Cognitive Psychology

Cognitive psychology is the study of the processes that we use:

‘to take in information coming to us from our outside world; to make sense of this
information and to use our interpretation of this information to act upon, and in, our
external world.’

A knowledge of cognitive psychology is useful in that we tend to react to stimuli:

events/objects/people: on the basis of what we each believe is happening. While all healthy
human beings share the same cognitive processes – we each reach a conclusion as to what is
happening (and thus how to behave/react), on the basis of our individual cognitive processes and
meaningful past experiences using them. This can mean that two people can respond totally
differently to the same thing.
A good example of this would be two women, one of whom has experienced domestic violence.
When they see a man walk towards them in the street they both see a man, but their individual
thoughts; feelings and behaviours concerning him will be different. The theme of similar but
different environmental experience affecting each individual’s own thoughts, feelings and
behaviours runs through cognitive psychology as does the importance of realising the inter-
relationships between all our cognitive processes (perception: attention: language; memory and
thinking).
The study of what goes to make up cognitive psychology i.e. cognitive processes is difficult. This is
because our cognitive processes do not exist in reality. They are hypothetical constructs. If
something does not exist in reality it is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to measure or
observe it directly. For a good part of the 20th century psychology placed a great emphasis on
experimentation to generate objective empirical data (hard scientific fact) about the phenomena
it was interested in. This proved extremely difficult to do in cognitive psychology. Eventually,
mainly due to the influences of Edward Tolman and Jean Piaget, the study of cognitive psychology
progressed because cognitive psychologists realised they could study and produce objective
empirical data concerning their subject matter by studying it indirectly. It should also therefore
be emphasised that what we study in cognitive psychology is inferred 1.
Cognitive psychology thus concerns a study of the following cognitive processes:
 perception
 attention
 memory and
 language
 thinking.
While the study of cognitive processes should not be exclusive to just one, two, three or more
processes, and with an understanding that they are each related to one another, IED emphasises
in particular the key concepts of perception.

1
in·fer [in-fur] verb, in·ferred, in·fer·ring.
verb (used with object)
1. to derive by reasoning; conclude or judge from premises or evidence: They inferred his
displeasure from his cool tone of voice.
2. (of facts, circumstances, statements, etc.) to indicate or involve as a conclusion; lead to.
3. to guess; speculate; surmise.
4. to hint; imply; suggest.
verb (used without object)
5. to draw a conclusion, as by reasoning.

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The Philosophical and Psychological Roots of Cognitive Psychology
Before turning to this key concept of perception, it will be useful to try to understand where
cognitive psychology has come from.
The cognitive approach (and thus cognitive psychology) grew out of criticisms of the behaviourist
approach. Behaviourism emphasises that psychology should only study actual observable
behaviour and that human beings should be understood in terms of all the stimulus-response
units of learnt behaviour (via classical and operant conditioning) accumulated to date. There are
good reasons for this, but a study of actual observable behaviour alone is not enough to
understand why and how it is that we think, feel and behave as we do. The study of the human
mind is also important.
Due to the great influence of behaviourism, a scientific study of the human mind was difficult
until a ‘soft’ behaviourist called Edward Tolman (1930) discovered in his ‘rats in mazes’
experiment that his rats appeared to have done something with their units of learnt behaviour
about the maze. When a rat was put into the maze it initially sniffed about and explored it in an
erratic fashion. It eventually discovered food placed in a particular position within the maze by
Tolman. When later put back into the maze the rat(s) went straight to the food. They did not go
down blind alleys, turn back on themselves etc., as when first introduced to the maze. Tolman
concluded on the basis of measurement, control and observation, that the rat(s) had formed
primitive cognitive maps of the maze in their heads based on their earlier experience i.e. by
externalising the cognitive process of thinking. As a result the rats were able to understand and
react to this environment better in that they were now aware of blind alleys and cul-de-sacs and
were able to anticipate and take short cuts to the food. The behaviourists seemed to be wrong.
Tolman’s rats suggest that organisms (what behaviourists call people and animals) do something
with previously learned information in order to behave in a more enriched and enlightened way
when they encounter the same stimulus again.
Results of a study by Saaranin (1973) suggests that humans do the same thing. The human
equivalent of a cognitive map is called a neural network. Saaranin got American college students
to draw maps of their campus. Students tended to enlarge those buildings which were most
important to them and shrink those less important. They were often found to be completely
wrong when describing campus areas that were not as familiar to them.
Similarly, Briggs (1971) discovered, on asking people to judge how far they thought one landmark
was from another, that they tended to underestimate the distance between familiar landmark
objects and over-estimate the distance between unfamiliar landmarks. This is further illustrated
when as adults we return to a once familiar childhood haunt i.e. a Scottish coastal summer
holiday resort and find it is a lot smaller and far less exciting than we imagined. The perception
of, for example Girvan, for a Glaswegian whose only experience of the place is during his primary
school years is dramatically brought into focus when returning to the town 30 years later. It just is
not the same.
Cognitive psychology thus concerns an understanding of what are called our internal mental
structures and processes. We will look at our senses in order to understand the structure and
role of the five higher level cognitive processes of perception; attention; language; memory and
thinking. Each of our cognitive processes can be studied individually but to understand cognitive
psychology completely, their inter-relationship with each other should be emphasized.

Questions
1. What do you understand by the term ‘cognitive psychology’?
2. What do you understand by the term ‘cognitive processes’?
3. Why did the behaviourists not like the study of cognitive psychology?
4. How did cognitive psychologists overcome this criticism by the behaviourists?
5. What two research methods do you think cognitive psychologists use to investigate cognitive
processes?
6. Why is it that despite seeing the same 90 minutes of football a Rangers fan and a Celtic fan
will report entirely different versions of it?

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Perception
Perception, a key cognitive process, can be defined as an active cognitive process which entails us
processing, organizing and interpreting information coming to us from our outside world.
SQA ask that we consider in relation to the study of perception:
 sensation and perception
 illusions
 perceptual constancy
 factors affecting perception

Perception is the way in which we selectively monitor what is happening around us. In order to
do this successfully we are equipped with at least five senses! Our senses work independently and
together to help give us as much information about our external environment as possible. This is
crucial to survival. Of great interest to cognitive psychologists in their study of perception is our
visual system, if only to try and solve the mystery of why we experience our world in three
dimensions. The images falling on our retinas are two-dimensional much like a photograph. You
should be able to explore this further when looking at visual illusions, and another ability we
have called perceptual constancies. Finally our perception of our world is not always accurate.
This shall be explored when examining the influence of learning, experience and motivation on
perception.

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Perception: Introduction
As usual in psychology we try to first define the concept we are looking at. The study of
perception is no exception.
‘Perception is…the process of assembling sensations into a usable mental
representation of the world…which…creates faces, melodies, works of art, illusions etc.’

