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Psychology Class 11 & 12 YT

Knowing the World
 The knowledge about various objects around us become
possible with the help of our sense organs, attention and

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perception.

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 The sense organ registers several kinds of information

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about various objects.
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 In order to be registered the object and their qualities you
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must be able to draw 'attention'.
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 The registered information must also be sent to the brain

that constructs some meaning out of them, perception.

Psychology Class 11 & 12 YT

Human Senses
 Vision

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 Audition

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 Smell

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 Taste
 Touch yc
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 Kinesthetic system ( in ligaments/joints, movement of
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body parts related to each other )

 Vestibular system ( in ear, balance and position of
body )

Psychology Class 11 & 12 YT

Limitations of Sense organs
 The relationship between stimuli and the sensations
evoked has been studied in a discipline called

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psychophysics.

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 In order to be noticed a stimulus has to carry a minimum

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value or weight, called absolute threshold for absolute
limen.
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 In order to notice to stimuli is as different from each other,
there has to be some minimum difference between the
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value of the stimuli, called difference threshold or

difference limen.
 It is not possible to understand sensations without the
understanding of a AL and DL different types ofPsychology
stimuli.Class 11 & 12 YT
Attentional processes
 The process through which certain stimuli are selected
from a group of others is generally referred to as attention.

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 There are two types of attention : -

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1). Selective attention ( concerned with the selection

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of limited no. of stimuli from large no. of stimuli )
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2). Sustained attention ( concerned with the ability to
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maintain attention on any stimuli )
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 Sometimes we can also attend two different things at the

same time, which is called divided attention.

Psychology Class 11 & 12 YT

Factors affecting selective attention
 External factors, stimuli's characteristics. (Size, intensity,
motion)

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 Internal factors, individual's characteristics. (Motivational

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factors & cognitive factors)

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Three theories of Selective attention :-
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 Filter theory ( 'bottle neck situation' one stimulus at a
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time)
 Filter-attenuation theory ( some stimuli still may enter )
 Multimode theory ( three stages, sensory representation,
semantic representation, enters consciousness
Psychology Class 11 & 12 YT
Factors affecting Sustained attention
 sensory modality ( audio more over video)
 clarity of stimuli

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 temporal uncertainty

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 spatial uncertainty

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Perceptual processes yc
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 The process by which we recognise, interpret, or give meaning
to the information provided by sense organs is called
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perception.
 Two processing approaches : -
1). top down processing
2). bottom up processing Psychology Class 11 & 12 YT
 The Percevier
 Human being are creative beings who try to give
meaning to the external world.

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 Some of these factors play an important role in this

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process. They are :

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1. Motivation
2. Expectations yc
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3. Cognitive style ( field dependent & independent)
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4. Cultural background & experiences

Psychology Class 11 & 12 YT

Principles of perceptual organisation
 The process of organising visual field into

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meaningful wholes' is known as form

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perception.

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 Gestalts psychology believes we perceive the
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world in organised wholes rather than in
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discrete parts.
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 Good figure and figure-ground segregation.

Psychology Class 11 & 12 YT

Gestalt psychologists have given us several laws to explain
how and why different stimuli in our visual field are
organised into meaningful whole object.

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 The principle of proximity

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 The principle of similarity
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 The principle of continuity
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 The principle of smallness
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 The principle of symmetry

 The principle of closure.

Psychology Class 11 & 12 YT

Perception of Space, Depth & Distance
 In perceiving depth we depend on two main sources of
information called cues. Binocular cues require both eyes

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and monocular cues allow us to perceive depth with just

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one eye.

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 Monocular cues

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relative size, interposition, linear perspective, aerial
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perspective, light and shade, relative height, texture
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gradient, motion parallax.
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 Binoculars cues
- retinal disparity
- convergence
- accommodation Psychology Class 11 & 12 YT
Perceptual consistencies :
 Perceptions of the objects as relatively stable in spite of
changes in the stimulation of sensory receptors is called

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perceptual consistency.

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 Size, Shape & Brightness constancy

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Illusions

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 Sometimes we feel to interpret the sensory information
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correctly. Misperception resulting from misinterpretation
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of information received by our sense organs are generally

known as illusions.
-Geometrical illusion (Muller lyer)
-Apparent movement illusion (also called 'phi-phenomenon')
Psychology Class 11 & 12 YT
Social cultural influences on perception.
 People do not always see the world as it is, instead they
construct it based on the features of stimuli and their own

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experiences.

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 Different people around the world, perceive differently. A

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study done in Africa found that, people had great
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difficulty in recognising objects depicted in pictures as
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they have never seen it.
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 This shows that instructions in home and habitual

exposure to picture were necessary to sustain skill of
pictorial depth perception.

Psychology Class 11 & 12 YT