How sensory information is interpreted psychologically. Sensory organs and anatomy belong in The Senses; physical light phenomena belong in Optics.
Test your knowledge with these top questions!
Why does cold pool water feel less cold after a few minutes of swimming?
Cold receptors quiet down when temperature stays steady, freeing attention for swimming and surroundings.
People with the most common type of color blindness struggle to separate which two colors?
The genes for red-green color vision sit on the X chromosome, so this type affects far more men than women.
In Colin Cherry's headphone tests, listeners repeating one ear's message recall what about the other message?
Listeners could report the ignored voice's sound or gender but usually not what the voice said.
What does a just-noticeable difference measure in perception?
It marks the point where a change in weight, brightness, or sound first becomes detectable.
Under Gestalt similarity, why do fans wearing matching jerseys look like one group?
Similarity groups matching color, shape, or size, so uniforms signal one team at a glance.
After staring at a waterfall, why can still rocks nearby briefly appear to drift upward?
Staring adapts downward-motion detectors, so the balanced system briefly biases still scenes in the opposite direction.
Which Gestalt principle explains seeing a circle in a ring of broken dashes?
Closure lets the brain fill gaps, so dotted outlines still read as whole shapes.
In the Muller-Lyer arrow illusion, what is true about the two central lines?
A ruler shows matching shaft lengths; the inward or outward fins trick size judgment.
Which color vision test hides numbers inside circles of colored dots?
The plates are named for Japanese eye doctor Shinobu Ishihara, who designed them to catch red-green deficiency.
Why can spoked wagon wheels appear to spin backward in old Western movies?
Film samples motion about 24 times per second, so a spoke can advance nearly a full turn between frames and look reversed.