Coon (1983)
‘Perception is not determined by stimulus patterns, rather it is a dynamic searching for
the best interpretation of the available data…perception involves going beyond the
immediately given evidence of the senses.’

RL Gregory (1966)
We should be careful however for:
‘To perceive seems effortless. To understand perception is nevertheless a great
challenge’.

Dodwell (1995)
It may now be said that:
Perception is the process by which we take in raw sensations from our environment using
our senses and interpret these sensations using our past knowledge and understanding of
the world in order that the sensation or what we are sensing, becomes meaningful to us.
An understanding of how we do this has intrigued cognitive psychologists for decades. To date
three explanations have emerged, each enriching our knowledge of perception.

Three Explanations of Perception:

1. The Ecological View (Gibson; Gestalt - ‘organised wholes’): where it is said we perceive most
clues from our environment directly and without interpretation (we perceive ‘exactly’ what
we see/hear/smell/touch and taste). The ecological view is popularly known as bottom-up
processing.
2. The Constructivist View (Gregory; Bruner): where it is said our perceptual system must often
make a reality indirectly out of bits of sensory information due to the absence of other
information. The constructivist view is better known as top-down processing.
3. Top-Down/Bottom-Up Symbiotic View (Neisser) which says we use the most appropriate of
the above processes depending on the situation we find ourself in. The two processing models
work together. When one type of perceptual process or aspect of it is impaired, the other
process, or an aspect of it, ‘fills’ in or compensates to give us, at the end of the day, as much an
understanding of the stimulus as possible. Symbiotic processing is best explained in the area
of visual perception using Marr’s Computer Analogywhere he says we extract visual
information from an image/object/event in four stages and put it all together again in the
brain in what he calls a symbolic representation of the stimulus.
Whether you advocate a bottom-up (ecological view), top-down (constructivist view) or symbiotic
explanation of perception, it is interesting to note the influence of the
nature-nurture debate to your position. Most of the theorists above suggest that what we
perceive or ultimately understand from what our senses are telling us is the result of learning
and experience (empirical basis to our perceptions). The influence of Gestalt psychology in the
early years of research into this topic does raise the nativist position; which says our perceptual
ability is innate, and needs little if any ‘learning’ to enhance it.
At the end of the day, we can say that perception is influenced by our innate abilities as human
beings. Also, the cognitive apparatus we are born with is used to make meaningful sense of the
many sensory experiences we encounter. What we perceive (or understand) that we are sensing

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is also strongly influenced by what we have learned from past experience of the same, or similar,
sensations. Perception is further influenced by expectations, culture and motivation.

Sensation and Perception

In our original working definition of perception we said that perception concerns sensing plus our
interpretation of this sensation based on meaningful past experience of it. Central to perception
must therefore include a knowledge of how we receive information from our environment in the
first place. This is of course via our senses. We use our traditional five senses to receive
information from our external world i.e. sight, hearing, touch, taste, smell. Psychology is also
able to tell us we have at least one other sense which is called our KINAESTHETIC sense. This is a
sense from within our own body which tells us about movement, or the feel of our muscles or
joints. Our kinaesthetic sense tells us about balance.

Our Visual Sense

Our sense of vision is in many respects our key sense.
Vision, our visual system and visual perception is the
most studied information process of all by cognitive
psychologists, so much so, it is looked at in more depth in
a later section entitled ‘Our Visual System’. Our sense of
vision comes to us via our eyes, the structure and
location of which allow us to perceive our world in three
dimensions: sense colour, sense depth, etc.

Our Tactile Sense

Touch, is one of our five senses, allowing for our
perception of pressure, touch, temperature (principally
temperature change), pain, and hair movement. We
experience touch using sensory cells called receptors
which are nerve endings in the skin. Touch receptors are
either free ending (in the dermis and around hair
follicles) or encapsulated (branched or coiled, enclosed
in a capsule). Receptors in our skin respond to a specific
type of stimulus and are not evenly distributed over the
body. The sensitivity of fingertips, for example, results
from a large number of touch receptors we have at this
extremity.
Once a receptor is stimulated, it sends nerve impulses to the brain, which locates and identifies
the stimulus involved and assesses its significance. The more intense the stimulus, the greater the
frequency of the nerve impulses.
The skin's sensory system is important in alerting the body to changes in its external
environment. Potentially harmful stimuli may cause pain resulting in either protective reflex
actions (e.g. dropping a hot object), or storing a memory to remind you to avoid future similar
hazards. The perception of pain is unusual as it is also strongly affected by the emotions and the
circumstances in which it is experienced.

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Our Gustatory Sense
Taste is effected by the contact of soluble substances on
our tongue Although humans can distinguish between a
wide range of flavours, the sensation of taste is actually a
response to a combination of several stimuli, including
texture, temperature, and smell, as well as taste.

In isolation, the sense of taste can only identify four basic flavours: sweet, salt, sour, and bitter,
with individual taste buds particularly responsive to one of these. The 10,000 or so taste buds
found in humans are distributed unevenly over the top of the tongue, creating patches sensitive
to specific classes of chemicals which give the taste sensations. Sweet and salt are usually at the
tip of the tongue, sour at the edges, and bitter at the base. Chemicals from food are dissolved in
the moisture of the mouth and enter the taste buds through pores in the surface of the tongue
where they come into contact with sensory cells. When a receptor is stimulated by one of the
dissolved substances, it sends nerve impulses to the brain. The frequency of the repetition of the
impulse tells the brain how strong a flavour is and the type of flavour is probably registered by
the nerve cells which responded.

Our Auditory Sense

The Ear is our organ of hearing and balance. It is
composed of three parts – external, middle, and internal
- the greater part of which is enclosed within the
temporal bone. The external ear is that portion of the
hearing apparatus lateral to our eardrum, or tympanic
membrane. The eardrum comprises the external flap of
the ear (the auricle, or pinna), and the external auditory
canal, which is 3 cm (1.25 inches) in length.

The middle ear, on the inner side of the eardrum, houses our mechanism for the conduction of
sound waves to the internal ear. It is a narrow passage, or cleft, that extends vertically for about
15 mm (0.6 in) and for about the same distance horizontally. The middle ear is in direct
communication with the back of the nose and throat by way of the eustachian tube, which allows
for passage of air into and out of the middle ear. Across, the middle ear is a chain of three small,
movable bones called the ossicles: the malleus, or hammer handle; the incus, or anvil; and the
stapes, or stirrup. The ossicles connect the eardrum acoustically to the fluid-filled internal ear.
The internal ear (or labyrinth) is the part of the temporal bone containing the organs of hearing
and balance to which the filaments of the auditory nerve are distributed. It is separated from the
middle ear by the fenestra ovalis, or oval window. The internal ear consists of membranous
canals housed in a dense portion of the temporal bone and is divided into the cochlea (Greek,
‘snail shell’), the vestibule, and three semicircular canals. All these canals communicate with one
another and are filled with a gelatinous fluid called endolymph. The disposition and orientation of
endolymph also helps us experience our sense of balance.

