Sensation and Perception The Biological Basis of Behavior

Sensation and Perception The Biological Basis of Behavior: Unit III

II. Perception • Understanding and interpreting sensations from a stimulus. Don't read the words -just say the colors they're printed in, and do this aloud as fast as you can.

III. Principles of Perception • 1. Stroop Effect • Preattentive process acts as an interference. − Recognizing and naming colors requires more of our attention than reading.

What do you see?

Perceptual Organization • 2. Gestalt Approach • Tendency to integrate pieces of information into meaningful wholes • We see patterns and groupings, instead of small, individual pieces.

Gestalt--”form/shape” • What is it? • Figure-ground relationship • How far away is it? • Depth Perceptions • Where is it going? • Perceptual constancies

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Depth Perceptoins

Gestalt examples • Proximity-when objects are close to one another we perceive them together rather than separately. • Similarity-people think of similar objects as belonging together. • Closure-to perceive a complete or whole figure even when there are gaps. • Continuity-people usually prefer to see smooth, continuous patterns. • Common Fate- objects moving in same direction belong together.

What do you see?

• 3. Figure-Ground Perception • Organization of the visual field into objects (figures) that stand out from their surroundings (ground) • Perception of figures against a background.

• Perception of motion • To sense movement, humans need to see an object change its position relative to other objects. • Traffic light • Stroboscopic motion • Produced by showing the rapid progression of images or objects that are not moving at all. • Flip books & movies

• 4. perceptual set - predisposition to perceive something in relation to prior perceptual experiences • Interpretation of ambiguous stimuli • Pareidolia-Humans are "prewired" to detect faces from birth • • • http: //www. bbc. co. uk/news/magazine-22686500 Face on Mars UFOs Nessie Bigfoot

Old Lady or Young Woman?

Perceptual Constancies • Size constancy-an object is the same size no matter how far away it is or if its angle changes • Color constancy-objects keep their color though the light may change the appearance • Brightness constancy-object is equally bright though light changes • Shape constancy-object has only one shape no matter what angle you view it from

• 5. optical illusions • SOMETIMES OUR VISUAL PECEPTION TRICKS US!

IMPOSSIBLE FIGURE This optical illusion works because we try to assign a three dimensional aspect to a two dimensional picture. The technique of perspective angles has been used.

Do you see grey dots? Explanation: The eye, which responds to an amazingly wide variety of light sources from moon light to direct sunlight, tries to adjust to the present light levels. In this optical illusion, the contrast between the black and white is so strong and irregular that the white ends up looking gray.

Which line is longer? -Lyer illusion Muller

Which box has the smaller man? Ponzo Illusion The tunnel creates a believable sense of perspective in this optical illusion. The second man looks bigger than it is because it seems to fill up the tunnel.

Are the lines below straight or are they curved?

IV. Depth Perception • A. The ability to see objects in three dimensions although the images that strike the retina are two dimensional. • B. We use perceptual cues to determine distance and depth

Perceptual Cues • 1. Interposition If something is blocking our view, we perceive it as closer

• 2. Relative Size - if we know that two objects are similar in size, the one that looks smaller is farther away (size constancy) • 3. Relative Height things higher in our field of vision look farther away • 4. Linear Perspective Parallel lines seem to converge with distance

Relative height & size

• 5. Relative brightness – brighter objects appear closer than dimmer objects.

• 6. aerial perspective – Atmospheric conditions (haze, dust). Clearer objects seem closer.

• Relative size • Linear perspective • Aerial perspective • Relative height • Interposition

V. Perception: Nature or Nurture • A. We learn to perceive … • *infants under I month will smile at a nodding object the size of a face, even if it has no features. After 20 weeks a blank oval will not make most infants smile. By 30 weeks infants will more likely smile if they see a familiar face.

• B. We are born with the ability to perceive … • *The Visual Cliff Experiment

VI. Subliminal Perception • A. subliminal messages • 1. brief auditory or visual messages below the absolute threshold James Vicary, a market researcher claimed that over a six-week period, 45, 699 patrons at a movie theater in Fort Lee, New Jersey were shown two advertising messages, Eat Popcorn and Drink Coca-Cola, while they watched the film Picnic. According to Vicary, a message was flashed for 3/1000 of a second once every five seconds. The duration of the messages was so short that they were never consciously perceived. Despite the fact that the customers were not aware of perceiving the message, Vicary claimed that over the six-week period the sales of popcorn rose 57% and the sales of Coca-Cola rose 18. 1%. Vicary’s claims are often accepted as established facts. However, Vicary never released a detailed description of his study and there has never been any independent evidence to support his claims. Also, in an interview with Advertising Age in 1962, Vicary stated that the original study was a fabrication. The weight of the evidence suggests that it was indeed a fabrication

Pepsi “Cool Can” • In 1990, Pepsi actually withdrew one of its “Cool Can” designs after someone protested that Pepsi was subliminally manipulating people by designing the cans such that when six-packs were stacked at grocery stores, the word SEX would emerge from the seemingly random design. Critics alleged that the red and blue lines on the “Cool Can” design were far from random

Subliminal messages in Disney films? ? ?

The Lion King

Aladdin sound clip In the movie Aladdin, at the scene where he is on the balcony with Princes Jasmine, the tiger, Rajah, pushes Aladdin against the railing and Aladdin says “C’mon good kitty. Take off and go”(Mikkelson). But others have clamed to hear it a little differently. Others have said to have heard “All good teenagers take off your clothes” (Bannon, A 1). Ted Baehr, movie Guide’s publisher, decided to take the video of Aladdin to a recording studio and listen to the words in which he says that “it falls short of the charge of subliminal viewer manipulation”(Bannon, A 6). Also, it is said that by listening to the audio track when Aladdin is speaking, there is a second voice in the background, two voices in two different tones. This is believed that “the overlapping voices are merely the product of bad editing, and some stray bits of chatter was accidentally grafted onto the soundtrack” (Mikkelson).

Boney knee?

http: //www. ithaca. edu/fa culty/stephens/pvistimul i. html