Perception
Philosopher Hilary Putnam talks about re-thinking his view of perception. He states that he's moving towards "direct realism"--the notion that we actually perceive real properties of things, rather than sensations conceived of as intermediaries.
Interpretations: Relationship Between Sensation and Perception, The
Sensations, the raw data we encode from our physical environment, are just a random mix of sights and sounds, tastes and smells that provide little meaning in and of themselves. To construct the outside world inside our heads requires us to select, ...
Interpretations: Perceiving Three-Dimensional Figures: Binocular Depth Cues
The ability to see objects in three dimensions is the result of binocular depth cues. The fact that the images that strike the retina in each eye are slightly different allows our brain to merge these different inputs into a single three-dimensional...
Interpretations: Perceiving Distance, Depth and Motion
Monocular cues allow us to judge distance and depth whether we are viewing with one eye or two. For example, the image size of an object appears larger when it is close and smaller when it is far away. Parallel lines seem to come together as they mo...
Interpretations: Perceptual Constancy
The fact that we can glance at someone coming toward us and recognize them instantly as a friend regardless of angle, distance, or light conditions is a remarkable human capacity known as perceptual constancy. This flexibility enables us to take a p...
Interpretations: Form Clues: Grouping and Closure
To bring order and form to basic sensations, our minds follow certain rules for grouping stimuli-by proximity, by similarity, and by continuity. Even young children show an awareness of these rules of form. They know, for example, that two objects c...
Interpretations: Change Blindness
Daniel Simons and his colleagues were intrigued to learn which factors influence whether or not something is perceived. Many of the experiments they have conducted relate to what they term change blindness--changing some aspect of clothing or backgr...
Interpretations: Selective Attention Research
The link between attention and perception was demonstrated on a basketball court in which people were asked to count how many passes the players wearing white made. After about 40 seconds, a gorilla walked on the court, thumped its chest and walked ...
Perception: the theories
Can perception be explained in terms of sensation? In this program, the senses, including proprioception, are described; the structuralist, gestalt, constructivist, and direct perception theories are critically analyzed, focusing on both their stren...
Game theory: lost in New York
What if twelve strangers were deposited in separate locations all over New York City and ordered to find each other - without being told where to look? This ABC News program presents an intriguing psychological puzzle involving participants who must...