Chapter 3: Perception

Question 1

Perception

Answer 1

Conscious experience resulting from stimulation of the senses

Question 2

Basic Concepts of Perception

Answer 2

• Perceptions can change based on added information
• Involves a process similar to reasoning or problem solving
• Perceptions occur in conjunction with actions

Question 3

It is possible that true human perceptual processes are […]

Answer 3

It is possible that true human perceptual processes are unique to humans

• Attempts to create artificial forms of perception (Machines) have been met with limited success and each time have had problems that could no be solved

Question 4

Why can’t machines perceive like humans

Answer 4

- Inverse Projection Problem
_ Objects can be hidden or blurred
	- People can often identify objects that are obscured and therefor incomplete, or in some cases objects that are blurry
- Viewpoint Invariance
- Scenes contain high-level information
	- Scenes are more complex

Question 5

Inverse Projection Problem

Answer 5

Refers to task of determining the object responsible for a particular image on retina

Question 6

Viewpoint Invariance

Answer 6

Objects look different from different viewpoints

Question 7

Human perceptual system uses two types of information

Answer 7

1. Environmental energy stimulated receptor (bottom up)

2. Knowledge and expectations observer brings to situation (top down)

Question 8

Bottom-Up Processing

Answer 8

Processing that starts with info received by receptors

Question 9

Top-Down Processing

Answer 9

Processing that involves a person’s knowledge or expectations

Question 10

Direct Perception Theories

Answer 10

Perception comes from stimuli in the environment

• bottom up

Question 11

Constructive Perception Theories

Answer 11

People actively construct perceptions using information based on expectations

Question 12

[…] infleunces our perception of language based on our individual experience with the language

Answer 12

Top-down processing infleunces our perception of language based on our individual experience with the language

Question 13

Speech Segmentation

Answer 13

Processing of perceiving individual words within continuous flow of speech signal

• ability to tell when one word ends and another begins

Question 14

Transitional Probabilities

Answer 14

Likelihood that one speech sound will follow another within a word

• knowing which sound will likely follow another in a word

Question 15

Statistical Learning

Answer 15

Processes of learning about transitional probabilities and about other characteristics of language

Question 16

Hearing Words in a Sentence

Answer 16

• Top-down theory
• Some perceptions are the result of unconscious assumtption we make about the environment
• We infer much of what we know about the world
• Likelihood principle

Question 17

Likelihood Principle

Answer 17

Way we perceive based on what is most likely to occur based on past experiences

• We perceive object that is most likely to have caused pattern to stimuli we have received

Question 18

Helmholtz’s Unconscious Inference

Answer 18

some of our perceptions are result of unconscious assumptions that we make about environment

Question 19

“Old” View- Structuralism

Answer 19

Perception involves adding up new sensations

Question 20

“New” view- Gestalt Principles

Answer 20

Mind groups patterns according to intrinsic laws of perceptual organization

Question 21

Perceptual Organization

Answer 21

Small elements of scene/ displat become perceptually grouped to form larger units

Question 22

Gestalt Psychologists

Answer 22

Proposed principles governing perception, such as laws of organization, and perceptual approach to probelm solving involving restructuring

Question 23

Appararent Movement

Answer 23

Illusion of movement perception that occurs when stimuli in different locations are flashed one ofter another with proper timing

Question 24

Principle of Good Continuation

Answer 24

Points that, when connected, result in straight or smoothly curving lines are seen as belonging together

Question 25

Law of Pragnanz

Answer 25

Every stimulus pattern is seen in such a way that resulting structure is as simple as possible

Question 26

Principle of Similarity

Answer 26

Similar things appear to be grouped together

Question 27

Gestalt Principles of Perceptual Organization

Answer 27

• Perception is determined by specific organizing principles, not just dark and light stimuli activating retina
• Role fo experience is minor compared to these intrinsic, “built in” principles
• Experience can infleunce perception but is not the key driver

Question 28

Regularities of the Environment:

Answer 28

Common physical properties of the environment

- Oblique effect
- Light-from-above assumption
- Semantic

Question 29

Oblique Effect

Answer 29

Vertical and horizontal orientations cna be perceived more easily than other (slanted) orientations
- due to natural selection

Question 30

Light-from-above Assumption

Answer 30

• We assume light vomes from above because this is common in our environment
• We perceive shadows as specific information about depth and distance

Question 31

Semantic

Answer 31

• Characteristics associated with functions carried out in different types of scenes
• Meaning of given scene is related to what happens within that scene
• Semantic regularities are the characteristics associated with functions carried out in different types of scenes
• Scene schema

Question 32

Scene Schema

Answer 32

Person’s knowledge about what is likely to be contained in particular scene

Question 33

Bayesian Inference

Answer 33

One’s estimate of the probability of a given outcome is influenced by two factors:

- The prior probability
- The likelihood of a given outcome

Question 34

Prior Probability

Answer 34

Person’s initial belief about probability of outcome

Question 35

Likelihood of a Given Outcome

Answer 35

Extent to which available evidence is consistent with outcome

Question 36

Comparing Conceptions of Object Perception

Answer 36

Top-down processing

- Unconscious inference
- Environmental regularities
- Bayesian inference 

Bottom-up processing
- Gestalt principles

Question 37

Neurons, Knowledge, and the Environment

Answer 37

• Some neurons respond best to things that occur regularly in the environment
• Neurons become tuned to respond best to what we commonly experience
  
  • Horizontals and verticals
  • Experience- dependent plasticity
• Learning can shape response properties of neurons through process of experience-dependent plasticity

Question 38

Movement Facilitates Perception

Answer 38

• As observers, our movement adds complexity to perception compared to if we remain static, but moving around a stimulus offers us more views to create accurate perceptions
• Coordination continuously occurs between perceiving stimuli and taking actions towards these stimuli

Question 39

Object Discrimination

Answer 39

• Ventral (what pathway)

- remember object based on its shape and shoose it when presented with another object after delay

Question 40

Landmark Discrimination

Answer 40

• Dorsal (where pathway)

- Remember an object’s location and to choose that location after delay

Question 41

Brain Ablation

Answer 41

Procedure in which specific area is removed from animal’s brain
- Done to determine function of this area by assessing effect of animal’s behavior

Question 42

Perception Pathway

Answer 42

• What pathway

- From visual cortex to temporal lobe

Question 43

Action Pathway

Answer 43

• Where pathway

- From visual cortex to parietal lobe

Question 44

Mirror Neuron System

Answer 44

Network of neurons in brain that have mirror neuron properties

Question 45

Mirror Neurons

Answer 45

• Neurons in premotor cortex
• These neurons respond while a subject watches an action being performed in the same way as if the subject was performing the action
• fMRI research has found evidence of a neuron system in the brain
• Higher rate of mirroring if the subject’s intention to perform the action was greater