The Ear and Balance

The semicircular canals and the vestibule are concerned
with our sense of equilibrium, or balance. Hairs in these
canals, similar to those that form the organ of Corti,
respond to changes in the position of the head.

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The three semicircular canals extend from the vestibule approximately at right angles to each
other, providing sensory organs to record movements of the head in each of the three planes of
space: up and down, forwards and backwards, and to the left or right. Lying over the hair cells in
the vestibule are crystals of calcium carbonate, known technically as otoliths and popularly as ear
sand. When the head is tilted, the otoliths shift, and the hairs beneath respond to the change in
pressure. The eyes and certain sensory cells in the skin and internal tissues also help to maintain
equilibrium, but when the labyrinth of the ear is damaged or destroyed; disturbances of
equilibrium invariably follow. With eyes closed, a person with a disease or disturbance of the
internal ear may be unable to stand without swaying or falling.

How do we hear?
Sound waves, which are actually changes in air pressure, are carried through the external
auditory canal to the eardrum, causing it to vibrate. These vibrations are communicated by the
ossicular chain in the middle ear through the oval window to the fluid in the inner ear. The
movement of the endolymph stimulates the movement of a set of fine hair-like projections called
hair cells as the cochlea vibrates. Collectively these projections are called the organ of Corti. The
hair cells transmit signals directly to the auditory nerve which carries information to the brain.
The overall pattern of response of the hair cells to vibrations of the cochlea encodes information
about sound in a way that is interpreted by the brain's auditory centres.
The range of hearing, like that of vision, varies in different people. The maximum range of human
hearing includes sound frequencies from about 16 to 28,000 cycles per second. The least
noticeable change in tone that can be picked up by the ear varies with pitch and loudness. A
change of vibration frequency (pitch) corresponding to about 0.03 per cent of the original
frequency can be detected by the most sensitive human ears in the range between 500 and 8,000
vibrations per second. The ear is less sensitive to frequency changes for sounds of low frequency
or low intensity.
The sensitivity of the ear to sound intensity (loudness) also varies with frequency. Sensitivity to
change in loudness is greatest between 1,000 to 3,000 cycles, where a change of one decibel can be
detected—and becomes less when sound-intensity levels are lowered.
The variation in the sensitivity of the ear to loud sounds causes several important phenomena.
Extremely loud tones produce in the ear entirely different tones that are not present in the
original tone. These subjective tones are probably caused by imperfections in the natural function
of the middle ear. The harshness in tonality caused by greatly increasing sound intensities, as
when a radio volume control is adjusted to produce excessively loud sounds, results from
subjective tones produced in the ear. The loudness of a pure tone also affects its pitch. High tones
may increase as much as a whole musical-scale note. Low tones tend to become lower as sound
intensity increases. This effect is noticeable only for pure tones. Because most musical tones are
complex, hearing is usually not affected to an appreciable degree by this phenomenon. In sound
masking, the production in the ear of harmonics of lower-pitched sounds may deafen the ear to
the perception of higher-pitched sounds. Masking is what makes it necessary to raise one's voice
in order to be heard in a noisy place.

Our Olfactory Sense

Smell, is one of the five senses by which odours are
perceived. The nose, equipped with olfactory nerves, is
the special organ of smell. The olfactory nerves also
account for differing tastes of substances taken into the
mouth, in that, most sensations that appear
introspectively to us as tastes are in essence really
smells!
Sensations of smell are difficult to describe and classify,
but useful categorisations have been made by noting the
chemical elements of odorous substances.

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Research has pointed to the existence of seven primary odours—camphor-like, musky, floral,
peppermint-like, ethereal (dry-cleaning fluid, for example), pungent (vinegar-like), and putrid—
corresponding to the seven types of smell receptors found in the olfactory-cell hairs. Olfactory
research also indicates that substances with similar odours have molecules of similar shape.
Recent studies suggest that the shape of an odour-causing chemical molecule determines the
nature of the odour of that molecule or substance. These molecules are believed to combine with
specific cells in the nose or with chemicals within those cells. This process is the first step in a
complex series that continues with the transmission of impulses by the olfactory nerve and ends
with the perception of odour by the brain.
Our internal and external senses interact with each other because we are constantly linking
together information obtained from differing sensory MODES e.g. seeing, hearing, etc. This
involves us in what is called cross-modal transfer - where information gained using one mode
e.g. sight is applied to information from another sensory mode e.g. hearing. Cross-modal transfer
gives rise to a richer array of sensory information upon which we base our interpretation of our
own realities (world) - but by which we often become confused.
Characteristics of our Sensory System
Our six modalities (or senses) have certain common characteristics. Before looking at what these
are please complete both the common and scientific name for each:

Apparatus Sense
1 Eye Visual
2
3
4
5
6

 each respond to a particular form of energy or external information e.g. light waves, sound
waves, skin pressure, etc.
 each have a sense organ or ‘accessory structure’ which is the first port of call for any
incoming information on the road to processing and full understanding of the perceived
stimuli
 each accessory structure has sense receptors called ‘transducers’. These are specialised cells
which are sensitive to particular kinds of energy. It is as the stimuli impinges on these
transducers that the conversion of the stimuli into electrical nerve impulses occurs. This
electrical activity is the only kind of energy that can be processed and understood by our
brains.
 each sensory modality involves a different part of the brain. We are here able to interpret
messages received from our sensory receptors which gives us the experience of conscious
awareness of an object; a person; a word; a sound; a taste etc.
 a certain minimum stimulation of a sense receptor is needed before we can become
consciously aware of the sensory experience which is happening. These minimum
requirements are called absolute thresholds, which are based on a value given to a stimulus
when we can detect it 50% of the time. The threshold at which we can notice a stimulus differs
among and between people, and can be affected by an individuals physical state, time of day,
motivation, the way the stimulus is presented etc.

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This is the area of psychophysics within psychology (the interface between the physical stimulus
and subjective experience of it) which is of great importance to the development of psychology as
a subject in its own right (see Wilhelm Wundt, 1879).

Our Visual System

Vision and visual perception is by far the largest area of investigation undertaken by cognitive
psychologists. A full understanding needs a little introduction to the eye. The eye, according to
Ornstein (1975) is ‘the most important avenue of personal consciousness’. We receive around 80%
of our information about our world via our visual system.

As was said previously, sight or our sense of vision is probably the most studied of all our senses
due to the vast amount of work which has been done in the area of visual perception.

