CHAPTER ONE

The Fundamental Nature of Psychology

 Introduction

Unit Objectives
• Define psychology
• Describe the goals of psychology
• Explain the history of psychology
• Describe the early and modern perspectives in psychology
• Differentiate the sub fields of psychology
• Identify the major areas of research in psychology
• What comes to your mind when you hear the word
psychology?
• Have you read or listened to anything related to
psychology? What do you expect from the course in
psychology?
 Meaning and Definition of psychology

Meaning of the words: The Word psychology is

derived from two Greek words:
‘Psyche’ which means mind, soul, spirit
‘Logos’ means study, knowledge, or discourse
Therefore, by combining the two Greek words the term
‘psychology’ refers to the study of the mind, soul, or
spirit.
Definition of Psychology
• Most psychologists today would agree that psychology is
the scientific study of behavior and mental process
• It includes the application of this science to human
problems
• Scientific study: implies the use of systematic method such
as observation and experimentation to gather information
about human and animal behavior
• Behavior eg. physical activities and speaking
• Mental processes: refers to actions that cannot be
directly seen or heard such as perceiving, thinking,
remembering and feeling.
 Goals of Psychology

Psychology has four major goals

1. Description is giving clear picture about the
phenomena or telling about what some thing is like
It attempt to answer the question “what”
Example: what are some of the similarities and
deference between male and female?
2. Explanation
• Explaining why this behavior happened
• It tries to answer the question why by establishing a cause and
effect relationship between or among relevant factors.
• Example: Why similarities and deference between male and
female happened?
3. Prediction- Once we know what happens, and why it happens,
we can begin to speculate or predict what will happen in the
future.
4. Controlling-
• This refers to helping, limiting, influencing, and changing the
behavior.
• Thus describing a given behavior, explaining it and predicting
its likelihood in the future are instrumental to control and
change the behavior.
 The Roots of psychology: Early and Modern Perspectives

• Although psychology’s roots can be traced back to ancient

Greeks and Romains.
• philosophers also have argued for several hundred years about
some of the same sorts of questions that psychologists grapple
today,
• The formal beginning of Psychology is generally set at 1879.
Psychology as a science was established by Wilhelm Wundet
(VLL-helm voont).
• He was the first man to found the first psychological
laboratory in 1879, in Germany Leipzing.
• From 1920 to 1960 psychology refined as the science of
observable and measurable behavior by American
Psychologist J.B.Watson.
• Watson said "You can't see the mind so how can you study
it?
• After 1960’s Psychology considered studying both mental
process and outer behavior.
• Due to these controversies fundamental questions about what
should psychology study were raised. Hence, Psychologists
were divided about what they should study and how they
should study it.
• Based on these, different schools of thought are emerged.
 Early schools of Psychology

1. Structuralism: Psychology studies about the structure of the

mind
• Edward Titchener and is the founder of structuralism.
• The goal of structuralism was to find out the units or elements
which make up the mind and discover how they combine to
produce meaningful whole
• the basic or elementary units w/c make up the mind are
sensation, image and feelings
• Method of research - introspection.
• Introspection,-subjects were trained to observe and report their
own sensation (see, here, and smell), mental image, and
emotional reactions disregarding the meanings they had come to
associate with that stimulus
• most psychologists eventually rejected trained introspection as
too subjective
2. Functionalism: Psychology studies about the function of
the mind
• The founder of this school of thought is William James.

• Functionalist emphasized the function or purpose of

behavior or how mind affects what people do and how an
organism’s behavior helps to adapt their environment rather
than minds components.
• They were interested in the fact that mind and behavior are
adaptive and enable individual to adjust to a changing
environment
• did experiments on learning, memory, problem solving and
motivation
3. Gestalt psychology: psychology studies about the whole mind
 Gestalt psychology was founded in Germany in early 20th
century by Max Wertheimer and his colleagues: Kurt Koffka
and Wolfgang Kohler
• They argued that mind is not made up of combinations of
elements.
• They believed that human beings and other animals perceive
the external world as an organized pattern.
• The German word” Gestalt” refers to pattern, form, whole,
configuration or shape
• They held that "The whole is greater than the sum of its
parts".
• The goal was to understand the phenomena of conscious
experience holistically rather than separately because if we
separate mind into parts we lose certain qualities.
4. Behaviorism:
Psychology studies about the observable and measurable beha
viors.

