Perception

Chapter 3.2

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 Topics Covered
• Perception: definition and characteristics
• Perceptual processes
• Pathways in brain, top down and bottom up
processes
• Subliminal perception
• Perceptual organization (gestalt principles)
• Perceptual ambiguity, distortion and illusion
• Extrasensory perception

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• Ca- yo- re-d t-is -en-en-e, w-ic- ha- ev-ry -hi-d
l-tt-r m-ss-ng?

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 Perception
• Perception is the method by which the
sensations experienced at any given moment
are interpreted and organized in some
meaningful fashion.

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 Perception
• Perception refers to the way world looks, feels,
tastes, or smells.
• “Part of what we perceive comes through the
senses from the object before us; another
part…..always comes….out of our own head”
(William James)
• Perception is a constructive process by which we go
beyond the stimuli that are presented to us and
attempt to construct a meaningful situation

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 How Perception Works?
– Stimuli activate sensory receptors
– Sensory receptors translate information into nerve
impulses
– Specialized neurons analyze stimuli features
– Stimulus pieces are reconstructed and compared to
stimuli in memory
– Perception is then consciously experienced

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 Process of Perception
• Receptor Process: specialized cells of the nervous system
that are sensitive to stimuli i.e. vision, smell, touch, sound
• Symbolic Process: symbolic images are formed by the
neural activity of the sense organs in the nervous system in
the absence of actual stimuli i.e. when you remember a
particular person you imagine what a good person he is, he
tried to help you when you were in trouble
• Affective Process: It reminds the emotions attached to a
stimulus i.e. pleasant, unpleasant, liking, disliking
• Unification Process: all the processes of the perception are
needed to have a clear picture and understanding of what
we perceive i.e. while you are cooking
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 Differences
Sensation Perception
• Primary and first process in • Complex mental process
acquiring knowledge • Meaningful interpretation
• It has no meaning • Brain is more active and
• Sense organs work as symbolic process involved
receptors • Past experience needed
• Past experience not • Immediate knowledge
involved explained
• Immediate knowledge

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 Mechanisms of Perception
• Top down and bottom up processes
• Perceptual organization- Gestalt principles
• Perceptual constancies: Size, Shape and
Brightness constancies
• Depth perception- monocular and binocular
• Motion perception
• Subliminal sensation and perception

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Top Down and Bottom Up Processing

• Top-down processing: Perception that is guided by

higher-level knowledge, experience, expectations, and
motivations
• Bottom-up processing : Perception that consists of the
progression of recognizing and processing information
from individual components of a stimuli and moving to
the perception of the whole

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 Perceptual Organization
• Our perceptual processes often allow us to perceive
shapes and forms from incomplete and fragmented
stimuli
• The process by which we structure the input from our
sensory receptors is called perceptual organization
• Principles or laws of perceptual organization were first
studied by Gestalt psychologists
• They were intrigued by certain innate tendencies of
the human mind to impose order and structure on the
physical world and to perceive sensory patterns

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 Gestalt principles of perceptual
organization
• Figure-ground: Organization depends on what we
see as figure (object) and what we perceive a
ground (context).
• Similarity: Objects that have similar characteristics
are perceived as unit.
• Proximity: Objects close together in space or time
perceived as belonging together.
• Continuity: We tend to perceive figures or objects
as belonging together if they appear to form a
continuous pattern.
• Closure: We perceive figures with gaps in them to
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Figure Ground

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Similarity, Proximity, Continuity, and
Closer

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 Perceptual constancy
• Perceptual constancy is a phenomenon in which
physical objects are perceived as unvarying (not
changing) and consistent despite changes in their
appearance or in the physical environment.
• Perceptual constancy leads us to view objects as
having an unvarying or stable size, shape, color, and
brightness, even if the image on our retina varies.
• Three types of perceptual constancy:
– Size constancy
– Shape constancy
– Brightness constancy
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 Perceptual constancy
• Size constancy: Perceiving objects as being about the
same size when they move farther away
• Shape constancy: Perceiving objects as having a
stable or unchanging shape regardless of changes in
the retinal image resulting from differences in
viewing angle
• Brightness constancy: It is the tendency to perceive
the apparent brightness of an object as the same
even when the light conditions change i.e. even if
day light changes the color reflection from objects,
we perceive them as same
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Depth Perception

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 Depth Perception
– Depth perception: The ability to see in three dimensions and to
estimate distance. There are Monocular and Binocular depth
cues
– Monocular depth cues: can be perceived by only one eye
– Binocular depth cues: Depth cues that depend on two eyes
working together
– Convergence: Occurs when the eyes turn inward to focus on
nearby objects – the closer the object, the greater the
convergence
– Binocular disparity (or retinal disparity): Difference between
the two retinal images formed by the eyes’ slightly different
views of the objects focused on

