Gibson & Gregory: theories of perception

Read the following information.

Describe Gibson’s direct theory of perception.

Refer to Hani in your answer.

Evaluate Gibson’s direct theory of perception.

Jess is travelling by train and has a window seat. She likes to watch the trees and buildings pass by through the window.

Explain why the speed of the passing trees and buildings helps Jess to perceive how far away they are.

Use your knowledge of motion parallax.

Read the following information.

Table 2 shows the results from the study.

Table 2 The number of times the distance was correctly estimated within one metre by participants viewing familiar and unfamiliar objects

Identify the dependent variable in this study.

The psychologist claimed that the results of this study allowed conclusions to be drawn about the influence of past experience on perception.

Outline one conclusion that the psychologist could draw.

Describe and evaluate Gibson’s direct theory of perception.

Describe Gregory’s constructivist theory of perception.

Read the following information.

Figure 1 shows the Müller-Lyer illusion. The two vertical lines labelled a and b are the same length but sometimes people incorrectly perceive that line b is longer than line a.

A psychologist investigated whether the environment in which people lived affected how they perceived the Müller-Lyer illusion. He tested two groups of participants; there were 50 participants in each group.

Group 1 lived in a city environment so were used to seeing square buildings around them. Group 2 lived in a rainforest environment so were not used to seeing square buildings around them.

He asked each participant if the two vertical lines were the same length.

The results of the study are shown in Table 1.

Table 1: The number of participants in each group who incorrectly perceived the Müller-Lyer illusion.

Calculate the percentage of participants in Group 2 who incorrectly perceived the Müller-Lyer illusion.

State your answer rounded to one significant figure. Show your workings.

What is the ratio of participants who incorrectly perceived the Müller-Lyer illusion in Group 1 compared to Group 2?

Write this ratio in its simplest form.

Outline one conclusion about the participants’ perception of the Müller-Lyer illusion that the researcher could draw from his results.

How can this conclusion be explained using Gregory’s constructivist theory of perception?

Briefly evaluate Gibson’s direct theory of perception.

People often incorrectly think the two horizontal lines in the Ponzo illusion are of different lengths.

Use your knowledge of Gregory’s constructivist theory of perception to explain the Ponzo illusion shown in Figure 1.

Outline Gibson’s direct theory of perception.