PERCEPTION

DEPTH PERCEPTION

 The ability to perceive the world in three dimensions.

 It’s a handy ability because without it you would have a hard time

judging how far away objects are.

 Our impressive ability to judge depth and distance exists because we

make use of many different cues in forming such judgments.

 We make use of information, or cues, in the sensory input to generate

the three-dimensional world that we see.

 DEPTH PERCEPTION

What are the cues we use to see depth &

distance?
 DEPTH PERCEPTION

 Monocular Cues – Cues for perceiving depth based on one eye only.

 Binocular Cues – Cues for perceiving depth based on both eyes.

 Monocular cues are often referred to as pictorial depth cues

because artists can use these cues to give the illusion of depth to

paintings and drawings.

MONOCULAR CUES FOR DEPTH PERCEPTION
MONOCULAR CUES FOR DEPTH
PERCEPTION
 MONOCULAR CUES

Examples of monocular cues include –

• Linear Perspective
• Relative Size
• Interposition (Overlap)
• Aerial (Atmospheric Perspective)
• Texture Gradient
• Motion Parallax
• Accommodation
• Clearness
• Shadows
 LINEAR PERSPECTIVE

 Linear Perspective – A monocular depth

perception cue; the tendency for parallel
lines to appear to converge on each other in
the distance.

 The greater this effect, the farther away an

object appears to be.

 When looking down a long interstate

highway, the two sides of the highway
appear to merge together in the distance.
 LINEAR PERSPECTIVE

 The distances separating the images of far

objects appear to be smaller.

 Imagine that you are standing between

railroad tracks.

 The tracks seem to run closer & closer

together until they appeared to meet at the
horizon.

 Converging lines indicate that the “ends” of

the lines are a great distance away from where
the people are as they view them.
 RELATIVE SIZE

 Perception that occurs when objects that

people expect to be of a certain size appear
to be small & are therefore assumed to be
much farther away.

 The depth cue of relative size appears in this

photograph.

 Notice that the flowers in the distance appear

much smaller than those in the foreground.

 Relative size causes smaller objects to be

perceived as farther away from the viewer.
 RELATIVE SIZE – SIZE CUES

 The larger the image of an object on the retina, the larger it is

judged to be.

 In addition, if an object is larger than other objects, it is often

perceived as closer.
 INTERPOSITION (OVERLAP)

 Interposition (Overlap) – A monocular

depth perception cue; the assumption that an
object that appears to be blocking part of
another object is in front of the second object
& is closer to the viewer.

 If one object overlaps another, it is seen as

being closer than the one it covers.

 When looking down a long interstate highway,

the two sides of the highway appear to merge
together in the distance.
 AERIAL (ATMOSPHERIC
PERSPECTICVE)
 Aerial Perspective – A monocular depth
perception cue; the perception of greater
distance due to the haziness that surrounds
distant objects due to the tiny particles of dust,
dirt, & other pollutants.

 The farther away objects are, the less distinctly

they are seen—smog, dust, haze get in the
way.

 The shed & the grassy area in the foreground

are in sharp focus while the mountain ranges
 TEXTURE GRADIENT

 Texture Gradient– A monocular depth

perception cue; the tendency for textured
surfaces to appear to become smaller &
finer as distance from the viewer increases.
 If there are any large expanses of pebbles,
rocks, or patterned roads (such as a
cobblestone street) nearby, go take a look at
them one day.
 The pebbles or bricks close to you are very
distinctly textured, but as you look farther
off into the distance, their texture becomes
smaller and finer.
 TEXTURE GRADIENT

 Texture Gradient– A monocular depth

perception cue; the tendency for textured
surfaces to appear to become smaller &
finer as distance from the viewer increases.
 If there are any large expanses of pebbles,
rocks, or patterned roads (such as a
cobblestone street) nearby, go take a look at
them one day.
 The pebbles or bricks close to you are very
distinctly textured, but as you look farther
off into the distance, their texture becomes
smaller and finer.
 TEXTURE GRADIENT

 The texture of a surface appears smoother as distance increases.