A basic understanding of the structure and function of the eye is therefore of relevance - if only to
give us a clue as to how and why we receive 2-D type photographic images on our retinas but
interpret these two dimensional images in three dimensions. A knowledge of our visual system is
also important to our understanding of how and why it is we can perceive colour and depth in
our world - and why it is we can see in the dark, but not as well as cats and other nocturnal
animals!

Structure and Function of the Human Eye

The pupil: is the small black circle at the centre of each of our eyes. The pupil controls the amount
of light taken in by the eye. In dark conditions our pupil dilates to its maximum size in order to
maximise the amount of light entering the eye and thus our ability to see (not too well) in the
dark. In light conditions our pupil also dilates, or ‘shrinks’, in response to the intensity of light we
experience. Pupil size is controlled by our autonomic nervous system (ANS) [controls organs
and glands]. The ANS is linked to our central nervous system (CNS) [brain and spine].
Interestingly the ANS has two branches:
i. the parasympathetic branch which in this instance changes pupil size in response to
illumination, and,
ii. the sympathetic branch which dilates the pupil under conditions of strong emotional
arousal.
The two branches of the ANS are self-regulating rather than under our conscious control.
Regulatory control of the ANS is directed by the hypothalamus found in the brain. Both branches
of the ANS are what psychologists call antagonistic to one another.
In the eye, dilation of the pupil is
controlled by the iris (the coloured
part of our eye) via the ciliary muscles
which are found in the iris. The lens of
the eye is held in place by suspensory
ligaments. Much like a camera the lens
focuses light on the retina as an
inverted or upside down image. The
shape the lens forms as it focuses light
energy on the retina is controlled by
ciliary muscles. The lens thickens and
increases in curvature when focusing
on nearby objects and becomes flatter
when we are focusing on objects far
away.

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The retina which is found at the back of the eye, upon which images we see are thrown, has three
layers. Each of the layers helps explain certain human visual abilities.
The first layer of the retina contains what are called rods and cones.
Rods and cones are photosensitive
transducer cells which convert light
energy into electrical nerve
impulses. Our 120M rods help us
see in ever decreasing light. Our 7M
cones allow us to experience
chromatic (colour vision). Different
cone types respond to the three
primary colours of red; green and
blue. This is because of the different
wavelengths each of these colours
has. Mixtures of red, green and blue
allow us to experience all the
colours found in the colour
spectrum.

Bipolar cells, a second layer in the retina, are connected to our rods and cones and help relay
information to the visual cortex in our brain.
Finally in the retina we find a third layer called ganglion cells. Ganglion cell fibres (axons) help
form the beginnings of the optic nerve. Three types of ganglion cell ‘fire’ in response to the
contours and movement of objects in our visual array or field of vision.
The visual pathway from each eye to the visual cortex in our brain is called the optic nerve (see
diagram on next page). Each optic nerve converges and crosses over at the optic chiasma, thus
information from our right eye goes to the left visual cortex and information from our right eye
goes to the left visual cortex. At the visual cortex, we find three other types of cell structure. These
again give those with an interest in cognitive processes in general and visual perception in
particular clues as to why we can see as we do. These three cell structures are as follows:
Simple cells which have been found to respond to simple features of a stimulus i.e. straight lines,
edges, slits, etc. when found in a particular orientation, or way-up, in our visual field.
Complex cells which are found to respond to lines of particular orientation wherever found in our
visual field, and, Hypercomplex cells which deal with the length of visual stimuli.
Our Visual Pathway: Note how information from our right visual field goes to the left hand side
of our brain, and information from our left visual field goes to the right hand side of our brain.
This is one of the clues as to why we perceive our world in three dimensions.

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Where all sensory information ends up to be processed and understood
This is of course in our brain, the organ concerned with
consciousness. Consciousness is our awareness of our
self and of our environment. It involves our senses and
bodily structure plus perception; attention; language;
thinking and memory. Human consciousness is what
makes us particularly unique as organisms.
The human brain is a relatively small structure,
weighing about 14 kg (3.1lb) and making up about 2 per
cent of total body weight. It is contained within the skull,
which acts as a protective casing.

Although the brain is only a small proportion of overall body weight, information received about
the outside world and from the rest of the body converges at the brain to be processed. Sensations
ultimately arrive at the human brain to be processed, given meaning (understood) and acted
upon. We first begin to perceive what a particular sensation is (and therefore what it is we are
experiencing) on the basis of how good, bad or indifferent our various senses are individually and
collectively (cross modal transfer). How we reach individual understanding of what particular
sensations mean for us is further based on some innate abilities and any previous past
experiences we have had in connection with the stimulus concerned.
These aspects of perception will now be addressed.

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Factors Affecting Perception: Explaining Our Perceptual World
The principles of perceptual organisation
 gestalten
 figure & ground: the answer to illusions?
 Perceptual constancies, with particular reference to, depth perception

Gestalt psychology and gestalten

As was stated at the beginning of our cognitive psychology course, one way of looking at
perception is from the point of view of Gestalt psychology (Kohler; Koffka and Wertheimer). It is
easily understood. Gestalt psychology, which was in vogue in Germany in the early part of the
20th century, believes we have an innate disposition to see objects using our inbuilt principles
of grouping, or Gestalten. What gestalten means is our innate ability to construct our world in
terms of organised ‘wholes’. The principles behind gestalten are captured by their Law of
Pragnänz which is us, the organism’s, innate way of perceiving things in terms of symmetry;
uniformity and stability. Individual Gestalten are -

Proximity
Objects that are close together are perceived by us as a ‘whole’ e.g.

a) . . . . . .
b) …………………..
How do you perceive a) and b) above?

Similarity
Similar objects are normally perceived by us as belonging to the same group

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Above, what similar objects do you perceive as a group which do not exist?!

Continuity
Sensations appearing to create a continuous form are perceived by us as belonging together e.g. a
fence with slats missing is still perceived as a fence. We organise sensations appearing together to
form a continuous whole e.g.
x x x

x x

x x

x x x

Do you perceive the above as a square shape made up of X’s, or 10 separate and individual X’s?

Closure
Where we, at an unconscious level, fill in contours/gaps in stimuli to form a complete whole in
order to make perceptual sense of it NB the importance of previous past experience and
perception. This is illustrated below. What do you make of this stimuli? Your teacher/lecturer
should explain the significance of this simple demonstration.

The whole is greater than the sum of its parts

Texture
This is another principle of gestalten where objects of the same texture are perceived as belonging
to the same group e.g. grains of sand and pebbles at the seaside form for us a ‘beach’.

Simplicity
Where we have a tendency to group stimulus features together in a way that provides the
simplest interpretation of the world for us e.g. houses as opposed to their make-up e.g.
windows, doors, roofs, walls and ceilings. The notion of simplicity does have a link with the social
psychological phenomenon of stereotyping and attribution theory.

