PERCEPTUAL CONSTANCIES- Brightness edition

                                Brightness Constancy 

What is it?

We perceive objects as being a constant color even as the light reflecting off the object changes. 

An example of this would be?

A sheet of white paper seen in the bright sunlight reflects a different amount of light than the same sheet of paper seen later that night in a darkly lighted room. Yet we perceive the paper as having the same whiteness in each scenario.

Perceptual Constancies - SIZE EDITION

                      PERCEPTUAL CONSTANCIES

What is size constancy?

Size constancy refers to our ability to see objects as maintaining the same size even when our distance from them makes them appear larger or smaller.

And what would be an example of this you may ask?

When you are standing in a long hallway, perhaps a school hallway, and one of your friends is standing closer to you than the other the one closest will appear larger when in fact they are the same size.

Figure-Ground Perception

Gestalt Rules of Perceptual Organization
There are many ways we view objects as a whole.

Figure-ground Perception
When looking at figure-ground perception, it is when we look at a figure in its back ground.  These words are the figure and the white background is what is represented behind the words. Whereas, if we look at the white as the figure and the words as the background it creates a different image.
These pictures are great examples of the figure-ground perception.


http://jenpearce.wordpress.com/

Do you see turtles or bells?


http://environmentalet.hypermart.net/psy111/sensperclinks.htm

Chalice or two faces?


In fact, when looking at this same picture years from now your brain will automatically see the faces right away because this perception is forever placed in your memory.

Rules of Perceptual Organization: Proximity

The rule of proximity states that objects that are near each other appear to be grouped together. In this picture, the brain sees one large group of 16 goldfish, and 2 separate groups 8 goldfish. This is due to the space in between the right cluster of 16 goldfish. The gap causes our brain to categorize them as separate 2 groups.

Rules of Perceptual Organization: Similarity

The similarity rule deals with the gestalt principle that we perceive things as a whole. Parts of a visual field that are similar to each other tend to be perceived as belonging together as a unit.  Objects that are similar in color or shape are usually perceived as belonging to the same group. The photo of goldfish above is a good example of similarity since we see 2 different patterns. The brain groups them together by the color and direction they are facing. When one looks at this picture, they pick out the columns of horizontal orange goldfish as being grouped together and the columns white vertical goldfish together. 

Closure

Gestalt Rules of Perceptual Organization
The rules represent different ways we view things as a whole.


Closure
We view objects that are closed together as a whole.  When there are gaps in between lines our mind automatically fills in those gaps to create the big picture.
Look at the picture.


http://graphicdesign.spokanefalls.edu/tutorials/process/gestaltprinciples/gestaltprinc.htm

Your brain automatically placed a line between the panda's ears and along his back. This is an example at how we view objects with the law of closure.

Motion Perception

Motion perception is the process of inferring the speed and direction of objects in a scene based on visual the visual field. In this picture, the mind automatically infers that the cars are driving towards the camera. The visual field shows the cars are on on the road and facing the camera, so the viewer can predict the direction and speed of the cars.

Monocular Cue

Texture Gradient: A gradual change from a coarse, district texture to a fine, indistinct texture signals increasing distance. Objects far away appear smaller and more densely packed. 

We perceive the more distant grass in this grassy field as more indistinct and more densely packed 

Monocular Cue

Relative size: if we assume that two objects are similar in size, we perceive the one that casts the smaller retinal image as farther away.

We perceive the orange pencil as farther away because it seems smaller, even though the pencils are the same size. 

Binocular Cue

Binocular Cue

Binocular Cue is a way to view depth.  It is the depth perception we have but requires two eyes to see the depth.

Stereopsis or Disparity
  By using two eyes, your eyes take two different pictures and over lap them allowing you to very accurately tell the distance from one object to another.

http://psych.hanover.edu/krantz/art/face.gif

This picture is an example of how disparity works. Place your nose on the screen. Relax your eyes. Slowly move your head back and you will see a face. If not, relax your eyes more!

Continuity

We perceive smooth, continuous patterns rather than discontinuous ones. 

Dominoes. 

Birds flying in a "V" pattern.