Sensation and Attention – Part 1

Objectives
After going through this module, learners will be able to understand the following
● To understand the nature of sensory processes,
● To explain the processes and types of attention

Knowing the World Around Us

The world in which we live is full of a variety of objects, people, and events. If you see the
space you are sitting in, you may find so many different things.

Source:http://hgtvhome.sndimg.com/content/dam/images/hgtv/fullset/2012/5/9/1/Original_Je
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You may see a table, chair, books, bag, watch, pictures of the wall, ceiling, sky sunshine,
clouds and many other things. The size, shape and colours are different. If you move around
you will find many other things: trees, animals and other buildings. These are common-place
experiences and we hardly need to make any effort to recognize each. But have you ever
wondered as to how we get this information about each of these things in our world? The
knowledge about various objects becomes possible with the help of our sense organs (e.g.,
eyes, ears…). Our organs collect information from varied sources and provide us with the
information. We have very specialised sense organs to deal with these different stimuli.
As human beings we are bestowed with a set of seven sense organs. These sense organs are
also known as sensory receptors or information gathering systems, because they receive or
gather information from a variety of sources. Five of these sense organs collect information
from the external world- these are eyes, ears, nose, tongue, and skin. While our eyes are
primarily responsible for vision, ears for hearing, nose for smell, and tongue for taste, skin is

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responsible for the experiences of touch, warmth, cold, and pain. Specialised receptors of
warmth, cold, and pain are found inside our skin. Besides these five external sense organs, we
have also got two deep senses. They are called kinaesthetic and vestibular systems. They
provide us with important information about our body position and movement of body parts
related to each other. With these seven sense organs, we register ten different varieties of
stimuli. For example, you may notice whether a light is bright or dim, whether it is yellow,
red or green, and so on. As far as sound is concerned, you may notice whether it is loud or
faint, whether it is melodious or distracting, and so on. These different qualities of stimuli are
also registered by our sense organs.

Sense Modalities
Our sense organs provide us with first-hand information about our external or internal world.
The initial experience of a stimulus or an object registered by a particular sense organ is
called sensation. It is a process through which we detect and encode a variety of physical
stimuli. Sensation also refers to immediate basic experiences of stimulus attributes, such as
“hard”, “warm”, “loud”, and “blue”, which result from appropriate stimulation of a sensory
organ. Different sense organs deal with different forms of stimuli and serve different
purposes. Each sense organ is highly specialised for dealing with specific information.
Hence, each one of them is known as a sense modality.

The information collected by our sense organs forms the basis of all our knowledge. The
sense organs register several kinds of information about various objects. However, in order to
be registered, the objects and their qualities (e.g., size, shape, colour) must be able to draw
our attention. The registered information must also be sent to the brain that constructs some
meaning out of them. Thus, our knowledge of the world around us depends on three basic
processes, called sensation, attention, and perception. These processes are highly interrelated;
hence, they are often considered as different elements of the same process, called cognition.

Nature and Variety of Stimuli

The external environment that surrounds us contains a wide variety of stimuli. Some of them
can be seen (e.g., a house), while some can be heard only (e.g., music). There are several
others that we can smell (e.g., fragrance of a flower) or taste (e.g., sweets). There are still
others that we can experience by touching (e.g., softness of a cloth). All these stimuli provide
us with various kinds of information. We have very specialised sense organs to deal with

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these different stimuli. As human beings we are bestowed with a set of seven sense organs.
These sense organs are also known as sensory receptors or information gathering systems,
because they receive or gather information from a variety of sources. Five of these sense
organs collect information from the external world. These are eyes, ears, nose, tongue, and
skin.