Common Fate
This strange term means the principles where individual objects moving together at the same rate
are perceived by us as a group. We group, by common fate, flocks of
seagulls and swarms of wasps. We do not perceive each individual in the flock or swarm. We
innately organise the stimuli into a ‘whole’ in order to perceive and understand it.

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The principles behind gestalten and gestalt psychology, which are biological in origin, go some
way to explain perception. Perception is more than mere ‘seeing’. We often find in psychology
that abilities which seem to be innate have survival value for us.

Figure and Ground: The Answer to Illusions?

What do you make of the visual stimuli below?

This stimuli is known in psychology as Rubin’s Vase and is often used to demonstrate illusions.
As you might be able to ‘see’ from Rubin’s Vase our perceptual processes try with this 2D image by
putting some aspect of the stimuli to the ‘front’ or foreground (figure) and another aspect to the
meaningless background (ground). Some part of the image always stands out as ‘figure’ and some
other part
‘ground’. With Rubin’s vase the principle is reversible. What is meant here is that you will either
perceive a vase to the front or two faces squaring up to each other! What you perceive (above, a
vase or faces) is related to
1 our expectations
2 our culture
3 our experience of the stimuli
4 our motivation.

14
Please answer the questions which follow concerning the effect expectations, culture and
experience (in particular) have on perception.

Perceptual Set
What do you make of the stimuli below? Give an explanation for your answer.
E A D 13 A

16 15 14 B 12

the cat sat on the map and licked its whiskers

Questions
1 Whom do you see in the image below? If you see anyone at all (!) is it as a consequence of
expectations, culture or experience? Give reasons for your answer.

2 Without looking back to the previous page, what is the saying in the triangle? Please now
look back and read what is inside the triangle carefully. What does it actually say? Why were
you so sure about what you thought it said the first time round? How was your perception
affected? The general effect of expectations; culture and experience is called perceptual set.

15
3. Whom do you perceive in the image below? What factors, expectations,
culture and/or experience could influence your perception of who this is?

4. The most famous illusion in psychology

What do you make of the picture above?

Young Woman or Old?
That depends on your interpretation. Young people tend to see a young girl; older
people, an elderly lady. With effort, you can switch from one to the other: the young
woman's chin becomes the old woman's nose; the old woman's mouth, a band on the
neck of the young woman. You will find that here expectations, motivation, culture and
experience do not help you if you first see a young woman then an old woman, then a
young woman then a…etc!

16
By American psychologist E.G. Boring

17
Motivation and Perception
Motivation, in psychology, concerns what prompts us to action or to behave in a particular way.
Motivation can effect our perception of objects, events, people stimuli etc. Motivation in
psychology is a study all in itself. Cognitive psychology understands that our motivation to behave
in a particular way is affected by two things. Our

Internal Biology
and

External Environment.
Sometimes our internal biology and external environment come together to make us think, feel
and behave in a particular way. The interaction of our biology and environment as they motivate
us to be more perceptually aware produce interesting and - expensive - results.
When our body needs fuel (i.e. food) it tells us so when we experience hunger pangs. This is our
body’s internal signal or cue to us to eat. Our biology affects our perception in that when we are
hungry and experience hunger pangs, we perceive food much more vividly. Do not go food
shopping in a modern supermarket if you are hungry. The fruit appears more appealing, the
home-baking more delicious, the meat and fish more tasty looking! We perceive the colour of food
more. We perceive the smell of food more. Perception of food is heightened by internal bodily
factors. External factors like the clever use of lighting to illuminate fruit colouring more and the
aroma of the bakery in the supermarket constantly baking bread and cakes also influence and
motivate us to perceive food more when hungry. The internal and external factors of motivation
will greatly influence your perception of food and in this situation you may end up buying and
spending much more than you needed! Supermarkets of course are aware of this. A knowledge of
cognitive psychology can affect your waistline, wallet and purse.

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Three Theories of Perception
1 Bottom-Up (Ecological View): (Gibson; Gestalt - ‘organised wholes’): where it is said we
perceive most clues from our environment directly and without interpretation (we perceive
‘exactly’ what we see/hear/smell/touch and taste). The ecological view explains perception as
being ‘bottom-up’ - our world impinges on our senses which processes the information to the
brain which is directly interpreted and understood. Bottom-Up theory cannot explain illusions.

2 Top-Down (Constructivist View): (Gregory; Bruner) who say our perceptual system must
often make a reality indirectly out of bits of sensory information due to the absence of other
information. They are top-down in their explanation of perception. Higher level cognitive
functions play a part.

3 Top-Down/Bottom-Up (Symbiotic View): (Neisser: Marr) who say we use both top-down
and bottom-up information processes in the perception of our reality. Nature and nurture both
play a part. Both enhance perception individually and collectively. When one perceptual process,
or aspect of it is impaired, the other process, or an aspect of it, ‘fills in’ or compensates to give us
at the end of the day the best individual understanding of the image/object/event as possible.
Symbiotic processing is best explained in the area of visual perception using Marr’s Computer
Analogywhere he says we extract visual information from an image/object/event in four stages
and put this all together again in the brain in what he calls a symbolic representation of the
stimulus. Marr’s computational model as an explanation of visual perception is illuminating in
that it helps emphasise the role of both bottom-up and top-down processing independently,
collectively and integratively of each other.

Marr’s Computer Analogy

Marr’s (1982) 4 Module Computational
Theory Of Vision

In an attempt to understand the

complex make-up of our visual
perception David Marr (1982) thinks
neural activity transforms sensory
(essentially visual) stimulation into our
experience of reality. This is done
gradually, by extracting and
deconstructing specific information
from the object we ‘see’, in four stages
and then putting all this information
together again in our attempt to
recognise and understand what is we
are (visually) perceiving. This he calls
a symbolic representation.

The Image Or Grey-level Description

Represented by the intensity of light at each point in the retinal image. This allows us to discover
the boundaries of and regions in the image. Marr thinks our ability to identify boundaries and
regions on this basis is the beginning of visual perception.

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Primal Sketch
Here Marr says we go on to identify surface markings, object boundaries and markings using the
gestalt principles of grouping.

2½-D Sketch
A third stage where in the deconstruction of an image we give it depth and orientation. It is not
yet 3-D. Object recognition needs the input matched against memory so that non-visible points are
accounted for (perceptual constancy).

3-D Model Representation

The nature and construction of the object is at this final stage confirmed/denied using higher level
top-down processing functions and abilities. This gives rise to a symbolic representation of our
visual reality and is for Marr true object recognition.

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Perceptual Constancy
So far we have identified that perception depends upon bodily structures and processes; our
innate principles of gestalten and us imposing three dimensional meaning on two dimensional
visual experience on the basis of expectations, culture and experience; sometimes wrongly!
Perception is influenced by all these factors working individually and together. Where this all
ultimately happens is within the human brain centring on the hypothalamus in particular.

