Who founded the first experimental psychology lab?
Wilhelm Wundt (1879, Leipzig). He used introspection to study perception and sensation.
What did Wundt’s work show about perception?
That perception is a mental process that can be studied scientifically.
Who proposed perception as a subconscious inference?
Hermann von Helmholtz.
What did Helmholtz mean by ‘unconscious inference’?
The brain interprets sensory input based on prior experience to create meaning.
What philosophical view did Wundt and Helmholtz challenge?
Dualism – the belief that the mind and brain are separate and that the mind cannot be measured.
Define sensation.
The detection of sensory input, such as light or sound.
Define perception.
The interpretation or subjective experience of sensory input.
What process converts light into neural signals?
Transduction in the retina by photoreceptors.
What are the two main types of photoreceptors?
Rods (low light sensitivity) and cones (colour vision).
What is the function of cones?
Colour vision – three types (L, M, S) sensitive to red, green, and blue wavelengths.
What is the function of rods?
Detect light intensity for vision in dim light; no colour information.
Where do signals from the retina go next?
Bipolar cells → ganglion cells → optic nerve → brain.
What is the physiological blind spot?
The point where the optic nerve exits the retina; contains no photoreceptors.
How does the brain compensate for the blind spot?
Through perceptual filling-in, completing missing information based on context.
What is the neon colour spreading illusion?
An illusory perception of colour where none physically exists, showing the brain constructs colour.
What does the opponent process theory explain?
Colour aftereffects and colour perception via opposing channels (red-green, blue-yellow, black-white).
What is a colour aftereffect?
Viewing one colour for a long time causes perception of its opposite colour afterwards.
What is the gender face aftereffect?
Adaptation to male or female faces shifts perception of an androgynous face to the opposite gender.
What is selective attention?
The brain’s ability to focus on specific stimuli while ignoring others.
What are feature-based and spatial attention?
Feature-based = focus on attributes like colour; Spatial = focus on specific locations.
What is inattentional blindness?
Failure to notice unexpected objects when attention is focused elsewhere (e.g., ‘gorilla’ experiment).
What is colour constancy?
The brain’s ability to perceive an object’s colour as stable under different lighting conditions.
What causes colour constancy?
The brain estimates and adjusts for the colour of the light source (the illuminant).
What was ‘The Dress’ illusion?
Different assumptions about lighting caused people to perceive the same image as blue/black or white/gold.