Functional Limitations of Sense Organs

Before we move on to a discussion of sense organs, it is important to note that our sense
organs function with certain limitations. For example, our eyes cannot see things which are
very dim or very bright. Similarly, our ears cannot hear very faint or very loud sounds. The
same is true for other sense organs also. As human beings, we function within a limited range
of stimulation. For being noticed by a sensory receptor, a stimulus must be of an optimal
intensity or magnitude. The relationship between stimuli and the sensations they evoke has
been studied in a discipline, called psychophysics.
In order to be noticed a stimulus must carry a minimum value or weight. The minimum value
of a stimulus required to activate a given sensory system is called absolute threshold or
absolute limen (AL). For example, if you add a granule of sugar to a glass of water, you may
not experience any sweetness in that water. Addition of a second granule to water may also
not make it taste sweet. But if you go on adding sugar granules one after another, there will
come a point when you will say that the water is now sweet. The minimum number of sugar
granules required to say that the water is sweet will be the AL of sweetness.
It may be noted at this point that the AL is not a fixed point; instead it varies considerably
across individuals and situations depending on the people’s organic conditions and their
motivational state. Hence, we must assess it through several trials. The number of sugar
granules that may produce the experience of “sweetness” in water on 50 per cent of occasions
will be called the AL of sweetness. If you add a greater number of sugar granules, the
chances are greater that the water will be reported more often as sweet than plain.
As it is not possible for us to notice all stimuli, it is also not possible to differentiate between
all stimuli. In order to notice two stimuli as different from each other, there must be some
minimum difference between the value of those stimuli. The smallest difference in the value
of two stimuli that is necessary to notice them as different is called difference threshold or
difference limen (DL). To understand it, we may continue with our “sugar water” experiment.
As we have seen, the plain water is experienced as sweet after the addition of a certain
number of sugar granules. Let us remember this sweetness. The next question is how many

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sugar granules will be needed in the water in order to experience its sweetness as different
from the previous sweetness? Go on adding sugar granules one after another tasting the water
each time. After adding a few granules, you will notice at a point that the water is now
sweeter than the previous one. The number of sugar granules added to the water to generate
an experience of sweetness that is different from the previous sweetness on 50 per cent of the
occasions will be called the DL of sweetness. Thus, the difference threshold is the minimum
amount of change in a physical stimulus that can produce a sensation difference on 50 per
cent of the trials.
Thus, understanding of sensations is not possible without understanding the AL and DL of
different types of stimuli (for example, visual, auditory), but that is not enough. Sensory
processes do not depend only on the stimulus characteristics. Sense organs and the neural
pathways connecting them to various brain centres also play a vital role in this process. A
sense organ receives the stimulus and encodes it as an electrical impulse. For being noticed
this electrical impulse must reach the higher brain centres. Any structural or functional defect
or damage in the receptor organ, its neural pathway, or the concerned brain area may lead to a
partial or complete loss of sensation.

Attentional Processes
In the previous section we mentioned sensory modalities that help us in collecting
information from the external world and from our internal systems. As we explore the world
around us, we can see that many stimuli impinge upon our sense organs simultaneously, but
yet we do not notice all of them at the same time. Only a selected few of them are noticed.
For example, when you enter your classroom you encounter several things in it, such as
doors, walls, windows, paintings on walls, tables, chairs, students, schoolbags, water bottles,
and so on, but you selectively focus only on one or two of them at one time. The process
through which certain stimuli are selected from a group of others is generally referred to as
attention.
It may be noted that besides selection, attention also refers to several other properties like
alertness, concentration, and search. Alertness refers to an individual’s readiness to deal
with stimuli that appear before her/him. While participating in a race in your school, you
might have seen the participants on the starting line in an alert state waiting for the whistle to
blow in order to run. Concentration refers to focusing awareness on certain specific objects
while excluding others for the moment. For example, in the classroom, a student concentrates
on the teacher’s lecture and ignores all sorts of noises coming from different corners of the

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school. In search an observer looks for some specified subset of objects among a set of
objects. For example, when you go to pick up your sibling from the school, you just look for
them among innumerable others.

