What is the difference between sensation and perception?

•Sensation is gathering info from the

environment via your senses.

•Perception is understanding what is

being sensed!

What do we call it when there is a mismatch between sensation and perception – when we misinterpret

the info?

What are geometric illusions?

• Our perception of size is distorted.

• E.g. the top yellow line appears longer than the bottom yellow line.

What are Ambiguous figures?

• When an object can be seen in more than one way. Do you see a man playing the saxophone or a womans face?

What are fictions?

• When you see something that is not there. E.g. the white triangle

What is shape constancy?

• The ability to perceive the shape of an object even if it’s seen from different angles

RectangleRectangle Still a

flipping rectangle!!!!

What is colour constancy?

• We can still tell what colours are in different lighting, e.g. you can see the blue squares even when under red or green lighting.

Red lighting Green lighting

What is depth perception?

• The ability to perceive the world in 3D.

What are the 5 depth cues that your brain uses to perceive in 3D?

Linear perspective

Height in the plane

Relative size

Superimposition

overlapping

Texture gradient

What do you need to say if the exam question asks you about CONSTRUCTIVIST THEORY

How do your expectations influence your perception here?

Limitations with constructivist theory

INDIVIDUAL EXPERIENCES – rarely do we disagree with people about what we see but we all have different past experiences.

Newborn babies – no past experience but can still perceive, e.g. imaginary cliff

Learning – if past experience causes perception then after learning how an illusion works it should cease to fool us but this is not the case!

The Nativist theory

• Bottom up processing

• Immediate or direct – no past experience needed

See it first then the brain registers it.

What are these?

Haber & Levin (2001)

Haben & Levin’s conclusion

• They could tell the distance and size of the real world fixed size objects because they relied on their PAST EXPERIENCE of these objects.

• The other objects could vary in size so they couldn’t rely on their past experiences in the same way.

• Supports CONSTRUCTIVIST theory.

The limitations!!!!!

•9 sample size too small

•Male gender bias

•Students not representative

Other forms of subliminal messaging include:

1/3000th second image, sales of coca cola increase at cinema

When Italian music was played over tanoy in supermarkets, sales

of Italian wine increased.