Hello students, welcome to e content learning. This video pertains to the first year B. A.

Psychology paper
PSC102, titled Fundamentals of Psychology 2. This is Anuradha Kakodkar, Associate professor, St
Xavier’s College, Mapusa, Goa, and I will talk about dimensions of perception.
I will introduce Gestalt psychology and it's perceptual principles and then go on to a discussion of
monocular and binocular cues in depth perception.
At the end of the session, you should be able to understand the different perceptual principles through
which we interpret sensory information and also appreciate the monocular and binocular cues in depth
perception.

Information that is transmitted by our sense organs is interpreted into meaningful patterns through
the process of perception. Some of these perceptions are common to us all , whereas some others are
unique to each individual. For example, if we see a dog, the perception of seeing the dog will be different
for each one of us. A particular personmay see the dog as a lovable pet. Another may see the dog as a
nuisance, a third may view the dog as a threat to one's personal well being. Accordingly, our own
experience with dogs will determine how we react to the dog and what we perceive the dog as.

In short, sensory messages are organized by our brain in certain ways to be of use to us.

In the early 20th century three German psychologist Max Wertheimer, Wolfgang and Kurt Koffka
established a school of psychology called as Gestalt Psychology. Gestalt psychology emphasizes that the
whole is more than the sum of its parts. This school of thought believed that what we perceive is not just
an assembly of all elements together, but the Inter relationship between these elements is very important
to perception.
The Gestalt school put forth laws of perceptual organization that govern how the human eye perceives
visual information. Let us now identify the laws proposed by Gestalt psychologists.

first figure ground relationship. This law states that when we perceive a visual stimulus, we perceive it as
the figure , that is what stands out and the ground, that is what goes behind. That means. When we see
any object, the object of interest is the figure and the ground is whatever is in the background.
For example,in this picture you see the puppy as the center of attention i. e., we view it as the figure,and
we perceive the background as the ground.
Or let us take another example. When we read a newspaper the black words are seen as the figure and
the white background on which the words are printed is perceived as the ground.
However, at times, the figure and ground can also be reversed, as in this figure. If you see the white as
the figure, then you perceive of a vase and if you see the black as the figure you perceive two faces in
profile. Our perception depends on the part of the picture that we focus on.
This shows that what we perceive depends more on what happens in the brain rather than what is before
us.
2nd. Similarity. The law of similarity states that we tend to perceive objects that resemble each other as
one unit. Other stimuli that have different features are generally not perceived as part of that object.
So when items share some characteristic, they are assumed to be related in some way.
In this picture, rather than perceiving a collection of dots and squares, we are more inclined to perceive
them as two rows of dots with one row of squares in between.

3rd , law of proximity. The law of proximity states that objects or shapes that are closer to one another
appear to form groups and are perceived as one unit in this picture, rather than perceiving 6 lines, we
tend to perceive them as sets of three lines, 2 lines and two and one line.

4th, the law of continuity. The human eye follows the paths, lines and curves of a design and prefers to
see a continuous flow of visual elements rather than separated objects. So if we look at this picture we
are more inclined to trace the route that A&B has taken then we are more likely to believe that P started
from 1 and A had two as the starting point. This happens because of brain processes of continuous flow
of visual elements rather than as separate units.

Next is the principle of closure. The principle of closure is our tendency to perceive complete figures or
forms even if the picture is incomplete or part of the information needed to make the picture complete is
missing. So our eyes are actually good at filling in the gaps.
As you can see in this picture we are more likely to believe these two figures as a square and a circle
when in actual fact they are only a collection of segments.
This is because of the principle of closure.

All these perceptual principles that we discussed enable us to make sense of the world.

Now let us turn our attention to the phenomenon of depth perception , that is ,how do we see a 3
dimensional world before us? How do we gauge the distance of an object from the eye?

We use a number of cues in depth perception. One set of cues is what we require only one eye for. That
is monocular cues and the second one is binocular cues, in which both the eyes are required in order to
gauge those cues.

One is linear perspective. If we're looking at a long road or a railway track, or even a series of buildings,
they seem to converge into the distance. This tendency of parallel lines to seem to converge on each
other is called as linear perspective, and this is used as a cue to assess distance.
So what appears as merged is far away and what we can see on either side of us is closer to us.This is
the cue that we use.

2nd. Interposition. An object that partially concealed or blocks another object is seen as closer and the
blocked object is perceived as being behind the first one and therefore further away.
In this picture, the two girls in white dresses are seen closer to us since they can be seen entirely and the
people behind are perceived as further because they are partially concealed.
3rd. Texture gradient. The texture of objects that are closer to us appear coarse and full of visible detail as
you go further, the texture appears finer. In this picture, rocks and shrubs that are closer to us are
distinctly textured, but as you look further away into the distance, the texture becomes smaller and finer.
Let us look at this picture which also demonstrates texture gradient. In the distance, the field appears as
a bed of green, whereas at close range the field can be seen as clusters of individual saplings.

4th Motion parallax. This is another monocular cue that we use. While traveling, objects that are far away
seem to move slower, whereas objects that are right outside the vehicle window are seen as moving very
fast and this is what we use as a cue in depth perception.

Another Q is Aerial perspective. Objects that are far away appear blueish and hazy, whereas those closer
to us are seen clearly.This happens because of the light scattering by the atmosphere and tiny particles
of dust, dot and vapor.

Now let us go to the Binocular cues in depth perception. Binocular cues are those that require the
presence of both the eyes.
There are two binocular cues that we use.

One is convergence which means that when our eyes focus on any object that we're looking at, the two
eyes rotate or converge to focus themselves onto the object. If the object is close, the convergence is far
more and we can feel pressure in our eyes, whereas if the object is further away then the eyes do not feel
that pressure and this is used as a cue to understand how close or further away the object is from our
eyes.

Second cue is retinal disparity.

So you see, our brain perceives information based on certain principles that have been outlined in this
module and also monocular and binocular cues that we use in order to understand their perception.

Kindly refer to the following sources for a detailed reading of the perceptual process.
Thank you.