Source:https://www.bing.com/th?id=OIP.qPxuBQ1NrYFpxOp94vwxWAHaFZ&pid=Api&rs
=1
Attention has a focus as well as a fringe. When the field of awareness is centered on a
particular object or event, it is called focus or the focal point of attention. On the contrary,
when the objects or events are away from the centre of awareness and one is only vaguely
aware of them, they are said to be at the fringe of attention.
Attention has been classified in different ways-a process-oriented view divides it into two
types, namely selective and sustained. We will briefly discuss the main features of these types
of attention.

Selective Attention
Selective attention is concerned mainly with the selection of a limited number of stimuli or
objects from a large number of stimuli. We have already indicated that our perceptual system
has a limited capacity to receive and process information. This means that it can deal only
with a few stimuli at a given moment of time. The question is, which of those stimuli will get
selected and processed? Psychologists have identified a number of factors that determine the
selection of stimuli.

Factors Affecting Selective Attention

Several factors influence selective attention. These generally relate to the characteristics of
stimuli and the characteristics of individuals. They are generally classified as “external” and
“internal” factors.
External factors are related to the features of stimuli. Other things held constant, the size,
intensity, and motion of stimuli appear to be important determinants of attention. Large,
bright, and moving stimuli easily catch our attention. Stimuli, which are novel and

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moderately complex, also easily get into our focus. Studies indicate that human photographs
are more likely to be attended to than the photographs of inanimate objects. Similarly,
rhythmic auditory stimuli are more readily attended to than verbal narrations. Sudden and
intense stimuli have a wonderful capacity to draw attention.
Internal factors lie within the individual. These may be divided into two main categories, viz.
motivational factors and cognitive factors. Motivational factors relate to our biological
or social needs. When we are hungry, we notice even a faint smell of food. A student taking
an examination is likely to focus on a teacher’s instructions more than other students.
Cognitive factors include factors like interest, attitude, and preparatory set. Objects or
events, which appear interesting, are readily attended by individuals. Similarly, we pay quick
attention to certain objects or events to which we are favourably disposed. Preparatory set
generates a mental state to act in a certain way and readiness of the individual to respond to
one kind of stimuli and not to others.

Theories of Selective Attention

Different theories have been developed to explain the process of selective attention. We will
briefly discuss these.
Filter theory was developed by Broadbent (1956). According to this theory, many stimuli
simultaneously enter our receptors creating a kind of “bottleneck” situation. Moving through
the short-term memory system, they enter the selective filter, which allows only one stimulus
to pass through for higher levels of processing. Other stimuli are screened out at that moment
of time. Thus, we become aware of only that stimulus, which gets access through the
selective filter.

Source: http://users.phhp.ufl.edu/rbauer/attentionljg2/img013.jpg

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Filter-attenuation theory was developed by Triesman (1962) by modifying Broadbent’s
theory. This theory proposes that the stimuli not getting access to the selective filter at a given
moment of time are not completely blocked. The filter only attenuates (weakens) their
strength. Thus, some stimuli manage to escape through the selective filter to reach higher
levels of processing. It is indicated that personally relevant stimuli (e.g., one’s name in a
collective dinner) can be noticed even at a very low level of sound. Such stimuli, even though
fairly weak, may also generate response occasionally by slipping through the selective filter.

Source:https://s-cool.co.uk/assets/learn_its/alevel/psychology/attention/focused-attention/a-ps
y-attent-dia08.gif

Multimode theory was developed by Johnston and Heinz (1978). This theory believes that
attention is a flexible system that allows selection of a stimulus over others at three stages. At
stage one the sensory representations (e.g., visual images) of stimuli are constructed; at stage
two the semantic representations (e.g., names of objects) are constructed; and at stage three
the sensory and semantic representations enter the consciousness. It is also suggested that
more processing requires more mental effort. When the messages are selected on the basis of
stage one processing (early selection), less mental effort is required than when the selection is
based on stage three processing (late selection).
For example: There are several food items on the table. You select one item over the other
food items (visual image). Now you represent it with the word ‘ice cream’ (semantic
representation) finally you connect to the item as an ice cream (the visual and semantic
representation- the term and what the item is).
At stage one you just notice the food item so less mental effort is required, whereas by stage
three more mental effort is required.