• Behaviorism was introduced in 1913 by John B. Watson, an

American psychologist and others E.Thorndike and B.F
Skinner
• For Watson Psychology was the study of observable,
measurable behavior and nothing more about hidden mental
processes
Behaviorism had also three other important characteristics.
• An emphasis on conditioned responses the elements or building
blocks of behavior.
• Emphasize on learned rather than unlearned behavior.
• Focus on animal behavior.
• They believed that all behaviors are learned not inherited and
learners are reactive……
5. Psychoanalysis: Psychology studies about the invisible
components of unconscious part of the mind
• It was founded by the Austrian doctor Sigmund Freud
• Psychoanalysis was based on the theory that behavior is
determined by powerful inner forces, most of which are hidden
in the unconscious mind.
• He argued that conscious awareness is the tip of the mental
iceberg beneath the visible tip lays the unconscious part of the
mind containing hidden wishes, passions, guilty secrets,
unspeakable yearnings and conflict between desire and
duty.
• We are not aware of our unconscious urges and thoughts and
they make themselves known in dreams, slip of the tongue,
apparent accidents and even jokes.
• Used several techniques to bring repressed feelings to the level
of conscious awareness.
• free association, dream analysis, etc.
School and Proponents Object of study Goal of study Method of study
Structuralism Mind, nature of Analyzing the elements, Introspection(examinatio
(Edward Titchner, conscious structure or components of n of own thought or
Gustav Fechner, J.Henry experience conscious experience feeling)
Alston)
Functionalism Mind, nature of What mind does and how Observation,
(William James, conscious behavior functions in introspection, measure of
J.Dewey, experience adapting to the demand of performance
H.Ebbinghaus,) life ( mental test)

Gestalt Psychology Mind, nature of The holistic nature of mind; Introspection,

(Max Wertheimer, Kurt conscious the whole is different from Experimentation
Koffka, Wolfgang experience the sum of its parts’.
Kohler

Behaviorism Observable (Overt) Controlling behavior Experimentation,

(E. Thorndike, Ivan behavior (Conditioning)
Pavlov, J.B. Watson) Introspection
Psychodynamic Mind, nature of Understanding how Clinical case study,
Sigmund Freud) unconscious behavior is determined by dream analysis, hypnosis,
experience, unconscious (hidden) free association
MODERN APPROACHES/PERSPECTIVES

1. Humanistic Psychology
• The prominent advocators of this perspective were Carl Rogers and
Abraham Maslow
• Focuses on the uniqueness of human beings and their capacity for
choice, growth, and psychological health.
• They maintain that people are innately good and that they possess free will.
• The humanists believe that people are capable of making conscious,
rational choices, which can lead to personal growth and psychological
health
Cognitive Psychology
• Sees humans as active participants who seek out experiences,
who alter and shape environmental experiences, and who use
mental processes to transform information in the course of
their own cognitive development.
• It studies mental processes such as
o Memory, problem solving, reasoning, decision making,
perception, language, and other forms of cognition.
The Biological Perspective
• Look for links between specific behaviors and particular
biological factors that often help explain individual differences.
• They study the structures of the brain and central nervous
system, the functioning of neurons, and the effects of heredity
to look for links between these biological factors and behavior.
Social-Cultural Psychology
• is the study of how the social situations and the cultures in
which people find themselves influence thinking and behavior.
• Seeks to understand behavior within a particular social and
cultural context, and make comparisons between different
cultures or social groups looking for similarities and
differences in behavior, with the aim of examining how a
culture influences psychological processes.
 Sub-fields in Psychology

• Clinical psychology

• School psychology

• Forensic psychology

• School psychology

• Counseling psychology

• Physiological psychology

• Experimental psychology

• Developmental psychology

• Educational psychologys

• Personality Psychology
Research Methods in Psychology
 Basic terms

• Scientific method - a process of testing ideas through

systematic observations, experimentations, and
statistical analysis.
• Theory - is an integrated set of principles about
observed facts that is intended to describe and explain
some aspects of experience.
• Hypotheses - is a tentative proposition about the
relationship between two or more variables or
phenomena.
• E.g. Males have high self - confidence in making
decisions than females
 Descriptive research

 Naturalistic observation
 Case study
 Survey
• Naturalistic observation
 involves, investigator simply observes some naturally
occurring behavior in their common, everyday
surrounding without intervention.
 Observation entails gathering data through vision as
its main source.
 It can also use photo camera, video camera, and
observation checklists.
Advantageous
• Commonly used to study infants and young children,
because they cannot be studied through self-report
techniques
• Provides information when other methods are not
effective
• It offers first-hand information without relying on the
reports of others
Limitations
• We cannot draw cause-effect relationship
• The mere presence of an observer can sometimes make
people to behave differently or artificially
• It’s inadequate to study sensitive issues such as sexual

behavior or family violence.

