Chapter 3: Nature and Perception Flashcards
Define perception.
Experiences resulting from stimulation of the senses.
What is inverse projection problem?
The task of determining the object responsible for a particular image on the retina.
People’s ability to recognize an object even when it is seen from different viewpoints.
Viewpoint invariance
Image generates electrical signals that are transmitted through the retina, and then to the visual receiving area of the brain. This sequence of events from eye to brain is called…
Bottom-up processing
What is top-down processing?
Processing that originates in the brain, at the “top” of the perceptual system. Perceptions come from past experiences, culture, and knowledge.
An example/kind of a top-down processing…
Multiple personalities of a blob
What does “multiple personalities of a blob” mean?
Even though all of the blobs are identical, and are perceived as different objects depending on their orientation and the context in which they are seen.
The ability to tell when one word in a conversation end and the next one begins is a phenomenon called…
Speech segmentation
Transitional probabilities is…
The likelihood that one sound will follow another within a word.
Every language has transitional probabilities for different sounds, and the process of learning about transitional probabilities and about other characteristics of language is called…
Statistical learning
An early idea about how people use information was proposed by 19th century physicist and physiologist…
Hermann von Helmholtz (1866/1911)
One of Helmholtzs’ contribution to perceptions based on his realization that…
…the image on the retina is ambiguous.
What is an ophthalmoscope?
Instruments that enables physicians to examine the blood vessels inside the eye.
Define the likelihood principle.
Preceiving the object that is most likely to have caused the pattern of timely we have received.
What is an unconscious interference?
One’s perceptions is the result of unconscious assumptions, or inferences, that one makes about the environment.
Define sensations according to Wundt’s definition.
It is the overall experience that could be understood by combining basic elements of experience.
The Gestalt approach to perception originated, in part, from…
Wilhelm Wundt’s structuralism and Helmholtz’s theory of unconscious inference
What is Hermann von Helmholtz’s theory called?
Theory of Unconscious Inference
Define apparent movement.
Although movement is perceived, nothing is actually moving.
Three components to stimuli that create apparent movement.
(1) One light flashes on and off
(2) There is a period of darkness, lasting a fraction of a second
(3) The second light flashes on and off
Basic principle of the Gestalt psychology.
The whole is different than the sum of its parts.
“Points that, when connected, result in straight or smoothly curving lines are seen as belonging together, & the lines tend to be seen in such a way as to follow the smoothest path. Also, objects that are overlapped by other objects are perceived as continuing behind the overlapping objects.” What principle is this?
Principle of Good Continuation
“Every stimulus pattern is seen in such a way that the resulting structure is as simple as possible.” What principle is this?
Law of Pragnanz, also called the Principle of Good Figure/Principle of Simplicity
What is the principle of similarity?
Similar things appear to be grouped together.
What are the three most popular principles of perceptual organization?
(1) Principle of Good Continuation
(2) Law of Pragnanz
(3) Principle of Similarity
Define regularities in the environment.
The frequently occurring characteristics found in the environment.
Two types of regularities.
Physical regularities and semantic regularities.
Physical regularities are…
…regularly occurring physical properties of the environment.
Oblique effect is the ability to…
…perceive horizontals & verticals more easily than other orientations.
Usually assume that light is coming from above, because light in our environment, including the sun and most artificial light, usually comes from above is a perception called…
Light-from-above assumption
Characteristics associated with the functions carried out in different types of scenes is called…
Semantic regularities
What is a scene schema?
It is the knowledge of what given scene typically contains.
Bayesian inference was named after…
Thomas Bayes (1701-1761)
Bayesian inference proposed that our estimated of the probability of an outcome is determined by two factors…
(1) Prior probability
(2) Likelihood of the outcome
Define prior probability.
It is the initial belief about the probability of an outcome.
An extent to which the available evidence is consistent with the outcome is called…
Likelihood of the outcome
Four approaches of object perception.
(1) Helmholtz’s Unconscious Inference
(2) Gestalt Laws of Organization
(3) Regularities in the environment
(4) Bayesian inference
There are more neurons that respond to horizontals & verticals, why is this so? One possible answer is based on the theory of natural selection which states that…
…characteristics that enhance an animal’s ability to survive, & therefore reproduce, will be passed on to future generations.
Learning can shape the response properties of neurons through the process of _______________.
Experience-dependent plasticity
What is experience-dependent plasticity?
Shaping of the neural responding by experience.
Physiological research on perceiving objects and interacting with them involves two methods.
Brain ablation and neuropsychology
What is brain ablation?
A technique on removing parts of the brain in animals.
Define neuropsychology.
The study of the behavior of people with brain damage.
Pathway in the brain leading from the striate cortex to the temporal lobe.
What pathway
Pathway in the brain leading from the striate cortex to the parietal lobe.
Where pathway
What and where pathway is also called…
Ventral pathway (what) and the dorsal pathway (where)
The term dorsal refers to the…
…back or the upper surface of an organism
The term ventral refers to the…
…lower part of the brain
Pathway in the brain from the visual cortex to the temporal lobe.
Perception pathway
Pathway in the brain from the visual cortex to the parietal lobe.
Action pathway, also called the how pathway
When a person is presented with two similar objects, such as two cubes, that are the same weight but different sizes, the larger one seems lighter when they are lifted together is an example called…
Size-weight illusion
Does the Gestalt approach leans toward bottom-up or top-down processing?
Bottom-up processing
