Perceiving is Believing: Crash Course Psychology #7

So what does perception even mean? What's the difference between seeing something and making sense of it? In today's episode of Crash Course Psychology, Hank gives us some insight into the differences between sensing and perceiving.

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Chapters:
Introduction 00:00
Perception: Your Mind's Eye 1:06
Perceptual Set 1:53
Optical Illusions 3:13
Form Perception & Figure-Ground Relationships 3:44
Rules of Grouping: Proximity, Continuity, & Closure 4:53
Depth Perception 5:40
Binocular vs. Monocular Visual Cues 6:11
Motion Perception 7:50
Perceptual Constancy 8:15
Review & Credits 9:12
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Want to find Crash Course elsewhere on the internet?

[ethanterry]

I'd like to meet hank and johns parents for raising 2 genius sons

[samiarockson]

this channel is literally getting me through my degree lmao

[sxnchay]

CrashCourse please make a Psychology Season 2. Guys.

[kendomyers]

toast and a grease fire? i see you are familiar with my cooking

[victoriazerbe]

"Why are all these people at the same party?" lol

[Frost-hjnd]

"While all the other voices jabbering about sports and beer pong and *Sherlock*..." Later: "How did he survive that jump?"

YOU DID NOT JUST

[thethingaboutbooks]

This is like a more entertaining, clearer and oh-so-much-more-fun version of my psychology class. So good!

[aSongScout]

The little brain animation is so cute!

[mimimarcus]

Youtube should graduate me with a degree in Crash Courses and SciShow :P

[nozerty]

I love thinking about perspective. I had a therapist who used the concept of the Rubin Vase to explain to me that the world wasn't really a hopeless wreck. It was the first step in guiding me toward a perception of the world that was worth living in. I have a tattoo of the Rubin Vase on my back now. 

Psychology is not only interesting to me, it is life-saving. It helps millions of people every day, and I'm really glad to see you fostering an interest in people for its study. You're awesome, Hank!

[AtticusAmericanus]

1:11 Upside down face Hank vs. Homunculus!

The Crashcourse Psychology Championship Begins!

[chloeb.]

Thank you Hank for doing this psychology crash course. Over the last couple of episodes I've now decided to study psychology. So yeah, if I ever become famous for it or something, its all thanks to this crash course

[chefkendranguyen]

Good one, Hank. The mind is amazing, however the more I watch these the more I think the mind is amazing and ridiculous all at the same time. ;)

[FirstRisingSouI]

When you said, "what bird do you see, " I thought, "that's not a bird, it's a rabbit."

[crashcourse]

So what does perception even mean? What's the difference between seeing something and making sense of it? In today's episode of Crash Course Psychology, gives us some insight into the differences between sensing and perceiving.

Perceiving is Believing - Crash Course Psychology #7

[Chezmeralda]

"Why are all these people at the same party?" I'll admit, I snorted.

[LucyGem]

I love this series...I'm doing psychology in college and I can get a huge head start by watching these :3

[nicole-sudl]

these videos are so helpful! reading vocabulary is one thing, but watching the animation really helps me understand the full meaning. thanks crash course!

[mellowfish]

I have no binocular vision (congenital esotropia: both eyes work fine, just not together and no double vision).

I regularly say I have "no depth perception" even though I can use monocular depth cues as mentioned in the video because it makes people be more conscious of throwing things to/at me or backing up their car into me as I walk behind them (both of which happen way more frequently than I would care to admit).

Having no binocular vision has been a major pain in my life, both literally and figuratively as it has meant running into things and people when I misjudge distance, missing most catches/shots consistently in sports (and thus dropping out of most sports early in childhood), and generally being more "clumsy" even though I have excellent dexterity and balance.

I can tell you from experience that "far away" objects are just as hard to figure out distance for as "close up" ones when you are relying solely on monocular depth cues. In addition to the "static" visual cues mentioned in the video I also use two methods for judging speed and acceleration: I count time while watching something move relative another object (useful for up close objects) or I blink rapidly and try to judge if the object is getting larger between "frames" (useful for distant objects which may be approaching, like on a road ahead of you).

Speaking of driving, because it takes so much mental effort to work out speeds/distances of objects around me I have to constantly watch the road and keep a detailed mental map of what is happening with the cars all around me at all times. If I look away for even a few seconds, I cannot tell where anything is anymore and it takes half a minute or more to get my bearings again, in which time I could easily get into an accident. This is, from what I can tell from talking to other drivers, very different from the normal experience of driving a car, where one can fairly easily multitask (hence the preponderance of texting and driving).

[icedevil]

Wow this is just like half of my psychology course this semester in 10 minutes!
Great summary for the exams