We also have a perceptual ability (called together perceptual constancies), which helps us to
perceive our world. Where our perceptual constancies of size, shape, brightness and depth come
from is not fully understood. Cognitive psychologists disagree as to whether they come about as a
consequence of our biology and genetic inheritance (nature) or as the result of learning and
experience (nurture). As far as depth constancy is concerned, there is good psychological
evidence to suggest that depth perception is innate.

Perceptual constancy is our ability to perceive sameness of visual stimuli even when the
sensory evidence is to the contrary. We have a perceptual constancy in the four areas below
which also help us make sense of our perceptual world.
1. Size
2. Shape
3. Brightness
4. Depth

Perceptual constancies occur when

our brains correct or modify our
rapidly changing sensory inputs to
give us a more constant perception
of the world. For example, size
constancy ensures that as we watch a
friend walk off into the distance,
although the image of the person
projected onto our retina is rapidly
decreasing in size, we do not perceive
that our friend is actually shrinking!
The knowledge that as the proximal
stimulus (the internal sensory image)
changes, the distal stimulus (the
external object being perceived) does
not, allows us to correct our sensations
and maintain constant perceptions.

Cognitive psychology has over the years had three theories about perception. It is in the area of
perceptual constancies that much supporting evidence to which theory is the more acepted has
emerged.
These theories are summarised overleaf.

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Perceptual Organisation: Factors Influencing Perception
Size Constancy
As previously explained, size constancy refers to the fact that although retinal images of objects
get smaller as the object recedes into the distance, we perceive that the object does not change in
size.

Taking size constancy into account the constructivist view of perception maintains that size
constancy develops because we learn through experience that objects do not actually shrink as
they move away from us. Some cross-cultural evidence is consistent with this view, in that
sometimes people from the dense jungle or heavily wooded regions, who are not accustomed to
viewing objects at a distance, mistakenly perceive distant objects as being very small. Ecological
direct-perception theory on the other hand maintains that size constancy occurs as a direct result
of the information taken in by our senses and that failure to conserve size results only when the
situation does not provide us with enough direct sensory information.

Shape Constancy
Shape constancy, is our ability, innate or learned, to perceive the shape of an object as being
constant even although our retinal image of the object is changing. An example of this would be
the chalkboard at the front of your class. Regardless of where you are sitting we all perceive the
chalkboard as a rectangular shape despite the fact that we all have different retinal images of it
depending upon where we are sitting. Constructivists, or top-down theorists, see shape constancy
coming about as a product of learning in our environment whereas bottom-up theorists see shape
constancy as being somehow innate and part of the experience of sensation.

Brightness Constancy
Lightness, or brightness constancy refers to our perceptual ability to adapt to the situation where
the illumination (brightness) of an object changes but we continue to perceive it’s brightness and
colour as the same or constant. A white sheet of paper first perceived in bright sunlight will still
appear white and of approximately the same shade when later perceived by us under the shade
of a tree. Constructivists (top-down theory) explains brightness constancy in our learnt
knowledge that objects do not change their ‘brightness’ as lighting conditions change. Ecological
theory takes a bottom-up explanation of brightness constancy. It says that enough information is
present in the sensory experience itself to allow us to maintain a constant (lightness) perception
of the object.
Which is more accurate is very difficult to ascertain. Because babies cannot communicate very
well when born, we have little way of knowing if these constancies are present from birth, or
learned (however quickly), as the result of experience. We may find a more accurate explanation
of the origins of perceptual constancies in an examination of depth perception.

Depth Perception
An awareness of depth perception will help us understand why it is we visually sense the world
in two dimensions (like a photograph) but perceive what we see in three dimensions!
This is demonstrated below:

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This is a 2D diagram called an Impossible Triangle. It is obviously two-dimensional. Are you
currently experiencing it in three dimensions? If so, why? Shut one eye. Do you still experience
this in 3D? If you are this definitely contradicts direct perception bottom-up theory as an
explanation perception. Why is this the case?
Without depth perception we would find (among other things) walking, reaching driving and
playing games difficult. We see depth in our visual world because of

i) monocular depth cues and ii) binocular depth cues.

Monocular depth cues
Monocular depth cues come about due to seeing the world with one eye; or our two individual
eyes singularly…think about it!!
Even if we visually experience our world with one eye, and the image which is striking our retina
is definitely two-dimensional, where things are in our visual field allow us understand or perceive
our world in three dimensions. Monocular depth cues include things like interposition, linear
perspective and relative size.

Interposition
One monocular depth cue we call Interposition. Interposition is the monocular cue we use to
perceive depth when we see a scene where one object is partially obscuring another. The object
we can fully see we perceive as nearer than the partially obscured object - which we perceive as
behind. If your teacher or lecturer sits down behind their desk we can adjudge that the desk is
nearer you than they are: you can fully see the desk and only the top half of their body. The
interposition of the desk and the teacher/lecturer is here a monocular depth cue.

Linear Perspective
Linear perspective is another monocular depth cue. If we see two parallel lines converge into one
another in the distance, this tells us about depth. This is easily demonstrated in a railway station.
When it is safe look down at the railway lines. They are parallel to one another. Now look up the
track and you will see the rails converge (come in on one another). This is linear perspective. If
we see this happening this is a monocular cue to depth or distance. Linear perspective can even
work in two dimensions i.e.

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Which of the two horizontal lines above is larger? The one at the top or the one at the bottom?
Measure them. What do you find? Why did you perceive what you did?

Relative Size
Relative size is another cue for monocular depth. Relative size occurs when we see two objects,
like two houses, against their backgrounds in our visual field. We see in two dimensions, that one
house is smaller than the other. Indeed the 2D visual information we receive about the smaller of
the two houses would appear to suggest it is the size of a match-box! This is not the case. We
perceive on the basis of relative size that the visually smaller house is further away from us. The
larger of the two we perceive as nearer. If you are out hillwalking you become absolutely certain
that the smaller a hill is when looked at in comparison to others in your visual field the further
away it will be!

Binocular Depth Cues

Binocular depth cues are easy to understand. Binocular depth cues come about due to the fact we
have two eyes. Binocular cues to depth in our visual field result because each of our eyes receives
a slightly different picture of the same scene. Our nose sees to that.
The dual and overlapping picture we get as a result is called stereopsis. Stereopsis give us
binocular cues to depth because most of us enjoy binocular (two eye) vision. We can lose the
ability for binocular depth cues to our visual world due to a blow to the head (that gives us double
vision) or damage to the eye due to strabismus (squints), etc. Sports people generally have
excellent binocular vision. You will find that professional sports people whose game involves a
ball of some description are usually excellent at other ball sports they take as a ‘hobby’. The world
famous snooker player, Stephen Hendry is an excellent golfer. The goalkeeper Andy Goram has
Scottish caps for both football and cricket. Ian Botham played both professional cricket and
professional football.
If we have two eyes, when objects get closer to us, each eye turns inwards. As objects, or
percepts, move further away each eye turns outwards. The brain interprets this as a binocular
cue to how near or how far the percept (image/object) is from us. This inward and outward
movement of our eyes in response to how near or how far a percept is from us is called binocular
convergence.
Because each eye has a slightly different view of the same visual world, this similar, but different
information is also used to judge depth. The closer each retinal image (or picture) is to one
another, the nearer our brain interprets an object is to us. This is called binocular disparity.

