CHAPTER 3 Flashcards
involves recognizing, organizing, and making sense of sensations received from environmental stimuli.
Perception
What are the 4 Basic Concepts of Perception?
Distal Object:
Informational Medium:
Proximal Stimulation:
Perceptual Object:
The external object in the world (e.g., a tree falling).
Distal Object:
The medium that carries information (e.g., sound waves, light waves).
Informational Medium:
Occurs when sensory receptors (e.g., retina) receive input from the environment (e.g., light waves).
Proximal Stimulation:
The mental image or understanding of the external object created by the brain.
Perceptual Object:
Involves the direct stimulation of sensory receptors (e.g., detecting light, sound, touch).
Sensation:
When exposed to a uniform visual field (e.g., a dense fog), perception of the stimulus fades over time, resulting in a gray visual field.
Ganzfeld Effect:
Our minds create ____ _______ of objects based on sensory input, which may not always correspond directly to the stimuli received
Mental Representations:
illustrate that what we sense is not necessarily what we perceive.
Perceptual illusions
Long, thin photoreceptors that are concentrated in the periphery of the retina. They are responsible for night vision and detecting light and dark stimuli.
Rods:
Short, thick photoreceptors located in the fovea (central retina), responsible for color perception.
Cones:
_____ in rods and cones react to light, converting electromagnetic energy into neural signals that are transmitted to the brain via bipolar cells and ganglion cells.
Photopigments
Responsible for processing the location and movement of objects.
Extends to the parietal lobe.
Dorsal Pathway (Where Pathway):
Processes the identity, color, shape, and form of objects.
Extends to the temporal lobe.
Ventral Pathway (What Pathway):
Controls how we move and interact with objects based on their location and properties.
How Pathway:
this hypothesis suggests that the pathways refer to what objects are and how we interact with them
What–How Hypothesis:
Perception begins with sensory information and moves upwards to higher cognitive processes.
Bottom-Up Theories
The sensory receptors and environmental context provide all the necessary information for perception.
Direct Perception (Gibson’s Theory of Direct Perception):
We compare observed stimuli suggest that our minds store highly detailed templates (models) for recognizing patterns.
Template Theories
propose that we match features of a pattern (e.g., edges, lines) rather than whole patterns to stored features in memory.
Feature-Matching Theories
What are the 4 The Pandemonium Models?
Image Demons:
Feature Demons:
Cognitive Demons:
Decision Demon:
Receive the visual input and pass it on to feature demons.
Image Demons:
Detect specific features of the stimulus and shout them out.
Feature Demons:
Compare the identified features with memory and suggest possible matches.
Cognitive Demons:
Chooses the most likely pattern based on the strongest cognitive demon input.
Decision Demon:
Small-scale details (e.g., individual letters in a larger pattern).
Local Features:
The overall shape or structure (e.g., large letter formed by small letters).
Global Features:
People tend to perceive global features (large shape) faster than local features (small letters) when the local features are close together
Global Precedence Effect:
When local features are spaced out, people identify the local features more quickly than the global features
Local Precedence Effect:
explains how we recognize 3D objects by breaking them down into simple geometric shapes called geons (geometrical ions).
Recognition-by-Components (RBC) Theory
We perceive an object as the same size despite changes in its retinal image (e.g., a car approaching appears larger on the retina but is perceived as the same size).
Size Constancy:
We perceive colors to remain the same under varying lighting conditions (e.g., bananas remain yellow in different lightings).
Color Constancy:
Combining sensory data with knowledge and making judgments that we are not consciously aware of.
Unconscious Inference:
refer to how the surrounding environment influences perception.
Context Effects
Objects presented in certain configurations are easier to recognize than objects presented in isolation, even if the configuration is more complex
Configural-Superiority Effect:
A target line forming part of a 3D object is recognized more accurately than when it is part of a disconnected 2D pattern.
Object-Superiority Effect:
Perception is relative to the viewer’s perspective. Individuals store mental representations based on how an object appears from their viewpoint.
Viewer-Centered Representation:
Perception is based on the object’s structure, independent of the viewer’s angle or perspective. The object remains stable regardless of orientation.
Object-Centered Representation:
An alternative form where information is organized relative to a prominent landmark (e.g., navigating a city based on the location of your hotel).
Landmark-Centered Representation:
explain how we perceive objects as grouped or separate, even when presented in complex arrangements.
Gestalt principles
We separate objects (figures) from their background.
Figure-Ground Perception:
Objects close to each other are perceived as a group.
Proximity:
Objects that look alike are grouped together.
Similarity:
We perceive continuous lines rather than broken ones.
Continuity:
We perceive objects as complete even when parts are missing
Closure:
Symmetrical objects are perceived as a whole around a central axis.
Symmetry:
involves identifying configurations of visual elements, while face recognition is considered a specialized form of pattern recognition.
Pattern recognition
Recognizes parts of objects and assembles them into wholes. Used when analyzing individual elements (e.g., identifying parts of a flower in biology class).
Feature Analysis System:
Recognizes larger configurations and wholes without focusing on individual parts. Most relevant to recognizing faces.
Configurational System:
is strongly activated when processing faces, especially when recognizing emotions.
Fusiform Gyrus
cannot recognize familiar faces, though they can recognize facial emotions.
prosopagnosia
Explain the Monocular Depth Cues:
Texture Gradients:
Relative Size:
Interposition:
Linear Perspective:
Aerial Perspective:
Motion Parallax:
Texture Gradients: Objects with more visible texture are perceived as closer.
Relative Size: Larger objects are perceived as closer than smaller ones.
Interposition: Objects that overlap are perceived as closer.
Linear Perspective: Parallel lines appear to converge in the distance.
Aerial Perspective: Distant objects appear blurrier due to atmospheric interference.
Motion Parallax: When moving, objects closer to you move faster across your visual field than distant objects.
Explain Binocular Depth Cues:
Binocular Disparity:
Binocular Convergence:
Binocular Disparity: The brain interprets the slight differences in the images from each eye to gauge distance.
Binocular Convergence: As objects approach, the eyes turn inward, and the brain interprets this movement as a cue to distance.
refer to the inability to recognize sensory information, even though sensory input (e.g., seeing colors and shapes) is intact.
Agnosias
Individuals can see objects but cannot identify what they are.
Visual-Object Agnosia:
A form of agnosia where individuals can only focus on one object at a time, failing to perceive multiple objects simultaneously.
Simultagnosia:
Affected individuals can recognize facial expressions but cannot identify people by their faces.
Prosopagnosia:
Individuals have difficulty reaching for objects even in well-lit environments, suggesting a breakdown in the dorsal stream.
Ataxias (Deficits in Knowing “How”)