 A gradient is a continuous change in something – a change without

abrupt transitions.

 The regions closest to the observer have a coarse texture & many
details.

 As the distance increases, the texture becomes finer & finer.

 MOTION PARALLAX
 Monocular depth perception cue; the
perception of motion of objects in which
close objects appear to move more quickly
than objects that are far away.

 The next time you’re in a car, notice how the

objects outside the car window seem to zip
by very fast when they are close to the car,
and objects in the distance, such as
mountains, seem to move more slowly.

 This discrepancy in motion of near & far

objects is called motion parallax.
 MOTION PARALLAX
When we travel in a vehicle, objects far away appear to move in the
same direction as the observer, whereas close objects move in the
opposite direction.

Objects at different distances appear to move at different velocities.

Objects nearer to you than the spot at which you are looking – the
fixation point – move in a direction opposite to the direction in which
your head is moving.

Objects more distant than the fixation point move in the same
direction as your head moves.

The direction of movement of objects when we turn our heads can be

a cue for the relative distance of objects.
 ACCOMODATION

 A monocular cue of depth perception.

 The brain’s use of information about the

changing thickness of the lens of the eye in
response to looking at objects that are close
or far away.

 The lens of the human eye is flexible & held

in place by a series of muscles.

 Visual accommodation - Tendency of the

lens to change its shape, or thickness, in
 CLEARNESS

 A monocular cue of depth perception.

 A distant mountain appears farther away

on a hazy day than it does on a clear day
as haze in the atmosphere blurs fine
details & we can see only the larger
features.

 If we can see the details, we perceive an

object as relatively close.

 If we can see only its outline, we perceive

 SHADOWS

 The pattern of shadows or highlights in an

object is important in giving an impression
of depth.

 When this aerial picture of Quonset huts is

turned upside down, they look like towers.

 Shadows are responsible for this effect.

 This is because we are accustomed to light

coming from above.

 The perception is based on whether or not

the dark areas appear to be shadows.
 BINOCULAR CUES

 Binocular Cues – Cues to depth or distance resulting from the fact

that we have two eyes.

 Binocular cues give us depth information based on the

coordinated efforts of both eyes.

 Binocular cues for depth perception stem from two primary sources:

• Convergence

• Retinal Disparity
 CONVERGENCE

 Another muscular cue, convergence, refers to

the rotation of the two eyes in their sockets to

focus on a single object.

 If the object is close, the convergence is pretty

great (almost as great as crossing the eyes).

 In order to see close objects, our eyes turn

inward, toward one another.

 The greater this movement, the closer such

 BINOCULAR OR RETINAL DISPARITY

 Binocular Depth Perception Cue. The

difference in images between the two eyes,
which is greater for objects that are close &
smaller for distant objects.

 Our two eyes observe objects from slightly

different positions in space.

 The brain interprets the images on the

retina to determine distance from the eyes.
 BINOCULAR CUES
 If the two images are very different, the object must be pretty close.
 If they are almost identical, the object is far enough away to make
the retinal disparity very small.
 PERCEPTUAL CONSTANCIES: STABILITY IN
THE FACE OF CHANGE

 Constancies – Our tendency to perceive aspects of the world or

physical objects as unchanging despite changes in the sensory

input we receive from them .

 As individual as perception might be, some similarities exist in how

people perceive the world around them.

 As such, there are some circumstances during which stimuli are

seemingly automatically perceived in almost the same way by

 SIZE CONSTANCY
 Size Constancy, the tendency to interpret an object as always being the same
size, regardless of its distance from the viewer (or the size of the image it casts on
the retina).

 So if an object normally perceived to be about 6 feet tall appears very small on the
retina, it will be interpreted as being very far away.

 Consider, for example, seeing a friend you are meeting for lunch walking toward
you, though still several blocks away.

 Distant objects—including cars, trees, and people—cast tiny images on your retina.

 Yet you perceive them as being of normal size.

 Two factors seem to account for this tendency: size–distance invariance &
relative size.
 SIZE CONSTANCY

Size Distance Invariance – When estimating the size of an object, we

take into account both the size of the image it casts on our retina & the
apparent distance of the object.

