Illustrate and critically discuss the key ways in which our visual perception of the everyday world is unavoidably selective.

Guidance

For general guidance about what is expected in your essays for this module, see the general criteria.

What Key Features Do I Look For? Familiarity with relevant texts Evidence - the stronger the better Argument - coherent and balanced Theoretical discussion - relation to relevant theories Understanding of relevant concepts Reflexivity - reflections on methodology Examples - insightfully analysed Style - readability and effective presentation

Please remember to avoid footnotes and to include an alphabetical list of 'References' which have been cited in the text (not a Bibliography of anything you have read for the essay). This list should include author's names, date, book titles (in italics), place of publication and publisher. Within the text always cite author's surname, date and page number. Double-space your text and number your pages. For more detailed notes on writing essays in this department, click here.

Advice for this particular assignment: The most relevant lecture for this topic is Lecture 3: Selectivity and Perceptual Constancy (the first half of the lecture is the relevant part). Although you should, of course, refer to key modes of selectivity covered in our teaching sessions you should try to use particular examples other than the specific ones that I used. Key concepts include: selective focus, the saccade, change blindness and salience. Many of the key terms are covered in our dictionary (Chandler & Munday 2011). In your conclusion, show your awareness of the criticism that the notion of selectivity (perception as filter or sieve) seems rather passive and downplays our 'active construction of reality' (even the suppression of the blind spot involves a form of creative construction). However, do not be tempted to discuss conscious selectivity or ideological 'points of view' for this question.

Note also that this is an assignment for which the inclusion of relevant pictorial illustrations is expected.

Some suggested reading

• Bloomer, Carolyn M. (1990) Principles of Visual Perception. (2nd edn.). New York: TAB
• Bruce, Vicki, Patrick Green & Mark Georgeson (1996) Visual Perception: Physiology, Psychology and Ecology.. Hove: Psychology Press
• Chandler, Daniel and Rod Munday (2011) Dictionary of Media and Communication. Oxford: Oxford University Press
• Coren, Stanley, Clare Porac & Lawrence M. Ward (1978) Sensation and Perception (International Edn.). New York: Academic Press
  
• Eysenck, Michael & Mark Keane (2005) Cognitive Psychology: A Student's Handbook. New York: Psychology Press
• Gordon, Ian E. (1989) Theories of Visual Perception. Chichester: John Wiley
• Gregory, Richard L. (1970) The Intelligent Eye. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson
  
• Gregory, Richard L. (1972) Eye and Brain. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson
  
• Gregory, Richard L. (2009) Seeing Through Illusions. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Haber, Ralph Norman & Maurice Hershenson (1980) The Psychology of Visual Perception (2nd Edn). New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston
• Hochberg, Julian E. (1964) Perception. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall
  
• Rock, Irvin (1984) Perception. New York: Scientific American
• Sekuler, Robert & Randolph Blake (1994) Perception, 3rd edn. New York: McGraw-Hill