1. Gestalt Approaches to Perception

The first three web links are to demonstrations—you can do in class using a computer, or assign students to complete independently—that illustrate Gestalt principles in perception.The last link is to a short video clip (just under 4 minutes) entitled “Halluci,” which pays homage to M.C. Escher.

http://www.michaelbach.de/ot/cog-kanizsa/index.html

http://www.michaelbach.de/ot/cog-lettersInk/index.html

http://www.michaelbach.de/ot/cog-hiddenBird/index.html

http://www.michaelbach.de/ot/cog-impossHallucii/index.html 

2. Perceptual Invariance

This video is footage from Dr. Gunnar Johansson’s laboratory demonstrating the idea of perceptual invariance.  It begins by illustrating how lights moving in the same direction appear to be grouped with one another, and later how lights affixed to a model wearing black leads to our perception of human movement in the absence of any other evidence of human stimuli.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1F5ICP9SYLU

3. Prosopagnosia

This video is a short but very poignant account of Teri Sweeny, an individual who suffers from prosopagnosia due to an injury that incurred on the job as a firefighter.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwCrxomPbtY