Agree or Disagree?

Success and happiness depends on our

ability to respond intelligently and respond
appropriately to our changing environment.

The process of interpreting our

environment and making them
meaningful is known as PERCEPTION.
What
do you
see?
Each of us has a unique
way of interpreting our
environment.
 How are perceptions formed?

Structuralists believe that we add

together hundreds of basic
elements to form a complex
perception.

Gestaltists believe that our brain

follow a set of rules that specify
how individual elements are
grouped together to form a
meaningful whole.
Do you see the dog?
The dog is not recognized by first identifying its parts
(feet, ears, nose, tail, etc.), and then inferring the dog
from those component parts. Instead, the dog is
perceived as a whole, all at once.
The Perceptual Process
1.Perceptual Selectivity
First, the individual is exposed to an object or
stimulus.
Next, the individual focuses attention on this object
or stimulus.
Last, the individual is more likely to retain an
image of the object or stimulus.
Factors that Influence Attention:
1. Size
2. Intensity
3. Contrast
4. Novelty or Unfamiliarity
5. Motion
6. Repetition
7. Order
8. Response Salience (Interest and Needs)
9. Response Disposition (Familiarity and Readiness)
10. Attitude and Feelings Toward the Object or Person
The Perceptual Process
2. Organization
Through perceptual organization, one
arranges otherwise meaningless or
disorganized stimuli into meaningful
patterns.
 Laws of Gestalt Perceptual
Grouping

Law of Similarity — The mind groups similar elements

into collective entities or totalities. This similarity might
depend on relationships of form, color, size, or brightness.
Law of Closure — The mind may experience elements it
does not perceive through sensation, in order to complete a
regular figure (i.e., to increase regularity).

A triangle will be perceived in picture A, although no triangle has actually been

drawn. In pictures B and D the eye will recognize disparate shapes as "belonging"
to a single shape, in C a complete three-dimensional shape is seen, where in
actuality no such thing is drawn.
 Law of Proximity — Spatial or temporal proximity of
elements may induce the mind to perceive a collective or totality.
Law of Continuity — The mind continues visual,
auditory, and kinetic patterns.

How many lines do you see?

Four lines converging at a mid-point.
 Law of
Multistability
(Figure ground
relationships)—
Symmetrical images are
perceived collectively,
even in spite of distance;
the tendency of
ambiguous perceptual
experiences to pop back
and forth unstably
between two or more
alternative
interpretations.

A vase? Or Two faces?

PERCEPTUAL CONSTANCY the ability of the
brain to perceive objects as constant and unchanged despite
changes in the retinal focus.

Forms of Perceptual
Constancy

1. Size Constancy
2.Color 3.Brightness
Constancy Constancy
4. Shape Constancy
DIFFERENCES IN PERCEPTION
Illusions – a distortion in perception characterized by
changes in the actual perceptual cues thereby perceiving
something as improbable.

The center circles are both the same size.

The circle and the squares appear distorted by the
background patterns.
The Vertical lines are both the
same length.

The diagonal lines A-B and

B-C are equal in length.
 The shade of the center dot is the same in all the squares.
The shade of the background influences how we perceive it. All squares are uniformly
shaded,
but each square seems lighter on its left edge than on its right edge.
There are only white circles at the intersections
Wavy Squares? No!
The background of concentric circles makes the squares
appear distorted.
Shifting gears
Afterimages of complementary colors create apparent movement
in our peripheral vision
as our eyes shift across the page.
Reversible Figures– the
ambiguous sensory
information that creates more
than one good form.
Young
Lady? Or
an Old
Woman?
A rabbit? Or a duck?
Black knights?
Or white
knights?
Impossible Figures– the
objects that can be represented
in 2-dimensional pictures but
cannot exist in 3-dimensional
space despite our perceptions.
Three-prong fork and two sticks?
Incongruous design elements on opposite ends of the parallel lines
create confusion
Depth Perception- originated from binocular disparity, the
brain is used in a little degree of differences in interpreting
data received from each eye to perceive depth.
Motion Parallax- the difference in the relative motion of
retinal images that happen when we change position.
Interposition – when one object particularly abstracts the
sight or another object producing the perception that the
second object is farther than the first.
Linear Perspective – is the apparent merging of two
parallel lines at a distance.
Relative Size– is the relationship between the size of an
object projected on the retina and the distance of the object
from the observer. The bigger the retinal image, the closer the
object appears.
Texture Gradients– the nearer an object is to you, the
more texture you can see. As the object gets farther, the
object appears smoother.
Barriers to Accurate Perception of
Other
1. Stereotyping. Tendency to assign attributes to
people solely on the basis of their class or category.
2. Halo Effect – A tendency to allow the traits exhibited
by people to influence our impression of their other
traits.
3. Implicit Personality Theory – tendency to have a
priori picture of what other people are like.
4. Selective Perception – A process by which we
systematically screen or discredit information we do
not wish to hear and focus instead on more salient
information.

5. Projections- A tendency to ascribe to others those

negative characteristics or feelings we have about
ourselves.

6. Temporal Extension – A tendency to distort or

ignore information that is either personally threatening
or culturally unacceptable.
 Extra Sensory Perception (ESP) the ability to
perceive objects without actual sensory experiences.

Assignment: Research actual

experiences/experiments on:

1. Telepathy
2. Clairvoyance
3. Precognition
4. Psychokinesis