PSYC 3350 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Optical Illusion, Counterfactual Thinking, Ponzo Illusion

• School: University of Guelph
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 3350
• Professor: Saba Safdar

Document Summary

Cognition: mental processes to transform sensory input knowledge: sensation, perception, attention. Previous definitions of culture defined it as norms, opinions, beliefs, values and worldviews shared by a group and transmitted across generations. Contemporary definitions are also cognitive: culture is a knowledge system. Priming: used to determine if one stimulus affects another: i. e. primed on individualism/collectivism produce diff behaviours. Microsaccades: micro eye movements that help our brains fill in scenes so it looks like we can see everything. Mueller-lyer illusion: view line with arrowheads pointing in as longer even though they are same length: most say vertical line is longer, i. e. Ponzo illusion: horizontal line closer to origin of diagnolas is longer but they are same length. Carpentered world theory: theory of perception that people (most. Americans) are used to seeing things that are rectangular in shape so unconsciously expect things to have square corners. Front-horizonal foreshortening theory: we interpret vertical lines as horizontal lines extending into distance.