Case Study /Case History/
• Involves detailed description of a particular individual
or few cases based on careful observation.
• Uses structured and open ended interviews
• Are well suited to the examination of unusual or rare
phenomena which could not be created in the
laboratory
Advantages
• It allows in-depth investigation
• Produces first hand information
• Useful when large number of participants is not
available
• Gives ideas for further research
Limitations
• We cannot draw cause-effect relationship
• Difficult to generalize for another similar subjects
because the sample taken is too small
• Its susceptible to researcher bias
Survey Method:

Involves the use of questionnaires and interviews to

gather information about the beliefs, opinions,
views, perceptions and attitudes of people.
• A large sample w/c represents the geographical,
socio-economic, educational background of a
population and asks questions for persons taken out
from the sample
Advantages
• Yields quantitative results by attaching numbers to
participants response
• Useful in that representative sample of respondents can
be chosen for participation.
• Saves time to conduct
Limitations
• Lacks depth or detailed information
• The participants may distort their response
• The samples may not typically of the population
• We can’t draw cause-effect relationship
 Correlational research

• measures the relationship between two or more

variables.
• Tell us the strength and direction of relationship
• The strength and direction of the relationship between
two variables is represented by a mathematical score,
knows as a correlation coefficient that ranges from
+1.00 to -1.00
• A positive correlation indicates that an increase in
one variable will also be followed by an increase in
the other
• A negative correlation tells us that low value of one
variable is associated with high value of another
variable
• No correlation would be indicated by a correlation
close to zero.
Examples: socioeconomic status vs years of schooling
(the direction is positive)
• Absentism vs academic achievement (the direction is
negative)
• Eye color vs education (usually no correlation)
Advantages
• The findings may be better generalized to real world
situations
• Used to study issues that cannot be studied
experimentally
• Used as a numerical measure of the strength of the
relationship
Weakness
• Lack of control over extraneous variables
• We cannot establish cause-effect relationship
 Experimental Research

• Allows researchers to study the cause and effect

relationship between variables
• A carefully regulated procedure in which one or more
factors believed to influence the behavior being
studied are manipulated and all other factors are held
constant.
• Experiments involve at least one independent variable
and one dependent variable.
• An independent variable is the variable which is
manipulated by the experimenter to see its effect on the
dependant variable
• Dependant variable is a variable that is measured and
is expected to change as a result of changes caused by
the experimenter’s manipulation of the independent
variable
E.g
 1. The effect of coffee on academic achievement

• 2. Watching violent movie programs leads pre- school

children to aggressive behavior
• 3. Studying with a background music improves
learning
Identify IV, DV, EV
• Experimental method requires at least two groups to
be compared.
• ( experimental & control group)
• Any group that receives a treatment is called an
experimental group (Treatment group) and the group
that receives no treatment is called control group.
Merits of experimental method
• It shows causation
• Extraneous variables are better controlled
• Its more reliable
• Its more precise and replicable
• Its more convenience
Limitations of experimental method
• Process- the research process is too technical and too
artificial to allow generalizations to the real world
situation.
• Ethics- may not be possible for ethical reasons.
Because some experiments are unethical and invade
privacy
• Representativeness- samples are usually too small to
produce representative findings.
• It is time consuming and costly
• Difficulty of manipulation of human beings
A psychologist is interested in exploring the effect
of tutorial support on students‘ academic
performance and assign students into two
groups. Students in group one get the tutorial
support and those in group two do not. In this
example, what is the
a) Dependent variable
b) Independent variable
c) Control group
d) Experimental group
 Steps of scientific research

• Step one - Defining the Problem

• Step two - Formulating the Hypothesis
• Step three - Testing the Hypothesis
• Step four - Drawing Conclusions
• Step five - Reporting Results
 Chapter two
Sensation and Perception
 Contents
• The meaning of sensation and perception
• The sensory laws: Sensory thresholds and sensory
adaption
• Perception and perceptual process
 Selection
 Organization
 Interpretation
 The meanings of sensation and perception

