Retinal Disparity, Figure-Ground perception, and Interposition

Retinal Disparity- the brain compares an image from each eyeball and then computes the distance. The first picture shows the pencil from the view of the left eye while the second picture shows the view of the pencil from the right eye. From these two pictures, the brain determines that the pencil is very close.

 This picture demonstrates figure-ground perception which is the organization of the visual field into objects (figures) that stand out from their surroundings (ground). The letters B, S, and U are the figures while the orange wall is the ground.

 This picture demonstrates the monocular cue of interposition where if one object partially blocks our view of another, we perceive it as closer. The axe spray is perceived as closer because it partially blocks the view of the pumpkin.

Perception laws blog

Perception laws blog.

closure - we fill in gaps to create a complete, whole object.


below, we try to fill in the gaps to fill in the sun and the hawk.

continuity - we perceive smooth, continuous patterns rather than discontinuous ones.

here , we try to fill in the gaps so that we can have a smooth continuous pattern.

similarity - our mind tends to group things together that are similar to each other.

our mind will group all the black ones together, but will make the orange one distinguishable, this is used a lot by companies to advertise their product, to get ahold of their attention.

Perception Laws 2
Proximity: the tendency we have to group together objects that are nearby each other
          example: Constellations are no more than our perceptions of the stars. The stars of the big dipper are not related at all besides the fact that when connected they form the image of a dipper.

Monocular Cues (Linear Perspective): allows us to perceive the depth and 

distance of an object. A monocular cue is any depth cue that can be processed by using one eye alone. This is in contrast to binocular cues that require the use of both eyes to perceive distance and depth.

           Example: looking at a road in the distance, the road appears to grow narrower as it gets farther away, when in reality the road down there is the same width as the road you are currently on.

  Motion Perspective (Phi Phenomenon):  is the illusion of perceiving continuous motion between separate objects viewed rapidly in succession.

              Example: flip books are simply a number of images flipped in succession, which we perceive as a solid moving image, much like a film.

Perception Laws

Size constancy is the tendency of objects to keep the same apparent size even as they approach us or move farther away. 

Both men appear to be the same size even though one is closer than the other,

Shape constancy is when the shape of an object does not appear to change regardless of that object's orientation.

Both shapes are orientated differently but we know it is the same shape

Brightness constancy is the recognition of color stays the same regardless of how it looks under different brightness of light

Both the middle boxes look the same even though the background colors are different.