24
We therefore achieve depth perception due to monocular and binocular depth cues. Monocular
depth cues comes from our visual environment. Binocular depth cues arise because we have two
eyes.The biology of the human body gives rise to binocular depth cues. Our external environment
gives us monocular depth cues.

Interposition

Monocular Depth Cues Relative Size

Linear Perspective
Depth Perception

Binocular Convergence
Binocular Depth Cues
Binocular Disparity

Perception: Conclusion
Perception is our way of successfully monitoring what is happening around us in our
environment. In order to do this we firstly use our senses, of which there are at least five. All our
senses have physiological properties which convert one type of external energy into electrical
energy. Cross-modal transfer (the co-ordination and transfer) of sensory information allows us to
very quickly sense what is happening around us. Our senses send electrical impulses to our brain,
the intensity and degree of signals being translated by our brain ‘telling’ us what it is we are
experiencing. Our perception of sensory experience often involves, and is influenced by, all our
cognitive processes: perception; attention; language; memory and thinking.
Perception is selectively sensing something plus the brains ability to integrate, interpret and
understand this sensory input on the basis of meaningful past experience - which forms, affects
and influences attention; language; memory and thinking. Cognitive processes are individually
and collectively our higher level (brain) functions. They influence perception as perception
influences them.
Three theories exist to explain perception. One advocates a ‘nature’ explanation of perception; the
other advocates the contribution of ‘nurture’. The third takes an essentially nature and nurture
position on the explanation of perception. Bottom up theorists like JJ Gibson say we interpret
experiences directly using our senses alone. We perceive our reality directly. Our senses analyse
stimuli into basic features i.e. the biology and physiology of the eye allows features of objects such
as colour; motion; orientation; light and darkness to be interpreted by the brain as ultimately
meaning something. Bottom-up theory is lacking. It cannot explain, for example why we perceive
illusions. Direct visual evidence of reality is in conflict with our perception of reality. Another
theory of perception, top-down processing, as put forward by for example RL Gregory may help
better explain perception. Top-down processing says we make our perceptual reality out of bits of
sensory information. We perceive our reality indirectly. This process is guided by higher level
functions and psychological factors like expectation; culture; experience and motivation.
Perception for Gregory is therefore top-down.

25
A kind of compromise theory is a third theory of perception called symbiotic processing. Those
who favour an explanation of perception on the basis of symbiotic processing would include
Neisser and Marr. Symbiotic processing theory sees a place for both bottom-up (from the senses)
and top-down (from the brain) theories of perception. When one type of perceptual process, or
aspect of it is impaired, the other process, or an aspect of the other process ‘fills in’ or
compensates to give us, at the end of the day, as good an understanding of the stimulus as
possible.Symbiotic processing is best illustrated in the area of visual perception using Marr’s
Computer AnalogyMarr’s Computer Analogy says we take visual information from an
image/object/event in four stages and put it all together again in the brain in what he calls a
symbolic representation of the stimulus. Marr’s computational model as an explanation of visual
perception is helpful in that it helps emphasise the role of both bottom-up and top-down
processing integratively and independently. Top-Down/Bottom-Up processes working together
both contribute, in an enriched way, to our understanding of the fascinating topic of perception.

26
Glossary: Perception
attention: our higher level cognitive process which allows us to focus on selected aspects of our
environment.
absolute thresholds: the value given to a stimulus when we can detect it 50% of the time. The
threshold at which we can notice a stimulus e.g. the smell of food differs among and between
people, and can be affected by an individuals physical state; time of day; motivation; the way the
stimulus is presented etc.
auditory sense: this sense comes to us via our ear. Our ear is our organ of hearing and balance. It
is composed of three parts - external, middle, and internal - the greater part of which is enclosed
within the temporal bone. Within the inner ear the disposition and orientation of endolymph
helps us experience our sense of balance.
autonomic nervous system (ANS): part of our body and bodily processes which controls organs
and glands. It is linked to our central nervous system (CNS) or brain and spine.
binocular convergence: occurs as our eyes turn inwards when something gets closer to us. It is a
binocular depth cue.
binocular disparity: another binocular cue to depth: it occurs because we get two slightly
different and overlapping images of the same scene. This information when processed in the
visual cortex is a valuable binocular depth cue.
binocular depth cues: the clues to depth we get because of the unique biological and
physiological properties of our eyes.
bipolar cells: a second layer in the retina, these cells are connected to our rods and cones and
help relay information to the visual cortex in our brain.
brain: the organ concerned with consciousness. Consciousness is our awareness plus perception;
attention; language; thinking and memory) and the overall control of the body.
cognitive maps: an animal. such as a rats, ability to actively learn from it’s experiences.
Edward Tolman (1930) in his rats in mazes experiment discovered that rats formed these in order
to make them more efficient and effective in their environment. The human equivalent is called a
neural network.
cognitive processes: a collective term for perception; attention; language; memory and thinking.
complex cells: these cells in our visual cortex which respond to lines of particular orientation of
a stimulus wherever found in our visual field.
cones: photosensitive transducer cells which convert light energy into electrical nerve impulses.
Around 7M of these allow us to experience chromatic (colour vision). Different types respond to
the three primary colours of red; green and blue. This is because of the different wavelengths
each of these colours have. Various mixtures of red, green and blue allow us to experience all the
colours found in the colour spectrum.
constructivist View: a theory of indirect perception put forward by RL Gregory
and Jerome Bruner which says our perceptual system must often make a reality indirectly out of
bits of sensory information due to the absence of other information. The constructivist view is
better known as top-down processing.
ecological View: a theory of direct perception put forward by JJ Gibson and the Gestalt school
which says where it is said we perceive most clues from our environment directly and without
interpretation (we perceive ‘exactly’ what we see/hear/smell/touch and taste). The ecological view
is popularly known as bottom-up processing.
experimental method: the scientific practice of gathering hard empirical data characterised by
the experimenter’s ability to control and alter variables.

