Chapter 3 (Perception) Flashcards
1. Understand the basic structures and processes involved in visual perception 2. Provide an explanation of Gestalt principles of holistic perception 3. Understand how different modalities (e.g., sound, vision) can interact in the formation of perceptions
What is perception
How sensory information forms conscious experiences of the environment
2 ways (levels) in which perception works
- Subliminal (implicit)
- Subjective (conscious)
What is the subjective threshold
A continuum, how much we are affected by subliminal subjective …
at first, information is processed subliminally, and when the information is important enough, or gone far enough through the stages of processing, it comes to awareness (aka subjective perception)
What is functional perception
Neurons are chatty
networks communicate back and forth between different modules adding info and meaning
Steps in the visual system
- Info in through cornea lens hits the retina in back (whole where optic nerve axons out)
- Signals transmitted through optic nerve
- Primary visual cortex = retinotopic area
Perfectly mapped from retina to visual cortex (backward inverted)
- Depth perception from different views
The conscious subjective perception of vision is created by a combo of 2 systems
1) Dorsal pathways go up “where”
2) Ventral pathways go down “what”
What is the “where” pathway
The dorsal pathways going up through the parietal cortex giving spatial meaning to visual stimuli
What is the “what” pathway
The ventral pathways going down through the temporal lobe through language adding meaning to visual stimuli
What does damage to the dorsal pathways do
Harder to find location of objects
What does damage to the ventral pathways do
Know there is an object there but can’t recognize or name it
Perception is always wrong
True
We fill in gaps
Subliminal systems can work with out subjective system (can even be more accurate)
What does patient TN show us about brain damage to the pathways (Does not see but can navigate = blind sight)
Dorsal pathways intact “spatial location” ok
but damage
to Ventral pathways: no “conscious perception = no vision”
Blind sight
Eyes are fine
So is Dorsal pathways to identify spacial location
but visual cortex (ventral pathway) damaged
Primming (subliminal perception)
Manipulation of the cognitive system
= increase probability of a future conscious perception/choice
Does primming require subconscious presentation of stimuli?
No
Just lack of awareness of stimuli
Pandemonium is
An influential theory of perception (both figurative and literal)
3 levels of higher-order perception processing
- Feature
- Cognitive
- Decision
Pandemonium was developed by
Selfrige (1959)
The Pandemonium theory is both figurative and literal
- The basic visual pattern is relayed to the feature demons - who each identify what they’re trained to find
- The cognitive demons look for associations in what the feature demons are saying
- The cognitive demons shout louder the better the features meet their expectations
What is the McGurk Effect from
From Selfridge’s perspective
What does the McGurk Effect result from
result of a visual cognitive demon overruling an auditory cognitive demon
Does it really matter whether we believe demons are involved
Gestalt perception stats that
The whole (conscious) perception is greater than the sum of its part
Gestalt: Whole object perception is
the overarching goal of perceptual processing
and such structures wholes are the primary unit of the mind
The principle of experience implies that
how we’ve seen something before will influence how we see it now
has only weak support in Gestalt psy
We don’t need to have seen the specific thing, but more precisely the situation before
The higher order visual system processes feed backwards into the primary visual cortex and changes what we perceive
What is the principle of closure
items that are grouped together well are perceived as closed figure
What is the principle of similarity
All else being equal, the most similar parts will group together
What is the principle of proximity
Items that are closer to each other will be grouped together
What is the principle of common fate
Items that are moving in the same way are grouped together
What are some limitations to Gestalt perception
The whole (conscious perception) will not always be greater than just the sum of its parts
Perception and complexity
Gestalt principles might agree with the finding that more complex shapes are easier to recognize than simpler ones
But do we really need the Gestalt view to explain this finding?
We take more neurons that will agree with each other, so the more features we see will activate more neurons
Is perceptual processing uni or bi-directional
Bi-Directional