SAC

• for a synaesthete, one sensation triggers another sensation, like seeing colours when hearing music. whereas, for someone without synaesthesia, sensations are processed independently and separately, like just hearing music without additional sensory experiences
• for a synaesthete, perception involves a mixed experience where one sense triggers another, like perceiving numbers as colours. whereas, for someone without synaesthesia, perception involes interpreting each sense independently, like just perceiving numbers as numbers without any additional sensory associations
• visual illusions occur because the brain is tricked by misleading visual information, causing it to misinterpret what is actually seen. whereas, synaesthesia occurs because of unique brain wiring that causes automatic, consistent cross-sensory experiences
• visual illusions are errors in perception. whereas, synaesthesia is not an error but rather an involuntary blending of senses specificto the synaesthetes brain
• visual agnosia is an example of an impairment of sensory processing of visual information. visual agnosia is a neurological disorder in hich the sufferer has total or partial loss of the ability to recognise and identify familiar objects
• visual agnosia is caused by damage to the brain areas involved in visual processing, particularly the occipital or temporal lobes. where damage can result from injury where trauma to the brain damages visual processing regions
• from a social perspective, the muller lyer illusion persists even after confirming the lines are equal in length because cultural differences cause differences in visual processing. where cultures create differences in contexts and experiences that individuals draw from when perceiving new information, where people from east asia, view visual stimuli more holistically than people from western cultures meaning they tend to focus on specific elements rather than the whole picture.
• This would cause people from Western cultures to be more likely to be acceptible to the muller lyer illusion than people from east asia as they would be able to recognise that the outward lines dont affect the length of the base line.
• muller lyer psychological perspective - 'more distant/ object that has same sized retinal image as the 'nearer' object will be perceived as larger - size distance invariance
• top down processing involves using prior knowledge to interpret sensory information. where in the ames room illusion, the observer will begin with a perception of the general features of the room before creating an overall hypothesis based on the expectation of rooms generally being square shaped. the observor will then move downwards towards the smaller specific details trying to interpret how and why the illusion of the growing figures occurs.
• a biological factor contributing to the hermann grid illusion is lateral inhibition.
• perceptual constancy - size + shape
• the observor of the ames room uses monocular depth cues. monocular cues are depth perception cues that rely on information from only one eye. in the Ames room, the observor looks through a one-eyed peephole causing them to be more reliant on the rooms distorted shape and the resulting misleading cues, enhancing the effectiveness of the illusion.