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Stimulus Cues for Monocular Depth Perception

• Interposition
• Relative Size
• Height in the Visual
Field
• Textural Gradient
• Linear Perspective
• Reduced Clarity
• Light and Shadow

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 Types of monocular cues
• Interposition: When one object partly blocks
your view of another, you perceive the partially
blocked object as farther away
• Linear perspective: Parallel lines that are
known to be the same distance apart appear to
grow closer together, or converge, as they
recede into the distance

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 Types of monocular cues
• Relative size: Larger objects are perceived as
being closer to the viewer, and smaller
objects as being farther away
• Texture gradient: Near objects appear to have
sharply defined textures, while similar objects
appear progressively smoother and fuzzier as
they recede into the distance
• Atmospheric perspective: Objects in the
distance have a bluish tint and appear more
blurred than objects close at hand
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 Motion perception
–It is related to how you perceiving moving
objects
–When you ride in a moving vehicle and look
out the side window, the objects you see
outside appear to be moving in the opposite
direction
–Objects seem to be moving at different speeds
– those closest to you appear to be moving
faster than those in the distance
–Objects very far away, such as the moon and
the sun, appear to move in the same direction
as the viewer
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 Subliminal Perception
• Subliminal stimuli - stimuli that are below the level
of conscious awareness.
– Just strong enough to activate the sensory receptors but
not strong enough for people to be consciously aware of
them.
– Limin - “threshold”
– Sublimin - “below the threshold.”
• Subliminal perception – process by which
subliminal stimuli act upon the unconscious mind,
influencing behavior.

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 Illusion

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 Error in Perception: Illusion
– Illusion is a false perception of actual stimuli involving
a misperception of size, shape, or the relationship of
one element to another
– An illusion is a perception that does not correspond to
reality: People think they see something when the
reality is quite different.
– Though illusions distort reality, they are generally
shared by most people.
– An illusion is a distortion of the senses, which can
reveal how the human brain normally organizes and
interprets sensory stimulation.
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Illusion, Delusion and Hallucination
• Illusion: presence of stimulus, meaning is distorted
i.e. rope as a snake
• Hallucination: false perception in absence of stimulus
i.e. Donald Trump is talking to you even though no
image or stimulus around you, can also be caused by
drugs or hallucinogens
• Delusion: mistaken belief, may be related to
abnormality if persists for a longer period i.e. some
people are conspiring against me

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 Types of Illusions
• Optical illusions- which may be seen when an image is
constructed in such a way that it relays misleading
information to the brain.
• Auditory illusions- which occur when a person hears
sounds that are not actually being made or sounds that
are distortions of the actual tones.
• Tactile illusions- which cause the brain to perceive touch
stimuli that is not actually present, or that is not present in
the way the brain perceives it.
• Smell and taste illusions- which are not as common as
other types of illusions. However, certain people may
perceive smells differently than others do, especially when
given conflicting information about the stimuli producing
the smell. Similar phenomena can occur with taste.
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 Causes of illusions
• Illusion, hallucination and delusion can be due to drug, substance use,
psychiatric illness, physical environment or physiological
• They can occur for many reasons, such as the effect of light on an
object, insufficient sensory information about an object, or errors in an
individual’s processing of sensory details.
• The refraction of light can cause rainbows and mirages, two illusions
that are dependent on the atmosphere.
• Certain illusions i.e. hallucinations can be signs of a psychiatric
disturbance.
• One may experience a hallucination under conditions of anxiety or fear
or when he or she projects their feelings onto external objects or
people.
• People in intensive psychiatric care have been reported to see people
around them as monsters or devils, for example.
• Like hallucinations, though, illusions are not necessarily a sign of a
psychiatric condition, and anyone might experience them.
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Some of the popular optical
illusions

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 Figure ground illusion
• This 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.
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Figure Ground

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 Illusion of Perspective
• In the Ponzo illusion, two identically-sized lines appear
to be different sizes when placed over parallel lines
that seem to converge as they recede into the distance.
• Because they are placed over parallel lines that seem
to converge in the distance.
• The Ponzo illusion was first demonstrated in 1913 by
an Italian psychologist named Mario Ponzo. The reason
the top horizontal line looks longer is because we
interpret the scene using linear perspective.
• Since the vertical parallel lines seem to grow closer as
they move further away, we interpret the top line as
being further off in the distance.

