7: Perception and Attention Flashcards
Define Sensation
Sensation: The stimulus detection system by which our sense organs respond to and translate environmental stimuli into nerve impulses that are sent to the brain
- ‘Is there anything out there?’
Define Perception
Perception: The active process of organising the stimulus output and giving it meaning
- ‘What is it, where is it, what is it doing?’
–> Making sense of the sensory information
What is Bottom up perception?
• Individual elements are combined to make a unified perception of pure sensory information we are recieving
What is Top down perception?
How is is connected to bottom up perception?
Top down: Processing in light of existing knowledge, expectiations etc. –> e.g. backmasking
Bottom up and top down work together to influence the perception of a stimmulus
What are the different factors that affect top-down perception?
- Attention
-
Past experiences
- Poor children and adults overestimate the size of coins compared to affluent people (Ashley et al., 1951)
-
Current drive state (e.g. arousal state)
- Hunger: when hungry, more likely to notice food-related stimuli (Seibt et al., 2007)
-
Emotions
- E.g. Anxiety increases threat perception (e.g. in PTSD)
- Individual values & expectations
- Telling people a stimulus might be painful makes them more likely to report pain in response to it (Colloca et al, 2008)
- Environment
- Cultural background
Name an example on how the environment influence perception?
E.g. Optic illusion rooms
- expect that rooms are designed in a certain ways (90° angles)
How does Culture influence perception?
Cultural backoround can influence the way we see things (e.g. how we are used to and thought patterns)
a) Woman: window vs. carry water
b: shooting elephant (african) vs. antilope (western view)
Explain the Figure ground Relation of the Gestalt laws
Figure ground relation
our tendency to organise stimuli into central or foreground and a background. Focus of attention becomes the figure, all else is background
Explain the law of continuity in the Gestalt law
When the eye is compelled to move through one object and continue to another object
– >Make sense of flowing
Explain the law of Similarity of the Gestalt laws
Similarity: Similar things are perceived as being grouped together
Explain the law of proximity of the Gestalt laws
Proximity: Object near each other are grouped together
Explain the law of closture in the Gestalt laws
Closure: Things are grouped together if they seem to complete some entity.
What is visual agnosia?
Processign fo vison is damaged –> see and can navigate but naming + accessing information is damaged
- Basic vision spared
- Primary visual cortex can be mostly intact
- Patient not blind
- Knowledgeable about information from other senses (e.g. if they touch an object then naming is typically simple)
What are the different types of visual agnosia?
- won’t form a whole object on them –> can’t recognise a shape e.g. a triangle, can’t draw it
- severer
- Might be able to see+ draw things but cannot name: no access to information difficult to access more information on the object
Explain the role of attention in the process of perception
Attention is the process of focusing conscious awareness, providing heightened sensitivity to a limited range of experience requiring more intensive processing.
2 processes:
- Focus on a certain aspect
- Filter out other information
-> e.g. not seeing bear when just looking at something else
What are different types (compenents) of attention?
- Focused attention
- spotlight
- Devided Attention
- payint attention to more than one thing at once
What are the factors that can influence our attention?
Characteristics of the stimulus
- intensity
- novelty
- movement
- contrast
+ Personal factors:
- motives
- interests
- threats
- mood
- arousal
What is the Cocktail party effect?
Cocktailparty effect: Filtering a lot
in conversation: focus on one conversation but when spmeone calls oput name: response and divert the attention n
What are the three basic stages of learning?
- Cognitive stage
- new information
- what are the steps involved? Observing
- Associative Stage
- development of patterns
- Autonomous stage
- doing things without even really thinking about it
Explain the relationship between attention and medical mistakes
If e..g learning reches autonomous skills
–> medical skills if they are autonomous–> loss of concious attentions of tasks
–> medical errors can happen when processes are automatic
What are different factors that influence (chronic) pain perception
- 28 million people experience chronic pain in the UK
- different from acute pain
- more the 3 month, tdamage is healed but person stilll pervieves pain
- thought to be due to loss of cancellation of painful stimulus due to
- complex informaiton processing in brain
Pain is influenced by
- attention
- how we feel, think
- mindfullness –> cange focuss of attention and change of sensory processing
- Might lead to vicious cycle in pain –> if not doing fun things due to pain more focus on pain etc. and more anxiety, stress therefore more pain
What are the Gestalt Laws?
Trying to explain how we organise the parts of our perceptual field in a whole
- Figure-ground relation
- Continuity
- Similarity
- Proximity
- Closure
What are the different stimulus factors that influence attention?
Attention increases with
- intensity
- novelty
- movement
- contrast
- Repetition
of the stimulus
What are the two ways that we can pay attention to something?
We can give
- Focused (“spotlight”) attention or
- Divided attention -> paying attention to more than one thing
