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| Question | Answer |
| Describe Gestalts theory for ambiguous figures | Gestalt theory explains ambiguous figures by saying that we normally identify the figure or ground but in ambiguous figures it could be either figure or ground because we cannot tell whether the black or white area is the figure. |
| Describe Gestalts theory for distortions (Müller-Lyer illusion) | When explaining distortions – the Muller-Lyer illusion - in perceiving the figure as a whole we tend to ‘add’ fins or circles to the central lines. When pointing out the fins drag out the line and make it look longer. |
| Describe Gestalts theory for Fictions (Kanizsa triangle) | For fictions such as the Kanizsa triangle when we see a figure as incomplete, our perception makes a ‘whole’ shape. This is the figure of the figure-ground relationship. |
| Advantages of Gestalts theory | Gestalt theory provides a good explanation for ambiguous figures however it cannot explain any illusions other than the Muller-Lyer illusion. |
| Disadvantages for Gestalts theory | Gestalt theory explains fictions well but in the case of the Kanizsa triangle Gestalt explanation says we would use closure to organise this figure which means we should see a six pointed star, but we don’t, we see two triangles. |
| Bartlett (1932) | Bartlett (1932) wanted to investigate how information changes with each reproduction and to find out why the information changes. He deliberately chose ‘The War of the Ghosts’, a North American Indian folk tale from another culture and unknown to the participants. |
| Serial reproduction | a task where a piece of information is passed from one participant to the next in a chain or ‘series’. Differences between each version are measured. (‘Chinese Whispers’) |
| Repeated reproduction | a task where the participant is given a story or picture to remember. They then recall it several times after time delays. Differences between each version are measured. |
| What did Bartlett conclude | Bartlett concluded that unfamiliar material changes when it is recalled. It becomes shorter, simpler and more stereotyped- this may be due to the effect of schema on memory. |
| Bartlett theory strengths | Both the repeated and serial reproduction tasks were done many times to show that the changes to the story followed the same patterns. Other stories were also used and showed similar results. |
| Bartlett theory weaknesses | By choosing unfamiliar material, Bartlett could not be sure that the changes he found would happen with familiar information. Bartlett did not always test the repeated reproduction participants after the same time intervals, so the changes over time cannot be compared fairly. |
| What did Carmichael want to find out? | Carmichael, Hogan and Walter (1932) wanted to find out whether words shown with pictures would affect the way the pictures were remembered. |
| Carmichaels (1932) strengths | By using a control group Carmichael et al. could be sure that people’s drawings weren’t always distorted in the same way. By using 2 different lists they showed that the verbal labels affected people’s drawings. Having 12 pictures and many participants gave them lots of evidence, so they could be sure their findings weren’t just a fluke. |
| Carmichaels (1932) weaknesses | In real life things are not generally ambiguous as the stimulus figures shown. Prentice (1954) tested the effect of verbal labels on recognition rather than recall and found that verbal labels didn’t affect recognition, this means Carmichael’s findings did not apply widely. |
| Carmichaels (1932) conclusion | concluded that memory for pictures is reconstructed and the verbal context in which the drawings are learned affects recall because the memory of the word alters the way the picture is represented. |
| Perception | the way the brain makes sense of the visual image detected by the eyes |
| Retina | the light-sensitive layer at the back of the eye. It is made up of nerve cells called rods and cones. |
| Cones | light-sensitive cells in the retina that can detect color |
| Optic nerve | bundle of nerve cells that leads out from the retina at the back of the eye. It carries information from the rods & cones to the brain |
| Optic chiasma | the cross shape where some of the information from the left and right eye crosses over to pass into the opposite side of the brain. |
| Serial reproduction | a task where a piece of information is passed from one person to another in a chain series. Differences of each version is measured. |
| Repeated reproduction | a task where a person is given a story or a picture to remember. They then have to recall it a few times with time delay. Differences are measured between each delay. |
| Vision | the biological process that occurs when light is reflected from objects |
| Fictions | an illusion caused when a figure is perceived even though it is not present in the stimulus |
| Ambiguous figures | A stimulus with 2 possible interpretations, in which it is only possible to perceive only one of the alternatives at any time. |
| Neckler cube | the neckler cube is ambiguous you can see it in 2 different ways. |
| Distortions | where our perception is deceived by some aspect of the stimulus. This can affect the shape or size of an object |
| Condensation | when many thoughts and elements from the unconscious are represented in the dream in one symbol |
| Displacement | when something that seems to be unimportant in the dream is made central, to shit attention from what is really important. |
| Secondary elaboration | how the dreamer builds a story when telling what the dream is about, adding to and changing things, which makes analysis hard. |
| subjective | where the researcher is somehow affecting the information that is gathered, perhaps by their interpretation |
| objective | when the researchers views do not affect the information is gathered |
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