27
figure & ground: a perceptual ability where we allocate one aspect of a stimulus to the
foreground (front: figure) and another aspect of it to the background (ground).
ganglion cells: the third layer of the retina these cell fibres (axons) help form the beginnings of
the optic nerve. Three types of this type of cell ‘fire’ in response to the contours and movement of
objects in our visual array or field of vision.
Gestalt psychology: a school or an approach founded in Germany in the early part of the 20th
century by Kohler; Koffka and Wertheimer. Gestalt psychology, believes we have a innate
disposition to see objects using our inbuilt principles of grouping, or Gestalten. What gestalten
means is our innate ability to construct our world in terms of organised ‘wholes’. The principles
behind gestalten are captured by their Law of Pragnänz which is us, the organism’s, innate way of
perceiving things in terms of symmetry; uniformity and stability.
gestalten: innate principles of grouping which human beings have which help us organise our
perceptual world. Individual gestalten are - proximity (objects that are close together are
perceived by us as a ‘whole’; similarity (similar objects are perceived by us as belonging to the
same group): continuity (sensations which create a continuous form are perceived by us as
belonging together): closure (where we fill in contours/gaps in stimuli to form a complete whole in
order to make perceptual sense of it): texture (objects of the same texture are perceived as
belonging to the same group): simplicity (where we group stimulus features together in a way that
gives us the simplest interpretation of our world): common fate (where individual objects moving
together at the same rate are perceived by us as a group):
gustatory sense: taste, another of the five senses, affected by the contact of soluble substances on
our tongue
hypercomplex cells: these cells found in our visual cortex deal with the length of visual stimuli.
hypothetical constructs: a term given to names psychologists give to things which do not exist in
reality. You cannot yet go into a chemist and ask for 250mg of ‘id’!
introspection: asking people to think about, describe and explain the affect a stimulus has on
them. It is subjective self-report which is not a very scientific method of enquiry.
interposition: a monocular depth cue It is the monocular cue to depth we use when we see one
object partially obscuring another. The object we can fully see we perceive as nearer than the
partially obscured object - which we perceive as behind.
iris: the coloured part of our eye.
kinaesthetic sense: a ‘sixth’ sense from within our own bodies which tells us about movement, or
the feel of our muscles or joints. This sense tells us about balance.
language: a very important cognitive process which allows us to communicate with others. It
depends on biological maturation of the brain i.e. Wernicke’s area, Broca’s area.
lens: the part of our eye which operates like a camera held in place by suspensory ligaments. It
focuses light on the retina as an inverted or upside down image.
linear perspective: another monocular depth cue. If we see two parallel lines converge into one
another in the distance this cue tells us about depth.
memory: this cognitive process allows us to keep and remember information about
events and experiences in our life.
monocular depth cues: the clues to depth we get from our external environment.
motivation: concerns what prompts us to action or to behave in a particular way.
It can effect our perception of objects, events, people stimuli etc. as a result of both our internal
biology and external environment.
nature-nurture debate: a argument concerning whether we can be explained wholly from the
point of view of our biology or genetics or whether we are as we are as the result of experiences
in our environment i.e. the way we are brought up. In many instances in psychology where the

28
debate arises e.g. intelligence or personality neither of the two views are correct. Our intelligence
and our personality are the consequence of our genetics and environment working together.
neural network: formed by human beings as a result of their experiences in their environment.
It is the outcome of all our cognitive processes working together as influenced by our experiences.
The animal equivalent, called a cognitive map, was discovered by Edward Tolman (1930) in his
rats in mazes experiment.
olfactory sense: smell, is one of the five senses by which odours are perceived. The nose,
equipped with olfactory nerves, is the special organ of smell.
optic chiasma: where each optic nerve converges and crosses over. Information from our right
eye goes to the left visual cortex and information from our right eye goes to the left visual cortex.
optic nerve: the visual pathway from each eye to the visual cortex in our brain.
organisms: behaviourist term for humans and animals.
perception: a key cognitive process, is our way of successfully monitoring what is happening
around us in our environment using our senses, innate abilities and previous past experience to
make sense of our world.
perceptual constancies: those abilities we have to make our world constant i.e. size, shape,
brightness and depth. They arise due to our biology; genetics and experience.
perceptual set: is unconsciously used by us to perceive what we perceive as a result of
expectations; culture; experience and motivation ie the cat sat on the map.
psychophysics: a topic within psychology researching into the relationship and interface
between a physical stimulus and our subjective experience of it. First popularised by see Wilhelm
Wundt, 1879 with his study into perception using introspection.
pupil: is the black circle at the centre of each of our eyes. The pupil controls the amount of light
taken in by the eye. It gives us our ability to see (not too well) in the dark.
relative size: another monocular depth cue. We apply it when we see two objects, like two
houses, against their backgrounds in our visual field. We see in two dimensions, that one house is
smaller than the other. We perceive however that in reality this is not the case.
retina: this structure is found at the back of the eye upon which the images we see are thrown.
rods: photosensitive transducer cells which convert light energy into electrical nerve impulses.
Over 120M of them help us see in ever decreasing light.
Rubin’s Vase: a famous illusion in psychology which demonstrates the perceptual ability of
figure-ground: even in two dimensions. Our perceptual processes try with this 2D image to put
some aspect of the stimuli to the ‘front’ or foreground (figure) and another aspect to the
meaningless background (ground). What you perceive above, a vase or faces is related to
expectations; culture; experience of the stimuli and motivation.
sensation: a sensory process explaining how we receive information from our environment in
the first place.
Senses: the means by which we receive information from our external world i.e. sight, hearing,
touch, taste, smell.
simple cells: these cells in our visual cortex respond to simple features of a stimulus i.e. straight
lines; edges; slits etc. when found in a particular orientation, or way-up, in our visual field.
stereopsis: the dual and overlapping visual picture we get when seeing. It is responsible for
binocular vision.
stimuli: an event or feeling which prompts some response from us i.e. swearing when you burn
your finger!
survey: a research method often used in social psychology to gather data about attitudes etc.
based on replies to standardised written questions.

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tactile sense: touch, is one of our five senses, allowing for our perception of pressure, touch,
temperature (principally temperature change), pain, and hair movement.
thinking: a complex ‘whole-brain’ cognitive process which allows us to problem-solve in our
environment.
Tolman: a soft behaviourist famous for his rats in mazes experiment (1930) which led to the
belief that humans are active, as opposed to passive, learners.
Top-Down/Bottom-Up Symbiotic View: a theory of perception which brings together aspects of
top-down and bottom-up theories of perception. Advocated by the likes of Neisser it says we use
the most appropriate of the above two processes depending on the situation we find ourself in.
The two processing models work together. When one type of perceptual process, or aspect of it is
impaired, the other process, or an aspect of the other process compensates.
vision: in many respects our key sense. It is the most studied information process by cognitive
psychologists. This sense comes to us via our eyes, the structure and location of which allow us to
perceive our world in 3 dimensions; sense colour; sense depth etc.
percepts: the objects/images/events we perceive.

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