From these data we instantly calculate the object’s size.

Relative Size— A visual cue based on the comparison of the size of an

unknown object to objects of known size.

This mechanism is especially useful for estimating the size of unfamiliar

things.
 SHAPE CONSTANCY

 Shape Constancy – The tendency to

perceive a physical object as having a
constant shape even when the image it
casts on the retina changes.
 For example, all of us know that coins
are round; yet we rarely see them that
way.
 Flip a coin into the air: Although you
continue to perceive the coin as being
round, the image that actually falls onto
your retina constantly shifts from a
circle to various forms of an ellipse.
 BRIGHTNESS CONSTANCY
Brightness Constancy – The tendency to perceive the
apparent brightness & colour of an object as the same even
when the light conditions change.

For example, if a person is wearing black pants & a white

shirt in broad day- light, the shirt will appear to be much
brighter than the pants.

But if the sun is covered by thick clouds, the shirt will still
appear to be just as much brighter than the pants as before
—because the different amount of light reflected from each
piece of clothing is still the same difference as before.
 BRIGHTNESS CONSTANCY

Brightness Constancy – As long as the changes in lighting

remain constant for both object & surroundings, the neural
message reaching the brain is unchanged.

Brightness constancy breaks down, however, when changes in

lighting are not equivalent for both the object and its
surroundings.
 ILLUSIONS

Exactly what are illusions & why is it so easy

to be fooled by them?
 ILLUSIONS

An illusion is a perception that does not correspond to reality.

People think they see something when the reality is quite

different.

Illusions are instances in which perception yields false

interpretations of sensory information or physical reality.

Another way of thinking of illusions is as visual stimuli that “fool”

the eye.
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ILLUSIONS & HALLUCINATIONS

What is the key difference between illusions &

hallucinations?

An illusion is a distorted perception

of something really there, but a
hallucination originates in the brain,
not in reality.
 ILLUSIONS – WHEN PERCEPTION FAILS
There are two types of illusions, those due to physical
processes & those due to cognitive processes –
• Illusions due to distortion of physical conditions include mirages,
in which you perceive things that aren’t really there, such as the water
you often seem to see on the dry road ahead of you.
• Illusions due to cognitive processes fall into two categories –
illusions of size & illusions of shape or area.
• Illusions are based on early sensory processes, subsequent
processing, or higher-level assumptions made by the brain’s
visual system.
 WHY DO ILLUSIONS OCCUR
Some evidence suggests that illusions have multiple causes –
• Theory of Misapplied Constancy - When looking at illusions, we
interpret certain cues as suggesting that some parts are farther away
than others .
• Our powerful tendency toward size constancy then comes into play,
with the result that we perceptually distort the length of various lines.
• Learning also plays an important role in illusions, as shown in the
architectural examples of the Müller–Lyer illusion .
• Past Experience also had an important role to play in illusions.
HERMANN GRID
 HERMANN GRID
One explanation for this illusion is attributed to the responses of
neurons in the primary visual cortex that respond best to bars of
light of a specific orientation.

Such neurons are called “simple cells” & were first discovered by David
Hubel & Torsten Wiesel .

Complex Cells – Respond to orientation & movement.

End-Stopped cells - Respond best to corners, curvature, or sudden

edges.

Collectively these cells have been referred to as feature detectors

because they respond to specific features of a stimulus.
 HERMANN GRID

The illusion may be due to a unique

function of how our visual system
processes information.
MULLER-LYER ILLUSION
MULLER-LYER ILLUSION
 MULLER-LYER ILLUSION

 Illusion of line length that is distorted by inward-turning or outward-turning

corners on the ends of the lines, causing lines of equal lengths to appear
to be different.
 MOON ILLUSION

 Moon Illusion – Moon on the horizon

appears to be much larger than the moon
in the sky.

 One explanation for this is that the moon

high in the sky is all alone, with no cues for
depth surrounding it.

