Social perceptions

Question 1

define perception

Answer 1

the process by which the brain interprets sensory information to understand the world around us

Question 2

define sensory information

Answer 2

raw input from our senses

Question 3

define interpretation

Answer 3

how the brain makes sense of sensory information

Question 4

Process of perception

Answer 4

• is a process of predicting sensory info rather than passively receiving it
• uses past experiences and prior knowledge to generate predictions
• incoming info compared to predictions = can create perceptual biases
• predictions errors are sent back to us to revise future predictions

Question 5

principle by which sensory info is interpreted

Answer 5

perception, grouping, depth perception, perceptual consistency

Question 6

form perception

Answer 6

• perceive objects as separate from other stimuli and as having meaningful form

Question 7

grouping

Answer 7

once discriminated figure from ground, figure can be organised into meaningful form

Question 8

depth perception

Answer 8

ability to manage to organise 3D perceptions and judge how far away/ close they are

Question 9

Non-pictorial (primary) cues

Answer 9

• stereopsis: brain combines 2 image = no double vision
• amount of retinal disparity detected by brain provides an important cue to distance
• accommodation (muscular cue): lens of the eye changes shape when we focus on an object (thicker for near)
• convergence (MC): process by which the eye point more and more inward as an object gets closer

Question 10

pictorial cues

Answer 10

depend more when looking at greater distances
are all MDC (accommodation)

Question 11

define illusion

Answer 11

experience when our perception of an object doesn’t match its true physical characteristics

Question 12

4 types

Answer 12

• distortions (geometric)
• ambiguous (reversible)
• paradoxical (impossible)
• fictions

Question 13

evaluation

Answer 13

western, educated, industrialized, rich, democratic

Question 14

Gregory’s constructive thoery

Answer 14

• be selective in sensory info = no sensory overload
• often need to supplement sensory info because total info we need might not be directly available to the sense

Question 15

perceptual constancies

Answer 15

• tell us visual info from retinal innate is sketchy and incomplete = go beyond retinal image
• make sense of various sensory inputs to retina
• = perception = indirect process