than do less-dense strata of heated air, giving the appearance of water where there is none; nearby objects
may even appear to be reflected in it. Under certain conditions, elaborate mirages that look like cities,
forests, or “unidentified flying objects” may appear on the horizon, or ships in a nearby body of water may
appear to be plying the sky of a desert.

A mirage in a desert in Africa resembles a shimmering pool of water. The illusion is caused by the refraction
(bending) of light in layers of air above the desert's hot surface.

3. Perceiver-distortion illusions
Some illusions are related to characteristics of the perceiver, namely the functioning of the brain and
the senses, rather than to physical phenomena that distort a stimulus. Many common visual illusions are
perceptual: they result from the brain’s processing of ambiguous or unusual visual information. Other
illusions result from the aftereffects of sensory stimulation or from conflicting sensory information. Still
others are associated with psychiatric causes.
4.Visual perceptual illusions
When an observer is confronted with a visual assortment of dots, the brain may group the dots that “belong
together.” These groupings are made on the basis of such things as observed similarity (e.g., red versus
black dots), proximity, common direction of movement, perceptual set (the way one is expecting to see
things grouped), and extrapolation (one’s estimate of what will happen based on an extension of what is now
happening).
Closure (a term used in Gestalt psychology) is the illusion of seeing an incomplete stimulus as though it
were whole. Thus, one unconsciously tends to complete (close) a triangle or a square that has a gap in one of
its sides. While a person watches a movie, closure occurs to fill the intervals between what are really rapidly
projected still pictures—giving the illusion of uninterrupted motion.
The “figure-ground” illusion is commonly experienced when one gazes at the illustration of a white vase,
the outline of which is created by two black profiles. At any moment, one will be able to see either the white
vase (in the centre area) as “figure” or the black profiles on each side (in which case the white is seen as
“ground”). The fluctuations of figure and ground may occur even without conscious effort. Seeing one
aspect usually excludes seeing the other.
.
Another example of ambiguity and object reversibility is the Necker cube, which may seem to flip-flop.
Some studies have suggested that younger people tend to perceive these reversals more readily than do their
elders.

Figure 2: Examples of optical illusions. (A) Cube changes orientation. (B) Lines are equal in length. (C)
Lines covered by rectangles are straight. (D) All long lines are parallel. (E) Circles are equal in size. (F)
Horizontal lines are parallel. (G) Black dots are equal in size. (H) Tops of circles are on a straight line.
The Müller-Lyer illusion is based on the Gestalt principles of convergence and divergence: the lines at the
sides seem to lead the eye either inward or outward to create a false impression of length. The Poggendorff
illusion depends on the steepness of the intersecting lines. As obliqueness is decreased, the illusion becomes
less compelling. In the Zöllner illusion, the cross-hatching disturbs the perception of parallel lines. A figure
seen touching converging lines, as in the Ponzo illusion, seems larger than another figure of the same size
placed between the lines where they are farther apart. In a related experience, linear perspective creates the
illusion that parallel lines or contours (such as railroad tracks) converge as they recede from the viewer.
In studies of visual verticality, experimenters investigated the conditions that determine perception of the
“upright.” A tilted chair that could be mechanically controlled by the subject was placed in a slanted room
containing visual indicators of verticals and horizontals. When various persons were asked to sit in the chair
and align themselves in a vertical position, some of the subjects aligned themselves with the “true vertical”
determined by gravity, while others experienced the illusion of verticality by aligning themselves with the
visual directions they saw in the slanted room. Closing the eyes made “true” alignment easier.
Staring at a single bright spot in an otherwise darkened room creates the illusion that the stationary light is
moving (autokinetic effect). One theory to account for this is that the impression is caused by minute
eye movements of the observer. The so-called phi phenomenon is an illusion of movement that arises when
stationary objects—light bulbs, for example—are placed side by side and illuminated rapidly one after
another. The effect is frequently used on theatre marquees to give the impression of moving lights.
Perhaps the best real-life example of a perceptual illusion is the Moon illusion. When the Moon is at the
horizon, it appears to be much larger than it does when it is high in the sky. Yet when the Moon is
photographed at various points across the sky, all the images on the negatives are the same size.
Considerable debate surrounds the source of the Moon illusion. Some explanations have attributed it to the
paradoxical idea that the Moon at the horizon seems larger because the brain perceives it as being farther
away than the Moon at the sky’s zenith. Another explanation is that the lack of distance cues in the night sky
causes the eyes to adjust to a near-focus position, which makes the high Moon appear smaller.
5. Sensory illusions
Many sensory illusions may be described as the aftereffects of the stimulation, or overstimulation, of
the senses. Sensitivity in any of the senses may be measured as the just-perceptible intensity (threshold, or
limen) of the appropriate stimulus. The smallest detectable stimulus is called the absolute threshold, while
the smallest detectable change in the intensity of a stimulus is called the difference threshold.
Such thresholds can serve as points of reference, or anchors, against which subsequent stimuli are judged or
perceived. Yet sensory anchors fluctuate within the same individual under different conditions, and in some
cases they can mislead a person about the properties of subsequent stimuli. For example, two successive
stimuli may be identical but nevertheless give the illusion of being different.