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Sustained Attention
While selective attention is mainly concerned with the selection of stimuli, sustained
attention is concerned with concentration. It refers to our ability to maintain attention on an
object or event for longer durations. It is also known as “vigilance”. Sometimes people have
to concentrate on a particular task for many hours. Air traffic controllers and radar readers
provide us with good examples of this phenomenon. They have to constantly watch and
monitor signals on screens. The occurrence of signals in such situations is usually
unpredictable, and errors in detecting signals may be fatal. Hence, a great deal of vigilance is
required in those situations.
ATC Picture

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rs:cb(2700061000)/https://www.thestar.com/content/dam/thestar/news/canada/2018/03/03/not
-enough-air-traffic-controllers-are-women-minorities-nav-canada-says/assil_bedewi.jpg

Factors Influencing Sustained Attention

Several factors can facilitate or inhibit an individual’s performance on tasks of sustained
attention. Sensory modality is one of them. Performance is found to be superior when the
stimuli (called signals) are auditory than when they are visual. Clarity of stimuli is another
factor. Intense and long-lasting stimuli facilitate sustained attention and result in better
performance. Temporal uncertainty is a third factor. When stimuli appear at regular
intervals of time, they are attended better than when they appear at irregular intervals. Spatial
uncertainty is a fourth factor. Stimuli that appear at a fixed place are readily attended,
whereas those that appear at random locations are difficult to attend.

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Divided attention
Sometimes we can also attend to two different things at the same time. When this happens, it
is called divided attention. Divided attention does not really exist because at one time you are
only selected one set of stimuli over the others. It is more or less a quick switching of
attention from one to another. You may have seen people driving a car and talking to a friend,
or attending to phone calls on a mobile set, or putting on sunglasses, or listening to music. If
we watch them closely, we will notice that they are still allocating more effort to driving than
to other activities, even though some attention is given to other activities. It indicates that on
certain occasions attention can be allocated to more than one thing at the same
time. However, this becomes possible only with highly practiced activities, because they
become almost automatic and require less attention to perform than new or slightly
practiced activities.
Automatic processing has three main characteristics; (i) It occurs without intention, (ii) It
takes place unconsciously, and (iii) It involves very little (or no) thought processes (e.g., we
can read words or tie our shoelaces without giving any thought to these activities).

Practical Implications of Attention

Attention has several practical implications. The number of objects one can readily attend to
in a single glance (span of attention) is used to design the number plates of motorbikes and
cars so that the traffic police can easily notice them in case of traffic violations.

Source: https://www.bing.com/th?id=OIP.fzZSwx3kCcbpAavkRhTIggHaFj&pid=Api&rs=1
Number of children fail to perform well in school simply due to the problems of attention-
Attention Deficit Disorder.
Understanding the process of attention has thus been used to improve the quality of human
life.

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 Sensation and Attention – Part 3

Objectives
After going through this module, learners will be able to understand the following
● To understand what perception is.
● To explain the processes of perceptual organization.
● Explain perceptual constancies.
● To understand the impact of culture in perception.
● Perception of distance, depth and movement.
● Understanding visual illusions

Perceptual Processes
In the previous section we had learnt that stimulation of sensory organs leads us to
experience something such as, a flash of light or a sound, or a smell. This elementary
experience, called sensation, does not provide us with any understanding of the stimulus that
stimulated the sense organ. For example- as you watch a scenery or a picture you just see it
you do not decipher it in terms of pleasant or unpleasant. In order to make sense out of the
raw material provided by the sensory system, we process it further.

The process by which we recognise, interpret or give meaning to the information

provided by sense organs is called perception.

In interpreting stimuli or events, individuals often construct them in their own ways. Thus,
perception is not merely an interpretation of objects or events of the external or internal world
as they exist, instead it is also a construction of those objects and events from one’s own point
of view. The process of meaning-making involves certain sub-processes.

