Chapter 4.3: Visual Perception - Recognizing What we see

Question 1

Parallel processing

Answer 1

The brain’s capacity to perform many activities at the same time.

Question 2

Illusory conjunction

Answer 2

A perceptual mistake whereby the brain incorrectly combines features from multiple objects

Question 3

Feature-integration theory

Answer 3

Focused attention is not required to detect the individual features that make up a stimulus(e.g. color,shape,size and location of letters) but it is required to bind those individual features together.

Question 4

Attention

Answer 4

Active and conscious processing of particular information

Question 5

Perceptual constancy

Answer 5

Even as aspects of sensory signals change, perception remains constant.

Question 6

Perceptual contrast

Answer 6

Although the sensory information from two things may be very similar, we perceive the objects as different.

Question 7

Perceptual organization

Answer 7

Process of grouping and segregating features to create whole objects organized in a meaningful way

Question 8

Simplicity

Answer 8

When confronted with two or more possible interpretations of an object’s shape the visual system tends to select the simplest or most likely interpretation

Question 9

Closure

Answer 9

We tend to fill in missing elements of a visual scene allowing us to perceive edges that are separated by an interruption as belonging to complete objects

Question 10

Continuity

Answer 10

Edges or contours that have the same orientation have what the Gestalt psychologists called good continuation and we tend to group them together perceptually.

Question 11

Similarity

Answer 11

Regions that are similar in color, lightness, shape, or texture are perceived as belonging to the same object.

Question 12

Proximity

Answer 12

Objects that are close together tend to be grouped together

Question 13

Common fate

Answer 13

Elements of a visual image that move together are perceived as parts of a single moving object

Question 14

Monocular depth cues

Answer 14

Aspects of a scene that yield information about depth when viewed with only one eye.

Question 15

Linear perspective

Answer 15

Phenomenon that parallel lines seem to converge as they recede into the distance

Question 16

Texture gradient

Answer 16

Describes how textures such as parched ground looked more detailed close up but more uniform and smooth when farther away

Question 17

Interposition

Answer 17

Occurs when one object partly blocks another. You can infer that the blocking object(Bowl of cherries) is closer than the blocked object(Basket of apples). However, interposition by itself cannot provide information about how far apart the two objects are.

Question 18

Relative height in the image

Answer 18

Depends on your field of vision. Objects that are closer to you tend to be lower in a visual scene, whereas faraway objects are higher up in your field of view.

Question 19

Binocular disparity

Answer 19

The difference in the retinal images of the two eyes

Question 20

MT

Answer 20

Region near the back of the temporal lobe that specializes in the perception of visual motion

Question 21

Apparent motion

Answer 21

The perception of movement as a result of alternating signals appearing in rapid succession in different locations

Question 22

spatial acuity

Answer 22

Ability to distinguish two features that are very close together in space.

Question 23

temporal acuity

Answer 23

Ability to distinguish two features that are very close together in time

Question 24

multisensory

Answer 24

stimulating multiple senses at the same time

Question 25

ventriloquist illusion

Answer 25

E.g. watching a movie with surround sound and hearing the characters from what you can see

Question 26

Change blindness

Answer 26

People fail to detect changes to visual details of a scene