PSYC2274 Study Guide - Midterm Guide: Central Nervous System, Absolute Threshold, Visual Cortex
Document Summary
Perception is open to influences, such as memory and emotion. This is because the brain is constantly acting in trying to understand the world. The best example for this is illusions, where the brain actively makes associations between two different objects. An example of this would be bistable figures, where the image constantly flips between two things (such as the blue/black or gold/white dress from a few years ago). Illusions reveal that perception relies on both outside sensory input and inside assumptions. We make assumptions about things all the time, but the illusion occurs when we make an incorrect assumption. This is the idea that perception can vary even though stimulus stays the same (such as a bistable figure or an illusion). For instance, we may perceive a tiger to be partly hidden behind a tree, but we assume that the tiger is completely whole behind that tree and that all of its parts move together as one.