Processing Approaches in Perception How do we identify an object? Do we identify a cat

because we recognise its furry coat, its four legs, its eyes, ears, and so on, or do we recognise
these different parts because we have first identified a cat? The idea that the recognition
process begins from the parts, which serve as the basis for the recognition of the whole is
known as bottom-up processing.

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The notion that the recognition process begins from the whole, which leads to identification
of its various components is known as top down processing.
The bottom-up approach lays emphasis on the features of stimuli in perception and
considers perception as a process of mental construction.
The top-down approach lays emphasis on the perceiver and considers perception as a
process of recognition or identification of stimuli.
Studies show that in perception both the processes interact with each other to provide us with
an understanding of the world.

Role of the Perceiver

Human beings are not just mechanical and passive recipients of stimuli from the external
world. They are creative beings and try to understand the external world in their own ways. In
this process their motivations and expectations, cultural knowledge, past experiences, and
memories as well as values, beliefs, and attitudes play an important role in giving meaning to
the external world.

Some of these factors are described here.

● Motivation The needs and desires of a perceiver strongly influence her/his
perception. People want to fulfil their needs and desires through various means. One
way to do this is to perceive objects in a picture as something that will satisfy their
need. Experiments were conducted to examine the influence of hunger on perception.
When hungry persons were shown ambiguous pictures, they were found to perceive
them as pictures of food objects more often than those who were not hungry.
● Expectations or Perceptual Sets The expectations about what we might perceive in
each situation also influences perception. This phenomenon of perceptual
familiarisation or perceptual generalisation reflects a strong tendency to see what we
expect to see even when the results do not accurately reflect external reality. For
example, if a delivery man delivers your grocery daily at about 7.30 A.M., then the
doorbell at that time is likely to be perceived as the presence of the delivery boy even
if it is someone else.

ACTIVITY: To demonstrate expectancy, tell your friend to close her/him eyes. Write
12, 13, 14, 15 on the board. Ask her/him to open her eyes for 5 seconds, look at the

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 board, and note down what she/he saw. Repeat replacing only the 12, 14, 15 with A,
C, D viz. ‘A 13 C D’. Ask her/him again to note down what she saw. Most people
write down B in place of 13. Those who can do it quickly will be called “field
independent”; those who take a long time will be called “field dependent”.

● Cultural Background and Experiences Different experiences and learning

opportunities available to people in different cultural settings also influence their
perception. People coming from a pictureless environment fail to recognise objects in
pictures. Hudson studied the perception of pictures by African subjects and noted
several difficulties. Many of them were unable to identify objects depicted in pictures
(e.g., antelope, spear). They also failed to perceive distance in pictures, and
interpreted pictures incorrectly. Eskimos have been found to make fine distinctions
among a variety of snow that we may be unable to notice. These studies indicate that
the perceiver plays a key role in the process of perception. People process and
interpret stimuli in their own ways depending on their personal, social and cultural
conditions. Due to this, our perceptions may get modified.
● Cognitive Styles Cognitive style refers to a consistent way of dealing with our
environment. It significantly affects the way we perceive the environment. There are
several cognitive styles that people use in perceiving their environment. One most
extensively used in studies is the “field dependent and field independent” cognitive
style.
Field dependent people perceive the external world in its totality, i.e. in a global or
holistic manner. On the other hand, field independent people perceive the external
world by breaking it into smaller units, i.e. in an analytic or differentiated manner.

Principles of Perceptual Organisation

Our visual field is a collection of different elements, such as points, lines, and colours.
However, we perceive these elements as organised wholes or complete objects. The process
of organising visual fields into meaningful holes is known as form perception. Several
researchers tried to answer this but the most widely accepted answer has been given by a
group of psychologists, called Gestalt psychologists. Prominent among them are Wolfgang
Köhler, Kurt Koffka, and Max Wertheimer. Gestalt means a regular figure, pattern or a
form. According to Gestalt psychologists, we perceive different stimuli not as discrete

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elements, but as an organised “whole”. They believe that the form of an object lies in its
totality, which is different from the sum of their parts. Eg a bicycle.They believed that the
brain creates a complete coherent perceptual experience which is more than the available
sensory experience.
The Gestalt psychologists indicate that our cerebral processes are always oriented towards
the perception of a good figure or pragnanz. That is the reason why we perceive
everything in an organised form.

