Size Constancy
Sensation and Perception - Size Constancy
As defined by the encyclopedia, “In psychology, sensation is the first stage in the biochemical and neurologic events that begins with the impinging of a stimulus upon the receptor cells of a sensory organ, which then leads to perception, the mental state that is reflected in statements like "I see a uniformly blue wall." In other words, sensations are the first stages in the functioning of senses. In the sensation and perception tutorials, performed by the Psychology Department of Hanover College, it was shown how our retina reacts and interprets image size as relative to image distance. Psychologists have proposed several explanations for the phenomenon of size constancy. First, people learn the general size of objects through experience and use this knowledge to help judge size. Another explanation for size constancy involves the relative sizes of objects, which the above mentioned tutorials support. To elaborate, size constancy refers to the fact that our perceptions or view of the size of objects, are relatively constant despite the fact that the size of objects on the retina varies greatly depending on the distance; it is dependant upon three main depth factors being relative size, relative height and texture gradient. Relative size refers to the phenomena of an object becoming smaller on your retina when it is farther away from you; “the more distant an object, say a person, is the smaller the image of that object will be on your retina…” The second depth factor, relative height can be most easily explained by the tutorials example of painting. In this example the horizon is dividing the world into two equal portions of the world, the ground below and the sky above. Since both halves cover vast areas, the horizon cannot be placed at the bottom or top of the painting; the horizon is usually somewhere near the middle. “Given where the horizon is painted, the distant part of sky is painted near the
As defined by the encyclopedia, “In psychology, sensation is the first stage in the biochemical and neurologic events that begins with the impinging of a stimulus upon the receptor cells of a sensory organ, which then leads to perception, the mental state that is reflected in statements like "I see a uniformly blue wall." In other words, sensations are the first stages in the functioning of senses. In the sensation and perception tutorials, performed by the Psychology Department of Hanover College, it was shown how our retina reacts and interprets image size as relative to image distance. Psychologists have proposed several explanations for the phenomenon of size constancy. First, people learn the general size of objects through experience and use this knowledge to help judge size. Another explanation for size constancy involves the relative sizes of objects, which the above mentioned tutorials support. To elaborate, size constancy refers to the fact that our perceptions or view of the size of objects, are relatively constant despite the fact that the size of objects on the retina varies greatly depending on the distance; it is dependant upon three main depth factors being relative size, relative height and texture gradient. Relative size refers to the phenomena of an object becoming smaller on your retina when it is farther away from you; “the more distant an object, say a person, is the smaller the image of that object will be on your retina…” The second depth factor, relative height can be most easily explained by the tutorials example of painting. In this example the horizon is dividing the world into two equal portions of the world, the ground below and the sky above. Since both halves cover vast areas, the horizon cannot be placed at the bottom or top of the painting; the horizon is usually somewhere near the middle. “Given where the horizon is painted, the distant part of sky is painted near the