SOSC 1960

Sensation & Perception

Perception

We know that sensation ≠ perception. Then

how does our brain organize sensory input?
Gestalt laws of organization
 Gestalt: Patterns

 Gestalt laws of organization: A series of

principles that describe how we organize
bits and pieces of information into
meaningful wholes

 Some main principles:Closure, proximity,

similarity, simplicity, figure and ground
Gestalt laws: Closure
 Closure: We tend to supply the missing
elements to close or complete a figure.
 Proximity: Elements that are close to each
together tend to be grouped together.
 Similarity: Elements that are similar to
each together tend to be grouped together.
 Simplicity: We tend to organize elements
in the simplest way possible.
 Figure and ground: We tend to divide
elements into figure and ground.
Top-down/bottom-up processing
 Top-down processing: Perception that is
guided by higher-level knowledge, experience,
expectations, and motivations

 Bottom-up processing: Perception consisting

of the progression of recognizing and
processing information from individual
components of a stimuli and moving to the
perception of the whole
◼ Helps with top-down processing – our ability to
recognize a sentence is based on our ability to
perceive the individual shapes that form letters
Top-down/bottom-up processing
 Top-down and bottom-up processing occur
simultaneously

 Bottom-up processing permits us to

process the fundamental characteristics of
stimuli, while top-down processing allows
us to bring our experiences to bear on our
perception
Perceptual constancy
 The phenomenon in which physical objects
are perceived as stable and unchanging
despite the changes in their appearance or in
the physical environment

 Our perception of the environment remains

constant regardless of the actual stimuli

 Shape constancy
 Size constancy
Depth perception
 The ability to view the world in three
dimensions and to perceive distance
◼ Binocular cues
 Clues about distance based on the differing
views of the two eyes
◼ Monocular cues
 Clues about distance based on the image in
either eye alone
 Clues about distance that can be given in a
flat picture (i.e., pictorial depth cues)
Depth perception: Retinal disparity
Objects within 25 feet project images to
slightly different locations on the right and
left retinas, so the right and left eyes see
slightly different views of the object

X
Depth perception
 Convergence: Sensing the eyes
converging toward each other as they
focus on closer objects
 Linear perspective: Parallel lines running
away from the viewer seem to converge
 Texture gradient: Texture is coarser in
nearer areas than in farther areas
 Interposition: The shapes of nearer
objects mask those of more distant ones
Depth perception
 Relative size: If various objects are
expected to be of the same size, the
larger ones are seen as closer

 Height in plane: Nearer objects are lower

in the visual field

 Light and dark: Patterns of light and dark

suggest shadows
Perceptual illusions
 The perception principles help us perceive the
world accurately and efficiently (e.g., Gestalt
laws of organization, perceptual constancy,
depth perception)

 But sometime these perception principles

may lead us astray, giving rise to an
apparently inexplicable discrepancy between
perception and physical reality

 Misperception of depth, color

Perceptual illusions
 Ponzo illusion

 Ebbinghaus illusion

 Moon illusion
Review

 Chapter 4, Modules 10 & 13

 Research Experience responses are due on

February 26 @ 12 noon HKT!

(in 80 minutes)