 But on the horizon, the moon appears

behind trees & houses, cues for depth that
make the horizon seem very far away.
 APPARENT DISTANCE HYPOTHESIS

Because people know that objects that are farther away from them
yet still appear large are very large indeed, they “magnify” the
moon in their minds—a misapplication of the principle of size
constancy.
 ILLUSIONS OF MOTION

 Sometimes, people perceive an object as

moving when it is actually still.
 One example of this takes place as part of
a famous experiment in conformity called
the autokinetic effect.
 In this effect, a small, stationary light in a
darkened room will appear to move or drift
because there are no surrounding cues to
indicate that the light is not moving.
 ILLUSIONS OF MOTION

 Stroboscopic Motion – Seen in

motion pictures in which a rapid series
of still pictures will seem to be in
motion.
 Many a student has discovered that
drawing little figures on the edges of a
notebook & then flipping the pages
quickly will also produce this same
illusion of movement
 STROBOSCOPIC MOTION

 Apparent Motion – is movement perceived in the absence of physical

movement of an image across the retina.

 Stroboscopic motion, the kind seen in movies & on TV, is a common

example of apparent motion.

 A movie projector simply throws successive pictures of a moving scene

onto a screen.

 Each separate frame is a still picture slightly different from the

preceding one.

 When the frames are presented at the right speed, you perceive
continuous, smooth motion.
 STROBOSCOPIC MOTION

Why does stroboscopic motion occur?

Stroboscopic motion results from

information processing by the brain that
is similar to that which occurs when real
motion is perceived.
 STROBOSCOPIC MOTION

 In movies, the brain receives information from different parts of the

retina, just as it does when physical movement causes stimulation
to move across the retina.

 An object is first seen in one location, & then, very soon after,
appears at a slightly different part of the retina, just as it would if it
were actually moving.

 The brain interprets this information as movement, showing the role

of sensory-input processing in the perception of the world.
 ILLUSIONS OF MOTION

 Phi Phenomenon - Another movement illusion

related to stroboscopic motion, in which lights
turned on in sequence appear to move.
 For example, if a light is turned on in a
darkened room & then turned off, & then
another light a short distance away is flashed on
& off, it will appear to be one light moving
across that distance.
 This principle is used to suggest motion in many
theater marquee signs, flashing arrows
indicating direction that have a series of lights
going on and off in a sequence, & even in strings
of decorative lighting, such as the “chasing”
lights seen on houses at holiday times.
 ILLUSIONS OF MOTION

Why do we perceive motion in static images?

The debate about the causes for such

illusions, whether they begin in the eyes or
the brain, has been going on for at least 200
years
 ILLUSIONS OF MOTION

Explanations of motion illusions have been found to range from –

• Factors that depend on the image’s luminance and/or the
color arrangement.
• Slight differences in the time it takes the brain to process this
information.
• When fMRI & equipment used to track eye movements were
used to investigate participants’ perception of a illusion,
researchers found that there was an increase in brain activity
in a visual area sensitive to motion.
• This activity was greatest when accompanied by guided eye
movements, suggesting eye movements play a significant
role in the perception of the illusion.
WHAT DO YOU SEE WHEN YOU FOCUS ON
THE CENTRAL RING OF THIS IMAGE
 ILLUSIONS OF MOTION

Many people will see the rings start to “sparkle”

or the rings rotating. Why does this occur?

Special eye-tracking equipment to record even the

smallest of eye movements, revealed that tiny eye
movements called microsaccades, are directly
linked to the perception of motion in Enigma &
are at least one possible cause of the illusion.
 ILLUSIONS OF SHAPE
 Shape Illusions can influence perceptions –
sometimes producing some unsettling
consequences.
 Poggendorf Illusion - In this illusion, a line
disappears at an angle behind a solid figure,
reappearing at the other side—at what seems to
be an incorrect position.
 In 1965 two airplanes were about to arrive in New
York City, & because of the Poggendorf illusion,
they perceived that they were on a collision
course.
 Both pilots changed their path to correct for what
they perceived as an error, and thus the planes
collided.
 The result was four deaths and forty-nine injuries—
PONZO ILLUSION
 PONZO ILLUSION
 Ponzo Illusion is an optical illusion that was first
demonstrated by the Italian psychologist Mario Ponzo
in 1913.
 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 converging lines, similar to railway tracks.
 The upper line looks longer because we interpret the
converging sides according to linear perspective as
parallel lines receding into the distance.
 We interpret the upper line as though it were farther
away, so we see it as longer – a farther object would
have to be longer than a nearer one for both to
produce retinal images of the same size.
 ILLUSION OF TOUCH TEMPERATURE

 First, place one hand in a container of hot water and the other

hand in cold water.

