Learning Target:

Discuss how experience and culture can influence perceptual processes.
Discuss the role of attention in behavior.

AP psychology course and exam description, effective fall 2020. (n.d.). https://apcentral.collegeboard.org/media/pdf/ap-psychology-course-and-exam-description.pdf

Perception

Perception is the process of organizing, integrating, and interpreting sensory information into meaningful expressions. Also called top-down processing, it is how we relate data to our existing knowledge. Through perception, we disassemble our sensory experiences, and the brain reassembles them into recognizable models of our world. In other words, it helps us organize sensations. Sometimes we have a tough time interpreting what we see. This is called a perceptual illusion or the misperception of the true characteristics of an object or image.

image showing a perceptual illusion

Perceptual Organization

Psychologist Max Wertheimer pioneered the study of perception in an early school of psychology called Gestalt psychology. His study initially began in the principles of perception but later extended to other areas of psychology. In Gestalt psychology, emphasis is placed on the perception of a whole figure or object, rather than isolated bits or parts. The work of pioneering Gestalt psychologists established many of the perceptual principles we study today.

Figure-Ground Relationships

One important perceptual principle that psychologists examine is the figure-ground relationship. This deals with how we distinguish objects in our vision. We separate objects into figure-ground relationships. The figure is the main element or shape that stands out and is meaningful. The ground is usually less clearly defined, fuzzy, and further away. By studying feature detectors, researchers concluded that the brain responds differently to stimuli that create a figure vs. what is ground.

Test your figure-ground relationship perception in the activity below. What do you see?

Gestalt Psychiatry: Grouping

Gestalt psychologists studied how the perception of visual elements became organized in patterns, forms, and shapes. They believed that humans perceive stimuli in groups, rather than in individual parts. They identified several principles or laws that we use to organize patterns, shapes, and forms into whole objects.

Take a moment to watch this video on Gestalt principles of organization.

After reading this lesson and watching the video on Gestalt Principles, please take a moment to test your knowledge by matching the image with the correct principle.

Role of Attention in Behavior

In AP Psychology, attention refers to the process of selectively focusing on certain aspects of an environment while ignoring others. An individual's attention determines how they perceive, process, and respond to stimuli in their environment. Various aspects of behavior are influenced by attentional processes, including perception, memory, language, and problem-solving. During the learning process, it is important to focus on the relevant stimuli and ignore the distracting ones to ensure that the information is encoded and retrieved effectively. Several factors can also affect attention, such as motivation, emotion, and individual differences. For this reason, understanding how attention affects behavior and how it can be influenced and improved is essential for understanding how individuals interact with their environment.

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