Source:https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/06/Aros_ol%C3%ADmpi
cos_01.jpg/220px-Aros_ol%C3%ADmpicos_01.jpg
The most primitive organisation takes place in the form of figure-ground segregation. When
we look at a surface, certain aspects of the surface clearly stand out as separate entities,
whereas others do not. For example, when we see words on a page, or a painting on a wall, or
birds flying in the sky, the words, the painting, and the birds stand out from the background,
and are perceived as figures, while the page, wall, and sky stay behind the figure and are
perceived as background. To experience this look at the given figure:

Source:https://tse3.mm.bing.net/th/id/OIP.63Qs1YEZ3NwqGL9tSLSTcwHaFp?w=242&h=1
83&c=7&o=5&dpr=1.1&pid=1.7

You see either the white part of the figure, which looks like a flower pot, or the black part of
the figure, which looks like two faces.

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We distinguish figure from the ground based on the following characteristics:
● Figure has a definite form, while the background is relatively formless.
● Figure is more organised as compared to its background.
● Figure stands out from the background, while the background stays behind the figure.
● Figure appears clearer, limited, and relatively nearer, while the background appears
relatively unclear, unlimited, and away from us.

The Gestalt psychologists have given us several laws to explain how and why different
stimuli in our visual field are organised into meaningful whole objects. Apart from Figure
and Ground several other principles are valid for visual as well as auditory stimuli, which
may be seen in the figure below, namely: closure, proximity, similarity, continuity and
symmetry. We will learn more about these principles called the principles of perceptual
organization.

Principles of perceptual organisation

Proximity: as you can see in the above figure, objects that are close together in space or time
are perceived as belonging together or as a group.
Similarity: Objects which are similar to one another and have characteristics that are alike
are perceived as a group. The little circles and squares are spaced such that the proximity
does not come into play. So can perceive that objects that are close together in space or time

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are perceived as belonging together or as a group. In the given figure the little circles and
squares are placed close together, yet we tend to perceive squares and circles independently.
Continuity: This principle states that we tend to perceive objects as belonging together if
they appear to form a continuous pattern. For instance, we are more likely to view the lines as
two lines crossing over and extending behind the other line. We tend to perceive objects as
belonging together if they appear to form a continuous pattern.
Symmetry This principle suggests that symmetrical areas tend to be seen as figures against
asymmetrical backgrounds.
Closure: We tend to fill the gaps and perceive the objects as whole rather than their separate
parts. The small angles are seen as a triangle due to our tendency to fill the gaps in the object
provided.
Law of simplicity: This law states that our mind perceives everything in its simplest form.

Depth Perception
The visual field or surface in which things exist is called space. The space in which we live is
organised in three dimensions. We perceive not only the spatial attributes (e.g., size, shape,
direction) of various objects, but also the distance between the objects found in this space.
While the images of objects projected onto our retina are flat and two dimensional (left, right,
up, down), we still perceive three dimensions in the space. Why does it happen so? It occurs
due to our ability to transfer a two-dimensional retinal vision into a three-dimensional
perception. The process of viewing the world in three dimensions is called distance or depth
perception. Depth perception is important in our daily life.
The process of viewing the world in three dimensions is called distance or depth
perception. Depth perception is important in our daily life. In perceiving depth, we depend
on two main sources of information, called cues. One is called binocular cues because they
require both eyes. Another is called monocular cues, because they allow us to perceive depth
with just one eye.

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Monocular Cues (Psychological Cues)
Monocular cues of depth perception are effective when the objects are viewed with only one
eye. These cues are often used by artists to induce depth in two dimensional paintings. Hence,
they are also known as pictorial cues.

Relative Size: The size of the retinal image allows us to judge distance based on our past and
present experience with similar objects. As the objects get away, the retinal image becomes
smaller and smaller. We tend to perceive an object farther away when it appears small, and
closer when it appears bigger.