• All outside information comes into us through our

senses.
• Sensation is a process of detecting, converting, &
transmitting raw sensory information from the external
& internal environments to the brain by using our
sense organs.
• Perception is the process that organizes sensations
into meaningful patterns
• Basic terms and concepts related to sensation and
perception
• Stimulus: It is a source of physical energy that
produces a response in the sense organs
• Sensory receptors: are specialized cells located in the
sense organs that detect, and transmit stimulus
information to sensory nerves and the brain.
• Sensory Reduction: filtering and analyzing incoming
sensations before sending neural messages on to the
cortex.
• Response: It is any reaction of an organism to or in the
presence of a stimulus.
Information (e.g. light, sound)—activate our sense
receptors in the sensory organs which receive and
process sensory information from environment.

Transduction—after stimuli enter sensory organs, the sense

receptor will change/covert the stimulus into electrical signals
called neural impulses which are sent to the brain.

When neural impulses reach the particular area in the brain, they
are changed into meaningless bits of information called
sensation which involves the detection of sensory stimuli.

These meaningless bits of information are then changed into

meaningful and complete images called perception—the
interpretation of sensory stimuli.
  Our sense organs translate
physical energy from the
environment into electrical
impulses processed by the
brain.
For example, light, in the form of
electromagnetic radiation, causes
receptor cells in our eyes to activate
and send signals to the brain.
 But we do not understand these
signals as pure energy. The
process of perception allows us
to interpret them as objects,
events, people, and situations.
• Without the ability to organize and interpret
sensations, life would seem like a meaningless jumble
of colors, shapes, and sounds.
• A person without any perceptual ability would not be
able to recognize faces, understand language, or
avoid threats.
 How different is sensation from perception?

1.Sensations are the integral elements in

perception.
They are the simple awareness of qualities e.g.,
colour, sound, taste, odour, heat, cold, etc. due to
the excitation of the sense-organs and
interpretation of the meanings of sensations in the
light of past experience and awareness of objects
in the environment, and of their relations to one
another
2.Perception is more complex than sensation. It is a
fusion of sensation with ideas.
(3) Perception involves selection of stimuli and
combination of them into a pattern. Sensation does
not involves selection and combination.
4.Perception involves the stimulation of the sense-
organs, conduction of nerve current from the sense-
organs by the sensory neurons to the sensory area of
the cerebrum, and the excitation of the association
areas. But sensation does not involve the excitation
of the association area.
 The sensory laws: Sensory thresholds and sensory
adaption

• There are two laws of sensory threshold:

