Perception

Bushra naz

Perception
Perception is a constructive process by which
we go beyond the stimuli that are presented to
us and attempt to construct a meaningful
situation.

 The fact that we can look at the same

figure in more than one way illustrates an
important point. We do not just passively
respond to visual stimuli that happen to fall
on our retinas. Instead, we actively try to
organize and make sense of what we see

Perceptual process
Perceptual processes include:
Selection refers to choosing
which of many stimuli that will be
processed.
Organization involves collecting
the information into some pattern.
Interpretation involves
understanding the pattern.

Perceptions can be error

Illusions are visual stimuli that are
misinterpreted .

Selection
Selective attention: filtering out and attending
only to important sensory messages.
Feature detectors: specialized cells in the brain
that respond only to certain sensory information
Habituation: tendency of the brain to ignore
environmental factors that remain constant

 Perception is nearly always highly organized

The organization of perception could be difficult
in circumstances where the stimuli are
ambiguous.
chapter will examine factors involved in making
sense of the sensation we experience and
transforming them into organized perception.
It will cover following topics

ambiguous figures
Figure/background
The gestalt laws of organization
Constancy
Visual illusion
Applications of perceptual organization

Ambiguous figure
With ambiguous figures there appears to
be a need to create a whole image

Figure/ background
We rarely encounter ambiguity with three
dimensional objects in our normal visual world.
With two dimensional objects we find it difficult to
distinguish between background and figure
In the figure at one moment we see a figure of a
white vase against a red background, and next
moment we see two red profiles against a white
background
The figure ground relationship can also found in
senses other than vision.

FIGURE GROUND- Organization of the visual field into objects

(figures) that stand out from their surroundings (ground)

Reversible figures - visual illusions in which the figure and

ground can be reversed

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Gestalt Organizational Principles

A number of rules or laws governing the
organization of perception, sometimes
referred to as the Gestalt laws of
organization.
A principle of gestalt psychology that identifies
factors leading to particular forms of
perceptional organisation.[Kellogg,2002]

Proximity:
Def.: "How elements tend to be grouped
together depending on their closeness."
[Pedroza,2004]

Similarity:
Def.: "How items that are similar in some
way tend to be grouped together."
[Pedroza,2004]

Good Continuation:
Def.: "The law of good continuation states
that objects arranged in either a straight
line or a smooth curve tend to be seen as
a unit." [Pedroza,2004]

Closure
Def.: "How items are grouped together if
they tend to complete a pattern."
[Pedroza,2004]

Perceptual Constancy
Constancy refers to situation where we see
objects as stable despite great changes in the
stimuli reaching the sensory organs. An object
remains constant despite variation in its size and
this allows us to make an adjustment to the
reality confronting us. examples
Size
Shape
Light
Person

 Size constancy refers to our ability to see

objects as maintaining the same size even
when our distance from them makes
things appear larger or smaller.
Why do we not think a car is shrinking when it drives
away from us, even though the retinal image is
shrinking? We know it is going further away, and we
know this on a basic level that does not require us to
pause for thought. We make this calculation
automatically.

Shape constancy

 Shape:The ability to maintain a constant

shape in spite of different retinal images is
called shape constancy.

 Brightness constancy refers to our

ability to recognize that color remains the
same regardless of how it looks under
different levels of light.

Illusion
Under certain conditions constancy does
not hold good and what we see appears to
be quite different from what we know to be
true. These manifestations are called
illusions.

Perceptual Illusions
Mller-Lyer illusion - illusion of line length that is
distorted by inward-turning or outward-turning
corners on the ends of the lines, causing lines of
equal length to appear to be different.
Moon illusion the moon on the horizon appears to
be larger than the moon in the sky.
Apparent distance hypothesis
Illusions of Motion:
autokinetic effect - a small, stationary light in a darkened
room will appear to move or drift because there are no
surrounding cues to indicate that the light is not moving.
stroboscopic motion - seen in motion pictures, in which a
rapid series of still pictures will appear to be in motion.
phi phenomenon lights turned on in a sequence appear to
move.

