What is perception? Perception is the process of selecting, organizing, and interpreting sensory information.
Which school of psychology made significant contributions to the study of perception? The Gestalt school of psychology made significant contributions.
What is the Phi phenomenon? The Phi phenomenon is the illusion of movement created when two or more stationary lights flash on and off in quick succession.
What is the Gestalt law that states we tend to fill in gaps to create complete objects? The Law of Closure states this.
According to Gestalt psychology, what is the “minimum principle”? The minimum principle is our tendency to perceive experiences in the simplest way possible.
What is the term for the perceptual organization of a stimulus into a figure (object) and a ground (background)? Figure-ground relationship.
What is feature analysis? Feature analysis is the process of perceiving a shape, pattern, object, or scene by attending to the individual elements making it up.
What are the two types of processing involved in perception? Top-down processing and bottom-up processing.
Explain the Gestalt principle of similarity. The Law of Similarity states that we tend to group together stimuli that are similar in appearance (e.g., in shape, color, size).
How does the Law of Proximity influence our perception? The Law of Proximity states that we tend to group together stimuli that are close to one another in space.
What is the key difference between sensation and perception? Sensation is the process of detecting physical energy from the environment (bottom-up). Perception is the process of organizing and interpreting those sensations (involving top-down processes).
How does top-down processing use existing knowledge? Top-down processing uses our existing knowledge, expectations, and context to interpret sensory information quickly. For example, it allows us to read a sentence with missing letters.
How does bottom-up processing work? Bottom-up processing begins with the sensory receptors and works up to the brain’s integration of sensory information. It builds perceptions from individual elements.
Why is the figure-ground relationship fundamental to perception? It allows us to distinguish objects from their surroundings, which is the first step in recognizing and identifying what we are looking at.
Explain the Law of Continuity (Good Continuation). The Law of Continuity states that we perceive smooth, continuous patterns rather than discontinuous ones. We see lines as following the smoothest path.
How did the Gestaltists view the whole compared to its parts? They believed that the whole is different from, and often more than, the mere sum of its individual parts. The overall configuration gives meaning.
What is the role of past experience in perception, according to the definition provided? Past experience plays a crucial role in the interpretation and organization of sensory information, helping us to recognize and make sense of stimuli.
When you look at a word like “CAT,” you perceive the whole word rather than three separate letters. This illustrates a ________ principle. Gestalt principle (specifically, the whole being different from the parts, or the Law of Simplicity/Prägnanz).
In a crowd, people wearing the same colored jersey are perceived as being together. This illustrates the Law of ________. Similarity.
You see a series of dots “….” as a line due to the Law of ________. Proximity (if the dots are close) or Good Continuation (if they are arranged in a smooth path).
When you read a messy handwritten note, you use your knowledge of words to decipher it. This is an example of ________ processing. Top-down processing.
Look at the following: “A” You likely see a triangle and a circle, not three disconnected angles and a curve. This is due to the Law of ________. Closure.
A pilot in a foggy airport relies heavily on their instruments to land the plane because the usual visual cues are absent. In this situation, the pilot is relying more on ________ processing. Bottom-up processing (because top-down cues from the environment are missing).
In a drawing, an object is perceived as being in front of another because it blocks part of it. This is an example of which monocular depth cue? Interposition.
How does the Law of Common Fate help us perceive a flock of birds? We perceive the individual birds as a single, coherent group because they are all moving together in the same direction.