 The law of absolute threshold and
 The law of difference threshold
• Threshold—refers to a point above which a stimulus
is perceived and below which it is not perceived.
• It determines when we first become aware of a
stimulus.
• Threshold is the level at which some one can
detect either a stimulus or a change in stimulus.
 The absolute threshold
• Is the smallest amount of a stimulus we can reliably
detect
• The minimum amount of stimulation a person can
detect .
• the minimum level of stimulation that can be
detected 50 percent of the time when a stimulus is
presented over and over again.
• The absolute threshold is also affected by factors other
than the intensity of the stimulus;
• Researchers assume that the detection of a stimulus
depends on both its intensity and the physical and
psychological state of the individual.
• One of the most important psychological factors is the
response bias-how ready the person is to report the
presence of a particular stimulus.
 EXAMPLEs
• Hearing: sound of a clock that tick from 20feet away at
quite condition.
• Vision: a candle flame seen at 30 miles in a dark, clear
night.
• Taste : one teaspoon of sugar dissolved in 2 gallons of
water.
• Smell : one drop of perfume diffused throughout 3
rooms.
• Touch: the wing of bee falling on your cheek from a
distance of 1cm
 The difference threshold
• In addition to detecting the presence of a stimulus,
you also detect changes in the intensity of a
stimulus
• Our ability to detect the smallest difference
between two stimuli
• Difference threshold—or just noticeable
difference, is the smallest change in stimulus that
we can detect.
• It is the smallest level of stimulation requires sensing
that a change in stimulation has required.
• The minimum amount of change that can be detected is
called difference threshold.
• For example, a cup of coffee would require a certain
amount of additional sugar before you could detect an
increase in its sweetness
• Psychologists formally define the difference threshold
as the minimum change in stimulation that can be
detected 50 percent of the time by a given person.
 Sensory Adaptation
• is a decreased sensitivity to a stimulus after prolonged
and constant exposure.
• For example, When you step into a swimming pool, the
water initially feels cold, but after a while you stop
noticing it.
• Sensory adaptation lets you detect potentially
important change in your environment while ignoring
unchanging aspects of it.
• Once you have determined that the swimming pool
water is cold, it would serve little purpose to continue
noticing those stimuli-especially when more important
change might be taking place elsewhere in your
surroundings.
• Of course, you will not adapt completely to extremely
intense sensations, such as severe pain or freezing
cold.
• This is adaptive, because to ignore such stimuli might
be harmful or even fatal
 Perception
• Perception is the process of selecting, organizing,
and interpreting stimuli.
• It helps you understand the major characteristics of
the perceptual process: selectivity of perception,
form perception, depth perception, perceptual
constancy, and perceptual illusion.
• Perceptual process consists of the following three
basic processes
• Selection
• Organization
• Interpretation
1,Perceptual Selectivity:Attention
• Is giving selective attention to some information that
are relevant
• Attention is the perceptual process that selects certain
inputs for inclusion in your conscious experience, or
awareness, at any given time, ignoring others.
• The selectivity of perception implies, among other
things, that our field of experience is divided into what
is known as ―Focus and ―Margin.
• Events or stimuli that you perceive clearly are the
focus of your experience and other items or stimuli that
you perceive dimly or vaguely are in the margin of
your attention.
• You may be aware of items in the marginal field but
only vaguely or partially.
• Constantly shifting attention - What is in the
focus of your attention one moment may be in margin;
and what is in the margin may become in your focus.
• Factors Affecting Selective Perception
• External Factors
• Internal Factors
 A. External Factors
• refer to factors that are generally found in the objects
or stimuli to be perceived
• Size
• Intensity
• Repetition
• Movement
• Novelty and Familiarity
B. Internal Factors (Psychological Factors)
• Set/ expectancy refers to the idea that you may be
―ready and Primed for certain kinds of sensory
input.
• Motives and needs are the second psychological
factors influencing you as an observer.
• There are differences between you and your
friend in what you select to perceive as a result of
differences in your motives and needs .
• People who are hungry, thirst, or sexually aroused
are likely to pay attention to events in the
environment, which will satisfy these needs.
• Emotion
• Personality and interest
 Form perception

• The meaningful shapes or patterns or ideas that

are made perhaps out of meaningless and
discrete or pieces and bites of sensations refer
to form perception .
• To perceive forms (meaningful shapes or
patterns), you need to distinguish a figure (an
object) from its ground (or its surrounding).
 Figure-Ground Perception

• Is the perception of objects and forms of everyday

experience as standing out from a background.
• Pictures (figure) hang on a wall (ground), words
(figure) are seen on a page (ground), and melody
(figure) stands out from the repetitive chords in the
musical background (ground), the pictures, words, and
the melody are perceived as the figure, while the wall,
the page, and the chords are the ground
• The ability to distinguish an object from its general
background is basic to all form perception.
• And gestalt psychologists stress that form perception
in an active, rather than a passive, process like
selectivity of perception.
• Hence, there can be a shift in you perception of figure
and ground such that the figure may become the
ground and vice versa.
• Factors that determine your attention equally
determine what should become the figure and what
should become the ground.
 Contours in Form Perception
• You are able to separate forms from the general ground
only because you can perceive contours.
• Contours are formed whenever a marked difference
occurs in the brightness or color of the background.
• Contours give shape to the objects in our visual world
because they mark one object off from another or they
mark an object off from the general ground.
• When contours are disrupted visually, as in camouflage,
objects are difficult to distinguish from the background.
 Organization in form Perception
• When several objects are present in the visual field, we
tend to perceive them as organized into patterns or
groupings.
• They emphasized that organized perceptual experience
has properties, which cannot be predicated from a
simple analysis of the components.
• Gestalt psychologist said ―”the whole is more than the
sum of its parts.”
• This simply means that what is perceived has its own
new properties, properties that emerge from the
organization, which takes place.
• Organization in perception partially explains our
perception of complex patterns as unitary forms, or
objects.
• We see objects as objects only because grouping
processes operate in perception.
• Without them, the various objects and patterns we
perceive-a face on a television screen, a car a tree, a
book-would not ―hang together” as objects or
patterns., they would merely be so many disconnected
sensations-dots, lines or blotches, for example.
Perceptual organization (Gestalt Principles of
Perceptual Organization )
• According to Gestalt psychology, all humans organize
or group piece of information into meaningful patterns
or the whole this means we view the whole rather than
parts.
The laws principles of Perceptual Organization
A. Figure-Ground Relationship :It is the process of
identifying a figure from its back ground so as to
perceive meaning.
• Perception does not only involve organization and
grouping, it also involves distinguishing an object
from its surroundings.
• Once an object is perceived, the area around that
object (figure) becomes the background
The concept of figure-ground relationship explains why this
image can be perceived either as a vase or
as a pair of faces.
B. Proximity: In mentally organizing stimuli,
objects that are physically close to one another
are grouped together or seen as a unit.

