PSY 403 - Sensation & Perception

PSY 403 - Sensation & Perception
Form Perception

Agenda

Visual Form Perception

Theories of Form Perception

Visual Form Perception
(pattern perception)

3 Processes

Detection

Discrimination

Identification

Major Theories of Form Perception

Structuralist Theory (Edward Titchener, early 1900’s)

Gestalt Theory of Form Perception

Spatial Frequency Theory

Strucutralist Theory

Goal is to Identify

Simple sensations, -- fundamental units

Laws through which small units are combined

Research Methodology: Analytic Introspection

list the various "sensations" elicited by an object.

Problems

Gestalt Theory of Form Perception

Wertheimer (1889-1943)

‘whole is different than the sum of its parts’

example: Phi Phenomenon (1912)

Kurt Koffka (1886-1941)

Wolfgang Kohler (1886-1941)

psychophysical isomorphism (1947)

Gestalt Laws of Organization

Pragnanz (law of good figure)

Figure-Ground Segregation

Spatial frequency Theory
(Multi-Channel Model)
4 Components to Form Perception

Spatial frequency: number of cycles per degree of visual angle

Contrast

Orientation