Unit 2 Psychology

C H 7 / 8 : V I S U A L P E R C E P T I O N R E V I S I O N

Term Definition/Explanation

Sensation process which by sensory receptors detect and respond to incoming stimuli

Perception process where the brain gives meaning to stimuli

Sensory Information light, sound ect.

The relationship between sensation is detecting stimuli, perception is when the brain makes sense of it
sensation and perception

Reception receiving the stimuli and responding to it

Transduction changing the stimuli to neural impulses

Transmission sending the stimuli to the brain via the thalamus

Interpretation the brain making sense of the information

Visual Perception

- receptors in the retina detect and respond to light

Reception
- Transduction light transformed into neural impulses

- Transmission neural impulses sent to the brain via the optic nerve

- Interpretation brain processes impulses in the primary visual cortex

The Structure & Function of

the Eye

- Cornea protects eye, focuses light into eye

- Pupil hole that expands to control the amount of light entering the eye
- Lens bulges and flattens to direct light into the eye
- Iris muscle that controls size of pupil
- Retina receives and absorbs light
- Aqueous Humour gives the eye shape and carries waste products away
- Vitreous Humour gives eye shape and focuses light into retina
- Optic Nerve sends neural impulses to the brain

Visual Perception Principles

Gestalt Principles

- Figure Ground divides the background from the foreground

(including contour contour: the outline between figure and ground, belongs to figure
and camouflage) camouflage: when the contour is not clear or cannot be attributed
- Closure tendency to mentally close gaps in visual images and perceive them as whole
- Proximity tendency to perceive objects close together as a group
- Similarity tendency to group similar looking objects together

Binocular Cues uses two eyes

- Convergence detects depth from tension in muscles as they turn inwards, up to 6 metres

- Retinal Disparity detects depth using the difference in images reflected in the retina, up to 10 metres

Monocular Cues uses one eye

- Accommodation perceiving depth from how the sense changes shape based on distance
Pictorial Cues
- Linear Perspective apparent convergence of parallel lines in the distance

- Interposition when objects are partially covered, they are perceived as being further away

- Texture Gradient the further away an object it is, the less detailed it becomes
- Relative Size smaller objects are perceived as further away
- Height in the Visual the close an object is to the horizon, the further away it is perceived
Field

Perceptual Constancies
- Size Constancy recognising that an object maintains its size even as it changes on the retina
- Shape Constancy recognising that an object maintains its shape despite change in the retina
- Brightness recognising that objects remain the same brightness despite the change in light
Constancy entering the eye

Perceptual Set the set of information used to help perceive an environment

- Context the setting in which a perception can be made
- Motivation influences the perception of an environment using what an individual wants to see
- Emotional State how a person feels influences a person’s perception
- Prior Experience personal past experiences
- Culture cultural differences and the experiences

Distortion of Perception inconsistency between reality and what is perceived

Visual Illusions

Muller Lyer Illusion

- Description
- explanations biological: different eye movements may be needed to see illusion
psychological: carpentered world hypothesis, that lines are similar to real world
examples used to judge depth and distance, or misinterpretation of size constancy
social perspective: that if people not exposed to architectural features, they will not
see illusion

C H 7 / 8 : T A S T E P E R C E P T I O N R E V I S I O N
Taste perception

Parts of the Tongue taste receptors: gustatory cells

taste buds: hold taste receptors
papillae: small dots on tongue surface that hold taste buds, last for 10 days

Tastants dissolved chemicals that can be tasted

Five basic tastes sweet, sour, salty, bitter, umami

Influences on taste perception

What is flavour? perceptual experience produced by taste and a number of other sensations

- age more taste buds with age until teens, less as older

- genetics super tasters have more tastebuds

Perceptual set
- expectations people may judge based on what they expect a food to taste like
- colour/shape inappropriately coloured food may taste strange
- packaging plain packaging may make food taste plain
- culture social influence based on what is perceived as "normal"
- colour intensity the stronger the colour of a food, the taste is perceived as stronger
C H 7 / 8 : S Y N A E S T H E S I A R E V I S I O N

Definition stimulation of one sense involuntarily producing stimulation of another

Explanation abnormal neural pathways, sensitive to external stimuli, breakdown in sensory

and perceptual processes

C H 9 : S O C I A L C O G N I T I O N

Person Perception

Impressions from physical appearance halo effect: cognitive bias where people make impressions of an individual
based on looks

Impressions from non-verbal body language, eye contact, facial expressions

communication

Attribution
- Personal attribution attributions from an individual
- Situational attribution external environment to an individual

Fundamental Attribution Error tendency to overestimate the influence of personal factors and
underestimate the influence of situational factors in a situation

Actor-Observer Bias tendency to attribute own behaviour to situational factors and others
behaviour on their individual factors

Self Serving Bias an individual attributing failures to situational factors and success to
personal factors

Culture and Attribution individualist culture: putting individual achievements over group
collectivist culture: putting group achievements over individual

Attitudes

What is an attitude? an evaluation an individual makes about an object, event, issue, person or
group

Tri-component model of attitudes (A, affective: emotional reactions or feelings

B and C) behavioural: how the attitude is expressed
cognitive: beliefs an individual holds

when do they match? enjoying sleeping, getting a lot of sleep, knowing that sleep is good
when do they not match? enjoying sleeping, not getting a lot of sleep to do other things, knowing
that sleep is important

La Piere’s experiment – his conclusion attitudes to people of different races differed from an individual's
in relation to the tri-component model behaviour towards people of other races