 When you look at “A” you see (a man + a man) + a table.

 When you look at “B” you see (a man + a table) + a man.
The Gestalt principle of proximity suggests that
you see (a) one block of dots on the left side
and(b) three columns on the right side
C.Similarity: In organizing stimuli, elements that
appear similar in color, lightness, texture, shape, or
any other quality are grouped together.
When looking at this array of dots, we likely perceive
alternating rows of colors. We are grouping these
dots according to the principle of similarity.
• D.The Law of Continuity
• The law of continuity leads us to see a line as
continuing in a particular direction, rather than
making an abrupt turn.
• We tend to favor smooth or continuous paths when
interpreting a series of points or lines
Good continuation would suggest that we are more
likely to perceive this as two overlapping lines,
rather than four lines meeting in the center
D. Closure: In organizing stimuli, we tend to fill in any
missing part or incomplete figures and see them as
complete figures.
perceiving the whole where it does not exist
Closure suggests that we will perceive a complete circle
and PERCEPTION
DEPTH rectangle rather than a series of
segments.
 DEPTH PERCEPTION

• Depth perception—the ability to recognize distances

and three dimensionality— develops in infancy.
• the ability to judge the distance of objects.
• Psychologists have placed infants on large tables and
found that they most likely will not crawl over the
edge.
• From this observation, it is possible to infer that infants
do have depth perception.
• Depth cues are features of the environment and
messages from the body that supply information about
distance and space.
• Depth perception depends on the use binocular cues
and monocular cues
 Monocular Depth Cues