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 Illusion of Perspective
• Our perceptual system takes the context into account,
here using the converging “railroad tracks” to produce
an experience of depth.
• Then, using some impressive mental geometry, our
brain adjusts the experienced length of the top line to
be consistent with the size it would have if it were that
far away: if two lines are the same length on my retina,
but different distances from me, the more distant line
must be in reality longer. You experience a world that
“makes sense” rather than a world that reflects the
actual objects in front of you.

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Illusion of perspective

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 Illusion of Contrast
• This illusion is called the Ebbinghaus illusion,
created by Hermann Ebbinghaus, one of the early
founders of experimental psychology.
• In this version of the illusion, most people see the
circle on the left as larger than the one on the
right. The two circles are exactly the same size.
• The Ebbinghaus illusion again illustrates the
tendency of our perceptual systems to adjust our
experience of the world to the surrounding
context.
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Illusion of Contrast

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 Muler lyer
• 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.
• One of the most famous visual illusions, the Müller-
Lyer illusion.
• The distortion happens when the viewer tries to
determine if the two lines are exactly the same length.
• They are identical, but one line looks longer than the
other. (It’s always the line with the angles on the end
facing outward.)

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Müller-Lyer Illusion

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 Hermann Grid Illusion
• In the Hermann Grid Illusion, the black dots at the
center of each square seem to shift from white to gray.
• The Hermann grid was first discovered by a physiologist
named Ludimar Hermann in 1870.
• When the viewer looks at the grid, the white dots and
the center of each 'corridor' seem to shift between
white and gray.
• When the viewer focused his or her attention on a
specific dot, it is obvious that it is white. But as soon as
attention is shifted away, the dot shifts to a gray color.

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THE HERMANN GRID

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 THE MOON ILLUSION
• Another common illusion is the moon illusion, in which the
moon on the horizon* appears to be much larger than the
moon in the sky.
• One explanation for this is that the moon high in the sky is
all alone, with no cues for depth surrounding it. But on the
horizon, the moon appears behind trees and houses, cues
for depth that make the horizon seem very far away.
• The moon is seen as being behind these objects and,
therefore, farther away from the viewer. Because people
know that objects that are farther away from them yet still
appear large are very large indeed, they “magnify” the
moon in their minds—a misapplication of the principle of
size constancy.

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The Moon Illusion

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 Ames room illusion
• In the Ames room illusion, two people standing in
a room appear to be of dramatically different
sizes, even though they are the same size.
• The effect works by utilizing a distorted room to
create the illusion of a dramatic disparity in size.
While the room appears square-shaped from the
viewers perspective, it is actually has a
trapezoidal shape.
• The illusion leads the viewer to believe that the
two individuals are standing in the same depth of
field.

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Ames room illusion

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Horizontal Vertical Illusion

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Sander’s Illusion

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Hering Illusion (1861)

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 Extrasensory Perception (ESP)
• Psychologists are particularly skeptical of
reports of extrasensory perception, or ESP—
perception that does not involve our known
senses.
• Although half of the general population of the
United States believes it exists, most
psychologists reject the existence of ESP,
asserting that there is no sound
documentation of the phenomenon

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 Some examples ESPs
• Telepathy: the ability to read another person's
thoughts
• Clairvoyance: the ability to "see" events or
objects happening somewhere else
• Precognition: the ability to see the future
• Retrocognition: the ability to see into the
distant past

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 Assignment 1: A reflection to your life !
• Take a moment and look back at your life since childhood
• Reflect on your life based on:
– Your family, your schooling, your surroundings, important
persons in your life which could be real, fictional or from
books, your past experiences, good or bad memories, things
that you value most or you don’t
– Now think how these have influenced you- in the way you
react and interact, your interests, your behavior and
motivations, and emotions
– Now write at least two pages based on above- describe how
they have impacted you as a person, or
– Write what ever comes to your mind which could be one single
event/memory or a series of events/memories that seem
important to you in the making of who you are what you are
– Due: 7 days prepared by dipesh upadhyay
 Assignment 2: Article Presentation
• Working in a group of four discuss among yourself and select the best
article for group presentation
• The article/experiment could be of your own choice/interest related to
psychology from internet or from other sources i.e. books or journals but
that is not in your syllabus
• Make a ppt presentation of the article/experiment by writing:
– A brief summary of one paragraphs for each of the three articles not
selected
– A detail presentation of the selected and best article in your group
which should include:
• Rationale of selecting this article among others
• Summary/Findings
• Methods used
• Criticism and usefulness of this experiment
• Also write down the sources of information in a list
• Due 7 days prepared by dipesh upadhyay