Philip Zimbardo Psychological Analysis

Watching Sensation and Perception on Discovery Psychology with Philip Zimbardo greatly enforced material that we have learned in class. As the film begins some questions are posed such as how is our brain tricked by visual illusions and what makes a star quarterback miss an easy pass? These questions and many more where discussed and answered throughout the film. The first explanation given as to why our brain might be tricked by the world around us is because of the limitations to our sensation and perception. Sometimes the brain must go with an unrealistic explanation even though it is not logical. This point was further proven when it appeared to our brain that the man in the room was growing larger when in reality the room was skewed to cause this illusion to occur. Although our brains can be tricked
Every moment the brain must make an endless about of perceptual decisions. Some perceptual decisions the brain must make are computing size and distance relationships, determining where boundaries and edges exist, identifying figures within backgrounds and moving use toward objects we want as well as away from objects we need to avoid. The brain automatically computes many kinds of sensory information and guides our bodies without the need for conscious thought. To truly work effectively our perception must work quickly to extract the minimal amount of information necessary to form an impression of the entire pattern. There is no doubt that we can never take our perception for granted no matter how often we use in our everyday lives. Watching Sensation and Perception on Discovery Psychology really was a good reminder of the material we covered in class and I would highly recommend it to anyone who is taking an introductory psychology