Objective 35: Explain the process of depth perception and size constancy.

Looking at the screen of my laptop computer, I am seeing two-dimensional objects in a three-dimensional world. I know that my computer screen is not flat, obviously it isnt. Then how do our brains enable us to perceive this and how far away it is !epth perception is a tool that enables us to perceive an objects distance from us. "esearchers have concurred that depth perception is partly innate. #leanor $ibson and "ichard %alk in &'(), created an e*periment to show the innate inheritance of depth perception. The created a visual cliff, an e*periment in which a (-&+ month infant was placed on a side of a ,safe canyon- and asked to crawl to its mother. $ibson and %alk created a ,canyon- with a glass plate over it which created the appearance that it would be safe to cross, even though there was a drop in the elevation. The (-&+ infants, even while being coa*ed by their mothers would not crawl across the cliff, indicating their possession of depth perception. .t http/00www.youtube.com0watch v1!r2mvI(i3r# it helps e*plain depth perception, and shows a video of how the visual cliff e*periment works. 4inocular cues, cues that are found because of our dependence on two eyes. 4ecause we have two eyes and they are 5.6 inches apart, this creates retinal disparity, a binocular cue for depth perception. "etinal disparity allows us to tell the difference between what each eye is seeing and being able to tell how close or far away an object is. 7i2e constancy is our ability to retain that objects have a constant si2e, even though the distance varies. The assumption that we are able to retain the si2e of an object opens the connection between perceived distance and perceived si2e. Take a look at the illustration on the ne*t page to the right. %e understand that the farther away an object

gets the smaller it appears. 8ur brains perceive that the man on the right is smaller down the hall, so we compensate his distance with his si2e. 4ut if you were to measure the three figures you would find that they are all the same si2e. This may astonish some people. 9eople tend to think that because the man on the right is farther away and taller than the rest that he must be bigger than the rest of the men in the picture, but that is our minds playing tricks on us. This is just another e*ample of how we know that our brains construct perception. %e take in all of these sensations which are then broken apart and reassembled within our brains to create the images that our mind sees, and sometimes our brain messes up.

http/00www.csus.edu0indiv0w0wickelgren0psyc&):07i2e;onstancy4ig.jpg I used the source above for the image I used which illustrates how our brains can sometimes play tricks on us. 8ur innate abilities to understand si2e constancy can sometimes get us in trouble. <%e perceive the man on the right to be much bigger than the other 5, but they are all actually the same si2e=. Psychology Tenth Edition in Modules I used the book for various definitions and for ,outlines- for some of e*amples which I created and used my own words to show my understanding of depth perception and si2e constancy.