6. Illusion of place

In dramatic production the magical property with which a performing area is invested is augmented by the
fictional action of the drama.

This illusion may be explained in part by a “fading trace” theory, proposed by Gestalt psychologists. The
theory suggests that a physical trace (in the form of temporarily excited nerve cells) of an original stimulus
remains in the brain even after that stimulus stops and that this trace influences the estimate or appreciation
of a subsequent stimulus.

The strength of the trace, also called an aftereffect, and the speed of its disappearance vary greatly in
individual cases. People who are field dependent (that is, who tend to observe a field in its totality) are said
to show weaker aftereffect traces. Conversely, field-independent subjects (those who, by selective attention,
are more likely to consider a specific stimulus apart from its context) show stronger aftereffects.
7.Colour illusions
The normal human eye can detect about 130 gradations of colour in the visible spectrum (as in the rainbow),
about 20 barely noticeable differences within a given colour, and about 500 variations of brightness.
However, when two spots of equally bright light are observed in close succession, the first intensity may
seem brighter. The first light may be said to serve the function of brightness adaptation (or adjustment) in
the eye; therefore, the second light will fall on a partly adapted and therefore less sensitive retina. In a brief
time, such excitement in the retina (or even in the brain) tends to subside, or fade. As a result of the fading
traces of excitement, various hues of a given colour may appear to be lighter or darker when looked at
successively.

Contrast-colour phenomena also may result from such fading traces. A successive contrast occurs when,
after one has stared at a red surface, a green surface looks much brighter. As one enters a dark room from
bright sunshine, the room at first seems quite dark by contrast. A simultaneous contrast occurs when an area
of brightness is seen against a less intense or a more intense background. If a gray patch of paper is placed
on a black background, it looks whiter than it did before; if placed on a white background, it looks darker.
8.Weight illusions
The felt perception of differences in weights received experimental attention in 1899, when experiments
indicated that a second weight feels either heavier or lighter than an immediately preceding identical weight.
This illusion results partially from the expectancy of the person doing the lifting. Having lifted the first
weight, the subject is “set” for a certain effort on the next try. If the second weight is lifted quickly and
easily, it will feel lighter than the first; if it comes up more slowly, it will feel heavier. Expectancy, or set, is
also often invoked in efforts to explain the size-weight illusion, in which a large cardboard box feels lighter
than a smaller box even though both weigh the same.

9.Olfactory phenomena
Smell (olfactory) discrimination is influenced by any odour to which the olfactory structures already have
adapted. Receptors in the nose, however, adapt quickly and cease to respond to a particular stimulus. This
effect is called olfactory fatigue. Thus, an odour that is strong at first will gradually become imperceptible,
as happens when one becomes unaware of the smell of one’s own body. There also may be present the
phenomenon of masking; this is a decrease in sensitivity to one odour after exposure to another (for
example, a strong-smelling disinfectant).
10.Loudness illusions
The human ear typically serves to distinguish between about 1,500 levels of pitch. For loudness, differential-
threshold studies reveal about 325 separately perceived levels in the region of greatest auditory sensitivity
(about 1,000 to 4,000 cycles per second). For humans, the number of discriminable tones is in the hundred
thousand. Yet when two sounds are heard in close succession, the intensity or loudness of the second is
judged by comparing it with the first. Thus, a murmur may sound loud when compared to a whisper, or a
“deafening” noise may make all other sounds inaudible. The steady hum of an electric fan may help to
diffuse the noises of traffic outside and thus improve the discrimination of sounds in the room.

11.Tactile illusions
The skin contains numerous “spots” that respond selectively either to cold or to warmth but generally not to
both. It can happen, however, that a very warm stimulus will produce a sensation of cold when placed on a
spot that responds to cold. Thus, when a warm stimulus is perceived as cold, the illusion is
called paradoxical cold.
Paradoxical heat, a less frequent experience, results from stimulating warm and cold spots simultaneously. It
appears to be a fusion of warm and paradoxical cold effects, producing a strange, somewhat unpleasant
sensation of “heat” that seems to be attended by uneasiness resembling that of pain. The sensation is
sometimes called psychological heat.

 Conclusion:
Perception is the process through which we select, organize, and interpret input from our sensory
receptors. The study of perception is concerned with identifying the processes through which we
interpret and organize sensory information to produce our conscious experience of objects and
relationships among objects. It is important to remember that perception is not simply a passive
process of decoding incoming sensory information. If this were the case, we would lose the richness
of our everyday stream of conscious experiences.Perception depends on complex functions of the
nervous system, but subjectively seems mostly effortless because this processing happens outside
conscious awareness.