Interposition or Overlapping: These cues occur when some portion of the object is covered
by another object. The overlapped object is considered farther away, while the object that
covers it appears closer.

Linear Perspective: This reflects a phenomenon by which distant objects appear to be closer
together than the nearer objects. For example, parallel lines, such as rail tracks, appear to
converge with increasing distance with a vanishing point at the horizon. The more the lines
converge, the farther away they appear.

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Aerial Perspective: The air contains microscopic particles of dust and moisture that make
distant objects look hazy or blurry. This effect is called aerial perspective. For example,
distant mountains appear blue due to the scattering of blue light in the atmosphere, whereas
the same mountains are perceived to be closer when the atmosphere is clear.

Source: http://resumbrae.com/ub/dms423_f09/12/Mount_Ellinor.jpg

Light and Shade: In the light some parts of the object get highlighted, whereas some parts
become darker. Highlights and shadows provide us with information about an object’s
distance and depth.

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Relative Height: Larger objects are perceived as being closer to the viewer and smaller
objects as being farther away. When we expect two objects to be the same size and they are
not, the larger of the two will appear closer and the smaller will appear farther away.

Texture Gradient: It represents a phenomenon by which the visual field having more density
of elements is seen farther away.

Source: https://c2.staticflickr.com/4/3163/2297308960_f935e675d6_b.jpg

Motion Parallax: It is a kinetic monocular cue, and hence not considered as a pictorial cue. It
occurs when objects at different distances move at a different relative speed. The distant
objects appear to move slower than the objects nearby. The rate of an object’s movement
provides a cue to its distance. For example-while traveling in a bus, objects that are closer

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move “against” the direction of the bus, whereas objects that are further away move in the
same direction as the bus.
Source:https://tse4.mm.bing.net/th?q=Motion+Parallax+Monocular+Cues&w=120&h=120&
c=1&rs=1&qlt=90&dpr=1.1&pid=InlineBlock&mkt=en-IN&adlt=strict&t=1&mw=247

Binocular Cues (Physiological Cues)

Some important cues to depth perception in three dimensional spaces are provided by both
the eyes. Three of these are:

Retinal or Binocular Disparity: Retinal disparity occurs because the two eyes have different
locations in our head. They are separated from each other horizontally by a distance of about
6.5 centimeters. Because of this distance, the image formed on the retina of each eye of the
same object is slightly different. This difference between the two images is called retinal
disparity. The brain interprets a large retinal disparity to mean a close object and a small
retinal disparity to mean a distant object, as the disparity is less for distant objects and more
for the near objects.

Source:https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/1/15/Diagram_of_lateralized_visual
_pathways_of_the_human_brain.png/220px-Diagram_of_lateralized_visual_pathways_of_th
e_human_brain.png

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Convergence: When we see a nearby object our eyes converge inward in order to bring the
image on the fovea of each eye. A group of muscles send messages to the brain regarding the
degree to which eyes are turning inward, and these messages are interpreted as cues to the
perception of depth. The degree of convergence decreases as the object moves further away
from the observer. You can experience convergence by holding a finger in front of your nose
and slowly bringing it closer. The more your eyes turn inward or converge, the nearer the
object appears in space.

Accommodation: Accommodation refers to a process by which we focus the image on the

retina with the help of ciliary muscle. These muscles change the thickness of the lens of the
eye. If the object gets away (more than 2 meters), the muscle is relaxed but as the object
moves nearer, the muscle contracts and the thickness of the lens increases. The degree of
contraction of the muscle is sent to the brain, which provides the cue for distance.

Perceptual Constancies
The sensory information that we receive from our environment constantly changes as we
move around. Yet we form a stable perception of an object seen from any position and in any
intensity of light. Perception of the objects as relatively stable despite changes in the
stimulation of sensory receptors is called perceptual constancy. Here we will examine three
types of perceptual constants that we commonly experience in our visual domain.