Ames room illusion

Muller-Lyer illusion

Feature analysis:
focusing on the parts of the whole
An approach to perception that consider
how we perceive a shape, pattern, object,
or scene by reacting first to the individual
elements that make it up

Feature-Analysis Theory
Eleanor Gibson
1. Visual stimulus is composed of many
features with distinctive forms.
2. Features of objects and patterns are
extracted and matched to features in
memory for recognition.
3. We can decompose the letter A into at
least three features (/ - \) or line segments.

Perception: Top-Down Processing-analysis based on

higher level knowledge experience and expectation and
motivation (start with the brain)
Sensation: Bottom-up
Processing-analysis
that starts with the
senses,( ---->brain)
consists of recognizing
and processing
information about the
individual components
of the stimuli

Depth Perception
Depth perception is the ability to view the world
in three-dimensions and to perceive distances
accurately .
Binocular cues include retinal disparity and convergence.
If we view two objects one is considerably closer to us
than the other is, the retinal disparity will be large and we
have a greater sense of depth between the two. If the
two objects are a similar distance from us the retinal
disparity will be minor and we will perceive them as
being similar distance from us
Monocular cues include linear perspective, interposition,
relative size, texture gradient, aerial perspective, light
and shadow, accommodation and motion parallax.

Monocular Cues
Monocular cues (pictorial depth cues) cues
for perceiving depth based on one eye only.
1.Linear perspective the tendency for parallel
lines to appear to converge on each other.
2.Relative size - perception that occurs when
objects that a person expects to be of a
certain size appear to be small and are,
therefore, assumed to be much farther away.
3.Interposition (overlap) - the assumption that an
object that appears to be blocking part of
another object is in front of the second object
and closer to the viewer.

Monocular Cues
4. Aerial perspective - the haziness that surrounds
objects that are farther away from the viewer,
causing the distance to be perceived as greater.
5. Texture gradient - the tendency for textured
surfaces to appear to become smaller and finer
as distance from the viewer increases.
6. Motion parallax - the perception of motion of
objects in which close objects appear to move
more quickly than objects that are farther away.
7. Accommodation - as a monocular clue, the
brains use of information about the changing
thickness of the lens of the eye in response to
looking at objects that are close or far away.

Menu

Linear Perspective

Binocular Cues
Binocular cues - cues for perceiving depth
based on both eyes.
1.Convergence - the rotation of the two eyes in
their sockets to focus on a single object,
resulting in greater convergence for closer
objects and lesser convergence if objects are
distant.
2.Binocular disparity - the difference in images
between the two eyes, which is greater for
objects that are close and smaller for distant
objects.

Factors that Influence Perception

Perceptual set (perceptual expectancy) - the
tendency to perceive things a certain way
because previous experiences or
expectations influence those perceptions.
Top-down processing - the use of preexisting
knowledge to organize individual features into
a unified whole.
Bottom-up processing - the analysis of the
smaller features to build up to a complete
perception.

Attitude Formation and Change

What is an attitude?
A learned predisposition to respond to an
object or a class of objects in a
consistently favorable or unfavorable way.
Attitudes are relatively enduring.
Attitudes are situation-related.

How do we form attitudes?

Three different paths to attitude formation:
Attitudes are created by first creating beliefs.
Consumer beliefs are the knowledge that a
consumer has about objects, their attributes, and
the benefits provided by the objects.
Consumer beliefs are created by processing
information--cognitive learning.

How do we form attitudes?

Attitudes are created directly.
Behavioral learning
Mere exposure

Attitudes are created by first creating

behaviors.
Consumers respond to strong situational or
environmental forces, and after engaging in the
behavior, form attitudes about the experience.

Structural Model of Attitude

Tri-component Model
Cognitive component
The knowledge and perceptions that are acquired by
a combination of direct experience with the attitude
object and related information from various sources.
Affective component
The emotions or feelings associate with a particular
product or brand.
behavioral component
The likelihood or tendency that an individual will
undertake a specific action or behave in a particular
way with regard to the attitude object.