AP Psychology

PRINCIPLES OF
P E RC E P T I O N

Unit 2: Cognition
 Aim: How do Top down v. bottom up processing differ? What
factors influence our perception? What are some rules which
govern perception (Gestalt Rules/Perceptual Constancies)?

Do Now:

Homework:
 Sensation Perception
The process of detecting,
The process of selecting,
converting, and transmitting raw
organizing and interpreting
sensory information from the
sensory information
external and internal
environments to the brain
Sensation and Perception

•sensation – the process of •perception – the process of

receiving stimulus energies from organizing and interpreting sensory
the external environment and information so that it has meaning
transforming those energies into (interpreting info)
neural energy (taking in info)
So what does that actually mean?

sensation perception
•Your nose, eyes or other sensory •Your brain makes sense of that
organs bring in information…. a information… oh.. that is my
smell… a color… a tall, blond boy granddad’s rhubarb pie, that
with freckles… turquoise shirt is stunning, hey…
is that my brother?
Does this image represent sensation or perception?

How do you know?

7
Top-down processing
Information processing guided by
higher-level mental processes, as
when we construct perceptions
drawing on our experience and
expectations.
 V U L N E RA B I L I T Y T O
I L LU S I O N
Top-Down Processing

it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the

ltteers in a wrod are, the olny
iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist
and lsat ltteer be at the rghit
pclae. The rset can be a toatl
mses and you can sitll raed it
wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae
the huamn mnid deos not raed
ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod
as a wlohe.
Read this out loud. What happened?
Why?
CONTEXT
What influences top down processing?

•Context Effect:
•The context in which
something is sensed impacts
perception.
I N F LU E N C E O F C U LT U R E &
EXPERIENCE
Top-down processing
Information processing guided by
higher-level mental processes, as
when we construct perceptions
drawing on our experience and
expectations.
Top-Down Processing

•We construct reality using prior

knowledge and experience
•We fill in gaps based upon what
makes
•priming
•I _ant ch_co_ate ic_ cr_am.
•Considering the following sentence,
(Wray & Medwell 1991; 98)
•“If you aer a fluet reodur you wll hve no
prblme reodng ths sntnce “
•Based on our experiences and
schemas, perceptual sets
•If you see many old men in
glasses, you are more apt to
process a picture of an old man
(even when you may be in error).
http://www.simplypsychology.org/perception-the
Backmasking
Schema
A collection of basic
knowledge about a
concept or entity
that serves as a
guide to perception,
interpretation,
imagination, or
problem solving.
P E RC E P T U A L S E T
What is a perceptual set?

a mental
predisposition to perceive one
thing and not another

…we see what we expect to see

How does priming influence
perceptual set?

…subjects were more likely to see

When viewing this image the
initially… old woman.
Why the change in perception?

…subjects were more likely to see

When viewing this image the
initially… young woman.
BOTTOM-UP PROCESSING
Analysis that begins with the
sensory receptors and works
up to the brain's integration of
sensory information.
What do you see here?
Bottom-up Processing
Analysis of the stimulus begins with the sense receptors and
works up to the level of the brain and mind.
Experience is based entirely on the sensory stimuli that we
piece together using only data that is available from our senses.

27

Letter “A” is really a black blotch broken down into features

by the brain that we perceive as an “A.”
Bottom-Up Processing

•Also called feature analysis.

•We use the features on the
object itself to build a
perception.
•Takes longer that top-down
but is more accurate.
Gestalt Principles p. 16
• a school of thought interested in how people naturally group/
organize their perceptions according to certain patterns
• We innately look at things in groups and not as isolated elements and
try to find patterns
–main principle: the whole is different from the sum of its parts -- computer
screen image (sum) pixels (parts)
–closure
–proximity
–similarity
–continuity
–Figure Ground
–Phi Phenomena
How does the Necker cube
illustrate a Gestalt?

The individual elements of this figure,

called a Necker cube, are really
nothing but eight blue circles, each
containing three converging white
lines.
When we view these elements all
together, however, we see a cube
that sometimes reverses direction.
What is figure-ground?

the organization
of the visual field into objects (the
figures) that stand out from their
surroundings
(the ground)
Figure Ground
What is proximity?

A Gestalt law of
grouping that
states we group
nearby figures
together.

We see not six

separate lines, but
three sets
of two lines.
What is closure?

A Gestalt law of grouping that

states we fill in gaps to create a
complete, whole object.
Thus we assume that the
circles on the left are complete but
partially blocked by the (illusory)
triangle. Add
nothing more than little line
segments to close off the circles
and your brain stops
constructing a triangle.
• closure: disconnected or incomplete figures  fill in
the spaces and see them as complete figures

Kanizsa triangle
Gestalt Principles: Proximity

• proximity: object near each other  see them as a unit (4

columns; not 16 squares)
Gestalt Principles: Similarity
• similarity: objects that are similar  seen as a unit/group
(columns of circles and squares; rows of circle and squares)
 P E RC E P T U A L
I N T E R P R E TAT I O N
Schema
A collection of basic
knowledge about a
concept or entity
that serves as a
guide to perception,
interpretation,
imagination, or
problem solving.
How can attention impact our
perception?
 SELECTIVE
AT T E N T I O N :
Focus on one particular thing

which can cause.....

I N AT T E N T I O N
AL BLINDNESS
The failure to notice the
existence of an unexpected
item
Inattentional blindness:

failing to see visible

objects when our
attention or focus is • Viewers of this • An umbrella • Only 21%
directed elsewhere basketball drill toting woman reported the
are asked to saunters presence of the
count the number across the woman.
of passes screen. • (Neisser, 1979)
between white-
shirted players.
It is not about the cell phone..
it’s about distracting your
attention!

Using a cell phone (even a hands-

free set)
carries a risk 4 times higher than
normal—
equal to the risk of drunk driving

(McEvoy et al., 2005, 2007).

What is selective attention?

 Our tendency to focus on just a particular stimulus among the many

that are being received.

 Although we are surrounded by sights and sounds, smells and

tastes, we tend to pay attention to only a few at a time.
Has this happened to you?
 You are at a crowded party with lots of your friends and
everyone is talking so it is LOUD!
 You are focusing your attention on the conversation with your
friend nearby.
 Then someone on the other side of the room says
YOUR name…and you HEAR it!!
 This is called the cocktail party effect – you focused your
attention on one particular voice (that person who called your
name) amidst the crazy loudness of all those other voices.
 The cocktail party effect is a great example of selective attention.
 C O C KTA I L PA RT Y
EFFECT
the ability to focus one's
listening attention on a single talker among
a mixture of conversations and
background noises
 Change Blindness
Failure to notice obvious change
Door Study
Why are we Change Blind? What causes it?
What is Change Blindness?
What else causes
us to become less
responsive to
stimuli?
 When sensory receptor cells are constantly
Sensory Adaptation stimulated, they undergo a loss of sensitivity to
stimuli.
Perceptual Goggles What would happen if you found ourselves in an upside-down world? Would
we adapt? How long would it take?
Spiral Illusion
Think of an example of Sensory Adaptation
in the following senses.

• Smell
• Taste
• Touch
• Vision
• Hearing
• Vestibular
• xplain how the following psychological perspectives might explain selective attention/change blindness occurs.
• Evolutionary Perspective
• Biological Perspective
• Cognitive Perspective