Stereotyping, prejudice and discrimination

Stereotype (+ example) a collection of beliefs an individual may have about people of a certain
group regardless of their individual qualities

Prejudice an attitude against members of a group based solely on their membership

to a group

Old-fashioned prejudice openly rejecting the minority

Modern prejudice subtle, hidden, may publicly support positive views but hold reservations
Discrimination
Types of discrimination
Factors that reduce prejudice (include examples from Robbers Cave experiment)
Intergroup contact
Sustained contact
Mutual interdependence
Superordinate goals
Equality of Status
Measurement of attitudes – include advantages and disadvantages of each technique
Observation
Survey
Interview
Likert scale
C H 1 0 : S O C I A L
Group (+ example) vs collective
Status and power in groups
Status
Power
Reward power (+ example)
Coercive power (+ example)
Legitimate power (+ example)
Referent power (+ example)
Expert power (+ example)
Informational power (+ example)
Zimbardo’s prison experiment
(briefly explain aim, results,
generalisations, ethics)
Obedience
prejudice expressed through behaviour directed at members of a group
racism, ageism, sexism, gender identity
increasing direct contact between two opposing groups
ongoing direct or maintained contact between prejudiced groups, breaks
down stereotypes based on informations from secondary sources
when opposing groups are placed in a situation where they are dependant
on each other - truck with food, movie, fix water
a goal that can’t be achieved by one group alone, requires groups to
prioritise goal over individual goals
status must be perceived as equal from both groups to reduce prejudice
unobtrusive, participants are more likely to be honest, can’t tell strength
of attitude, may be inaccurate
easy to summarise, social desirability, generally used for people with
well-developed language skills but excludes a large population
wide range of responses, hard to summarise
easy to summarise, social desirability
I N F L U E N C E S
groups interact, have a common goal, collectives have minimal interaction
importance of an individual’s position in a group
individual’s ability to influence thoughts, feelings or behaviour of another
ability to give rewards as a result of specific behaviour
ability to give punishments
individual’s status in a group, authority
wanting to be liked, or be like an individual
an individual having wanted skills or knowledge that is needed or desired
an individual having resources or information not available elsewhere
to research the behaviour of individuals when given the role of either a prison
guard or prisoner
it was found that the behaviour of normal, well educated, men can be
significantly affected when the role they are given involves considerable status
or power
psychological harm, confidentiality, right of withdrawal, deception, fully
informed consent
Milgram’s experiment (briefly
explain aim, results,
generalisations and ethics)
Factors affecting obedience
Social proximity (+ example)
Legitimacy of the authority figure
(+ example)
Group pressure (+ example)
Conformity
Asch’s experiments on conformity
(briefly explain aim, results,
generalisations and ethics)
Factors affecting conformity
• Unanimity
• Social loafing
• Deindividuation
Anonymity in a group
Shift in attention
Pro-social behaviour
SITUATIONAL FACTORS:
Noticing the situation
Interpreting the situation
Taking responsibility for helping
SOCIAL NORMS:
Reciprocity norm
Social responsibility norm
PERSONAL FACTORS:
Empathy
Mood
Competence
C H 1 - 3 : R E S E A R C H
Research methods
Population
Sample / sampling methods / allocation methods
to research the effects of distance between authority and an individual on
obedience
it was found that if individuals are further away from authority, they are
less likely to obey
psychological harm, right of withdrawal, deception, fully informed consent
the closer people are socially or physically, the more likely they are to obey
if an individual is perceived to have more authority, they are more likely to
obey, white coats or uniforms
more likely to disobey if more group support resisting
to research the influence of group unanimity on conformity
it was found that if there are more people conforming, the more likely an
individual is to also conform
can be generalised to adult males from the USA
psychological harm, confidentiality, informed consent
if there is one person not conforming, others are less likely to conform
the belief that an individual’s input will not make a difference, conform as it
takes less effort
belief that in a group, people can’t be identified, therefore they can have
abnormally antisocial behaviour
loss of individualisation
people in a group are more focused on the group than internal thoughts
people in a group are more likely to be focused on the group then when alone
people may not know whether help is needed, situation may be ambiguous
if others are around, individuals may leave responsibility to them
standards that govern what people should do in social situations
tendency for an individual to help those who help them
belief that those who need help should be helped
ability to identify with and understand another’s emotions or difficulties
good mood increases helping, bad mood due to other person increases helping,
bad mood due to self decreases helping
a person’s likelihood to help depends on actual and perceived ability
M E T H O D S & E T H I C S
entire group of individuals experiment is generalised to
part of population that represents whole
random, convenience, stratified sampling
Experimental Design
• Independent Groups randomly putting in control or experimental group
• Matched Participants pairing participants based on a certain characteristic
• Repeated Measures + counterbalancing both groups are control and experimental, different order

Experimental group group exposed to independant variable

Control group group not exposed to independent variable

Independent variable variable being tested

Dependent variable variable being measured as a result of independent

Extraneous Variables extraneous (during) and confounding variables (outside)

- Experimenter expectations results influenced by reaction of experimenter

- Participants expectations/placebo results influenced by expectations of participants, placebo

(fake treatment)
- Order effects change in results based on sequence
- Individual participant differences different skills

- Non-standardised instructions instructions presented differently

- Single blind procedure participants unaware of which group they are in

experimenter unaware of which participants are in which
- Double blind procedure
group

Conclusions / Generalisations it was found that…

Hypothesis it is hypothesised that…

Ethics voluntary participation, fully informed consent,

withdrawal rights, confidentiality, debriefing/deception