Size Constancy: The size of an image on our retina changes with the change in the distance
of the object from the eye. The further away it is, the smaller the image is. On the other hand,

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our experience shows that within limits the object appears to be about the same size
irrespective of its distance. For example, when you approach your friend from a distance,
your perception of the friend’s size does not change much despite the fact that the retinal
image (image on retina) becomes larger. This tendency for the perceived size of objects to
remain relatively unchanged with changes in their distance from the observer and the size of
the retinal image is called size constancy.

Shape Constancy: In our perceptions the shapes of familiar objects remain unchanged
despite changes in the pattern of retinal image resulting from differences in their orientation.
For example, a dinner plate looks the same shape whether the image that it casts on the retina
is a circle, or an ellipse, or roughly a short line (if the plate is viewed from the edge.
See the images of a door below to understand the phenomena.

Source:https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/24/Shape_constancy.gif/2
20px-Shape_constancy.gif
It is also called form constancy.

Brightness Constancy
Visual objects not only appear constant in their shape and size, they also appear constant in
their degree of whiteness, greyness, or blackness even though the amount of physical energy
reflected from them changes considerably. In other words, our experience of brightness does
not change in spite of the changes in the amount of reflected light reaching our eyes. The
tendency to maintain apparent brightness constant under different amounts of illumination is
called brightness constancy. For example, the surface of a paper which appears white in the
sunlight, is still perceived as white in the room light. Similarly, coal that looks black in the
sun also looks black in room light.

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Illusions
Sometimes we are unable to interpret the sensory information correctly. This results in a
mismatch between the physical stimuli and its perception. These misperceptions resulting
from misinterpretation of information received by our sensory organs are generally
known as illusions. Illusions can be experienced by the stimulation of any of our senses.
Psychologists have studied visual illusions more commonly than other sense modalities.
Some perceptual illusions are universaland found in all individuals. For example, the rail
tracks appear to be converging to all of us. These illusions are called universal illusions or
permanent illusions as they do not change with experience or practice.
Some other illusions seem to vary from individual to individual; these are called personal
illusions.
The Muller-Lyer Illusion
Line A is perceived as shorter than line B, although both the lines are equal. This illusion is
experienced even by children and some studies that suggest that even animals experience
this.

Illusion of vertical and horizontal lines

Although both the lines are equal, we perceive the vertical line as longer than the horizontal
line.

Ponzo Illusion
The Ponzo illusion is a geometrical-optical illusion that was first demonstrated by the Italian
psychologist Mario Ponzo in 1911. He suggested that the human mind judges an object's size
based on its background. He showed this by drawing two identical lines across a pair of

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Apparent Movement Illusion
This illusion is experienced when some motionless pictures are projected one after another at
an appropriate rate. This illusion is referred to as “phi-phenomenon”. When we see moving
pictures in a cinema show, we are influenced by this kind of illusion. The succession of
flickering electrical lights also generates this illusion. For the experience of this illusion,
Wertheimer had reported the presence of appropriate level of brightness, size, spatial gap, and
temporal contiguity of different lights.

Socio-Cultural Influences on Perception

Several psychologists have studied the processes of perception in different sociocultural
settings. The questions they try to answer through these studies are: Does perceptual
organisation of people living in different cultural settings take place in a uniform manner?
Are the perceptual processes universal, or do they vary across different cultural settings?
Because we know, people living in different parts of the world look different, many
psychologists hold the view that their ways of perceiving the world must be different in some
respects. Let us examine some studies relating to perception of illusion figures and other
pictorial materials. You can see the Muller-Lyer and Vertical-Horizontal illusion figures.
Psychologists have used these figures with several groups of people living in Europe, Africa,
and many other places. Segall, Campbell, and Herskovits carried out the most extensive study
of illusion susceptibility by comparing samples from remote African villages and Western
urban settings. It was found that African subjects showed greater susceptibility to
horizontal-vertical illusion, whereas Western subjects showed greater susceptibility to
Muller-Lyer illusion.

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