• People use many

monocular depth cues to
perceive distance and
depth.
• Monocular depth cues
are cues that can be used
with a single eye.
 Artists use these cues to create the illusion of depth in
their paintings(known as pictorial cues)
• Accommodation-is contraction and relaxation of retina
to see objects at different distances.
• the change in the shape of the lens that lets you focus
the image of an object on the retina
• Neuron in the rectum assume that the greater the
accommodation of the lens, the closer the object.
• But prolonged accommodation can alter your depth
perception
• Motion Parallax-perceiving near objects (when we
are in motion) as moving backward in a rapid rate and
far objects as moving forward with us.
• the tendency to perceive ourselves as passing objects
faster when they are closer to us than when they are
farther away.
• You will notice this when you drive on a rural road.
• You perceive yourself passing nearby telephone poles
faster than you are passing a farmhouse.
• Interposition- an
object that overlaps
another object will
appear closer
• When multiple objects
are in the same visual
field, the closest
object appears in
front of those farther
away.
• Relative size-When viewing two congruent objects,
the farther away object will appear smaller even
though the objects are still the same size.
• Motion parallax: the apparent movement of
objects that occurs when you move your head
from side to side or when you walk around.
• You can demonstrate motion parallax by looking
toward two objects in the same line of vision,
one near you and the other some distance away.
• If you move your head back and forth, the near
object will seem to move more than the far
object.
• In this way, motion parallax gives you clues as to
which objects are closer than others.
• Linear perspective -As parallel lines extend
into the distance, they appear to meet together.
◦ The greater the distance, the greater the
convergence.
• further objects become smaller on retina
• Shading patterns-provide cues to distance
because areas that are in shadow tend to
recede, while areas that are in light tend to
stand out.
• Painters use shading to make balls, balloons,
and organs appear round.
• Aerial perspective-when distant objects become blue,
hazy, smoky, in relation to near objects.
• depends on the clarity of objects.
• Closer objects seem clearer than more distant ones.
• A distant mountain will look hazier than a near one.
• Texture gradient- The texture becomes denser and less
detailed distance increases from the observer
• The nearer an object, the more details we can make out
and the farther an object, the more details we can make
out, and the farther an object, the fewer details we can
make out
The texture in an image appear less detailed as
objects become more distant
 Binocular Depth Cues
• Binocular depth cues depend upon the
movement of both eyes.
• Binocular depth cues use both eyes to perceive
information on the 3-dimensional form of an object
and its place in space.
• There are two types of binocular cues, retinal disparity
and convergence
• Retinal disparity –occur when our eyes are relaxed to
perceive changing distances of objects.
• is, the degree of difference between the image of an
object that are focused on the two retinas.
• The closer the object, the greater is the retinal disparity.
• The image your right eye sees is different than your
left eye because they are a small distance apart.
• The image you see using both eyes is the two images
merged.
• Convergence is the process by which your eyes turn
inward to look at nearby objects. or
• Convergence-muscle tension in eyes increases as
objects move closer
• You converge your eyes when looking at close objects
you diverge to look at distant objects.
• When focusing on
images less than 4-6
meters away, the eyes
turn inward to focus on
the same object rather
than moving together.
• The angle the eyeballs
turn towards each
other is smaller when
the object in focus is
farther away.
 Perceptual Constancy
• refers to our tendency to perceive sizes, shapes,
brightness, and colors as remaining the same even
though their physical characteristics are constantly
changing.
• When we have learned to perceive certain objects in
our environment, we tend to see them in the same way,
regardless of changing conditions.
• This is adaptive, because it provides you with a more
visually stable world, making it easier for you to
function in it, as an object gets farther away from you, it
produces a smaller image on your retina
• The light, angle of vision, distance, and, therefore, the
image on the retina all change, but your perception of
the object does not.
• Thus, despite changing physical conditions, people are
able to perceive objects as the same by the processes
of size, shape, brightness and color constancy
• Perceptual constancy is important because it
transforms a potentially ever changing, chaotic world
into one with stability and comforting sameness
• Size constancy refers to our tendency to perceive
objects as remaining the same size even when their
images on the retina are continually growing or
shrinking.
• As a car drives away, it projects a smaller and smaller
image on your retina (left figure).
• Although the retinal image grows smaller, you do not
perceive the car as shrinking because of size constancy.
• A similar process happens as a car drives toward you.
• Shape constancy refers to your tendency to perceive
an object as retaining its same shape even though
when you view it from different angles, its shape is
continually changing its image on the retina.
 Brightness and Color Constancy

• Brightness constancy refers to the tendency to

perceive brightness as remaining the same in
changing illumination.
• Color constancy refers to the tendency to
perceive colors as remaining stable despite
differences in lighting
 Perceptual Illusion

• Illusions are incorrect perceptions/false perception

of stimuli.
• is discrepancy (difference) between reality and the
perceptual representation of it.
• Illusions can be useful in teaching us about how our
sensation and perceptual systems work.
• Illusions are created when perceptual cues are distorted
so that our brains cannot correctly interpret space, size,
and depth cues
• Visual illusions provide clues to the processes involved in
normal visual perception.
• For example, from ancient times to modern times,
people have been mystified by the moon illusion
illustrated in Figure in which the moon appears larger
when it is at the horizon than when it is overhead.
• This is an illusion because the moon is the same
distance from us at the horizon as when it is overhead.
Thus, the retinal image it produces is the same size
when it is at the horizon as when it is overhead
 EXTRASENSORY PERCEPTION

• an ability to gain information by some means

other than the ordinary senses.
• Some people appear to have an ability to know
other people, objects, and events without any
sensory contact an experience called extra
sensory perception (ESP) or paranormal
ability.
• There are four types of ESP:
• clairvoyance is extrasensory awareness of object
-is perception of an event or fact without normal sensory
input.
Example: telling objects in a closed box that we haven’t
seen.
• Telepathy: is thought transmission from one mind to
other.
is a direct communication from one mind to another
without the visual, auditory and other sensory signals
-reading someone else’s mind or transferring one’s thoughts
• Psycho kinesis: is the ability to affect the physical
world purely through thought,
• Moving objects without physical forces
• Precognition: is the perception of an event that has
not yet happened. It is the ability to foretell future
events. Forecasting.
THANK YOU