 Then place both hands in a container of lukewarm water.

 What do you feel?

 ILLUSION OF TOUCH TEMPERATURE

 Most people experience a dramatic difference in perceived temperature

between the two hands

 The hand initially placed in hot water feels the lukewarm water as cool,

whereas the hand initially placed in cold water feels it as hot.

 How do we explain this illusion?

 ILLUSION OF TOUCH TEMPERATURE

 When we touch an object, the temperature of the area of our skin in

contact with it shifts toward that of the object’s surface.

 So when we perceive an object to be warm or cool, our experience stems

partly from the temperature difference between the object and our skin,

not solely from the actual temperature of the object.

WHICH LINE IS LONGER – THE VERTICAL OR
HORIZONTAL ONE?
 HORIZONTAL VERTICAL ILLUSION

 The Vertical–Horizontal Illusion is the

tendency for observers to overestimate the
length of a vertical line relative to a horizontal
line of the same length.

 As the perceived distance is larger than the

perceived distance of the horizontal line, the
vertical line appears longer.

 The increased effort to move our eyes up & down

rather than left to right makes the vertical line
WHAT IS THE SHAPE OF THE ROOM?
 THE AMES ROOM ILLUSION

 The illusion is influenced by our past

experiences & expectancies.

 The viewer perceives the room as a

rectangle, but in reality, it is a trapezoid

with angled walls & floor .

POWERFUL ILLUSIONS OF SIZE
 FACTORS INFLUENCING PERCEPTION

What are the factors that influence perception?

Human perception of the world is obviously

influenced by things such as culture and
misinterpretations of cues.
 FACTORS INFLUENCING PERCEPTION

The factors that influence perception are –

• Perceptual Set or Perceptual Expectancy

• Top-Down Processing

• Bottom-Up Processing

• Motives & Needs

• Perceptual-Cognitive Styles
 PERCEPTUAL SET OR PERCEPTUAL EXPECTANCY

Perceptual Set or Perceptual Expectancy – The tendency to

perceive things a certain way because previous experiences or
expectations influence those perceptions.

People often misunderstand what is said to them because they were

expecting to hear something else.

Although expectancies can be useful in interpreting certain stimuli,

they can also lead people down the wrong path.

What you see depends on what you expect to see.

 PERCEPTUAL SET OR PERCEPTUAL EXPECTANCY

The way in which people interpret what they perceive can

also influence their perception.

For example, people can try to understand what they perceive

by using information they already have (as is the case of
perceptual expectancy).
But if there is no existing information that relates to the new
information, they can look at each feature of what they
perceive and try to put it all together into one whole.

What you see depends on what you expect to see.

 TOP DOWN PROCESSING

The use of pre-existing knowledge to organize individual

features into a unified whole.

This is a form of perceptual expectancy.

Anyone who has ever worked on a jigsaw puzzle knows it’s a

lot easier to put it together if there is a picture of the finished
puzzle to refer to as a guide.
It also helps to have worked the puzzle before—people who
have done that already know what it’s going to look like when
it’s finished.
 BOTTOM-UP PROCESSING

The analysis of the smaller features to build up to a complete

perception .

If the puzzle is one the person has never worked before or if that person does
not have the picture, he or she would have to start with a small section, put it
together, & keep building up the sections until the recognizable picture
appears.

In this case, there is no expectancy to help organize the perception, making

bottom-up processing more difficult in some respects.

Fortunately, the two types of processing are often used together in perceiving
the surrounding world.