Chapter and Topic of this Review Guide: Perception-Chapter 6

Vocab Term / Definition of Term / Example
Selective attention / Hearing only certain things / Hearing one’s name in a loud room
Visual Capture / Tendency for vision to override the other senses / Someone is really really good looking but they have a disgusting voice. You still think they are really really attractive.
Gestalt / An organized whole; emphasizes tendency to integrate pieces of information into whole pieces / Proximity, similarity, closure, continuity, simplicity, connectedness
Figure-ground relationships / Organization of the visual field into objects that stand out from surroundings / Part of a painting is the background, the other is the figure
Grouping / Perceptual tendency to organize stimuli into coherent groups / Putting M&Ms in alphabetical order
Depth perception / Ability to see distance or in 3-d. / Being able to judge the distance between your car and the car in front of you.
Visual Cliff / Lab. Device for testing depth perception in infants and animals
Binocular cue / Depth cues that require the use of two eyes. / Retinal disparity
Retinal disparity / A larger object is closer / A blade of grass in front of your face is taller than a tree many yards away.
Convergence / Neural muscular cues eyes focused inward / Cross eyed
Phi phenomenon / Illusion of movement in two or more lights that are blinking quickly / Lights on a movie theatre that seem to be moving.
Perceptual constancy / Perceiving objects unchanging even though retinal images change. / The color of grass at night verses during the day.
Perceptual set / Mental predisposition to perceive one thing and not another / The basketball tossing and the gorilla
Extra sensory perception / Controversial claim that perception can occur apart from sensory input. / Mind reading
Parapsychology / Study of paranormal phenomena / Studying ESP
Authors of Important Study / Basic of What Was Done / Lesson(s) learned from the study
Elanor Gibson and Richard Walk / Created the visual cliff in order to learn and study about depth perception in animals and infants / Depth perception is something that one gains over time. Infants do not have depth perception
Adelbert Ames / Created the Ames room. A room in which a wall is diagonal, which tricks they eye into thinking that a person walking from one side to the other changes size. / We perceive that things change size but the room stays the same size
Name of Important Person / What this person is known for / Impact on Psychology
Earnest Weber / Created Weber’s Law. / Helped us understand the difference threshold.
Hermann Von Helmholtz / Three color theory- three different receptors for color
Place theory-certain eardrum vibrates for specific frequency / Helped us understand how we see color using three main colors.
Helped us understand how we hear pitch.
Ronald Melzack and Patrick Wall / Gate control theory / Helps us understand how pain travels through the spinal cord and how it is blocked.