Ester is walking to her chemistry class when she notices someone in the distance suddenly duck into a dark doorway. She is suspicious and starts to chase the figure, but misjudges the distance and accidentally runs into the door. She falls down but quickly recovers, and laughs when she discovers that the mystery person is her roommate, who was avoiding Ester, because she had borrowed Ester’s favorite sweater without permission and was afraid Ester might be angry.

Use the following terms to explain the perceptual processes involved in this scenario.

• Gate-control theory

• Vestibular sense

• Selective attention

• Signal detection theory

• Binocular cues

• Perceptual set