CHAPTER 3 - PERCEPTION Flashcards
define sensation
reception of stimulation from the environment and the initial encoding of that stimulation into the nervous system
for visual input what body part is used for sensation
eyes
name the photoreceptors of the eye
cones and rods
what is a saccade?
the quick movement of the eyes from one location to another
how long does a saccade last?
25-175 milliseconds
what is fixation?
the brief period when the eyes stop moving and process the visual scene
what is the area in the eye that has no cones or rods?
the blind spot
what happens to the sensory information when it reaches the blind spot
goes through the optic nerve to the brain
define perception
experiences resulting from stimulation of the senses
what occurs during perception?
process of interpreting and understanding information
what was George Sperling’s first experiment in 1960?
challenged the concept of perceptual span and introduced iconic memory
what is perceptual span?
the number if items one can report from a brief display that does not allow eye movement
what is the predicted perceptual span?
4.5 items
name the 2 kinds of reports Sperling had his participants do
whole and partial
what is a whole report?
trying to report everything that was presented
what is a partial report?
trying to report only the cued portion of the display
how did Sperling revise his experiment?
using digits and letters and had 3 kinds of report
what were the 3 new reports of Sperling’s revised?
whole, partial (spatial/row), and partial (categorial/type)
define a template
a pattern treated as an unanalyzed whole
what is a feature?
a separable element of a pattern
Describe Averbach and Coriell’s revised experiment
cued only one location to reduce memory demands even more
how did Averbach and Coriell replicate Sperling’s results?
using a bar marker and a circle
what were the conclusions of these experiences about perceptual span
perceptual span is not a good measure of what is perceived
what concluded about iconic memory?
an iconic image persists after an array disappears and it decays/is lost very rapidly
what kind of process is perception similar too?
the process of reasoning or problem solving and can change based on added information
what is the perceptual system’s job?
figure out what object created the image on the retina
what is the inverse projection problem?
the task of determining the object responsible for a particular image on the retina
what is viewpoint invariance?
the ability to recognize an object even when it is seen from different viewpoints
why does a scene have high level information?
has many objects and may have information that requires figuring out
what are the 2 types of information used by the human perceptual system?
environmental energy that stimulates receptors
knowledge and expectations that the observer brings to the situation
what is bottom-up-processsing?
the sequence of events from the eye to the brain
describe the events in bottom-up processing
looking at something to create an image on the retina
electrical signals go from the retina to the visual receiving area of the brain
what is top-down processing?
processing that originates from the brain/ the top of the perceptual system
what does top-down processing demonstrate?
addition of information to the foundation
what kind of processing allows for rapid identification of objects and scens?
top-down
what affects an object to be perceived as different objects?
orientation and scene context
what is the human advantage over computers?
top-down knowledge
what is speech segmentation?
the ability to tell when one word in a conversation ends and the next one begins
when people receive the same sound stimuli but perceive it differently, what does that suggest?
experience influences perception
describe bottom-up processing in auditory stimuli
sounds entering the ears and triggers signals that are sent to areas of speech in the brain
describe top-down processing in auditory stimuli
understanding language allows creation of perception of the individual words
what are transitional probabilities
the likelihood that one sound will follow within a word
what is statistical learning?
the process of learning transitional probabilities and about another characteristic of language
who contributed to the idea that perception involved the realization that the image on the retina is ambiguous?
Hermann and Helmhotz
describe the likelihood principle
states that we perceive the object that is most likely to have caused the pattern of stimuli we have received
what is unconscious reference?
our perceptions are a result of unconscious assumptions/inferences that we make about the environment
in what direction did the Gestalt psychologists follow to explain perception of objects
Wilhelm Wundt’s structuralism
what did the Gestalt psychologists reject?
the idea that sensations can be added up to form perception
describe Max Wertheimer’s apparent movement
the idea that although movement is perceived, nothing is actually moving
what did Wertheimer say about the perceptual system?
it creates the perception of movement from stationary images
what do the principles of perceptual organization suggest
the way elements are grouped to create larger objects
name the 3 laws of perceptual organization
principle of good continuation
law of pragnaz
principle of similarity
describe the law or good continuation
connected points forming lines are seen as belonging together and the lines tend to follow the smoothest path
objects that are overlapped by other objects are perceived as continuing behind the overlapping object is part of what principle
principle of good continuation
describe the law of Prgnaz
every stimulus pattern is seen in such a way that the resulting structure is as simple as possible
describe the principle of similarity
similar things appear to be grouped together
name the 2 regularities of the environment
physical
semantic
describe physical regularities
the regularly occurring physical properties of the environment
describe the oblique effect
people perceive horizontals and verticals more easily than orientations
what is the light-from -above assumption
assuming light is coming from above because the light in our environment usually comes from above
how does the light-form-above assumption affect percpetion
illuminated shapes are influenced by how they are shaded combined with the brain’s assumption
describe semantic regularities
the characteristics associated with the functions carried out in different types of scenes
what is important when discussing semantic regularities
the visualization of details within scenes
what is a scene schema
the knowledge of what a given scene typically contains
what is Bayesian Inference
suggests our estimate of the probability of an outcome is determined by prior probability and likelihood
what is prior probability
our initial belief about the probability of an outcome
what is likelihood
the extent to which the available evidence is consistent with the outcome
what processing does the Gestalt psychologists use in comparison to the other 3 approaches
bottom up orientated
what is the theory of natural selection
states that the characteristics that enhances an animal’s ability to survive and reproduce will be passed on to future generations
what does experience-dependent plasticity provide?
the idea that experience can shape the nervous system
who used Greebles in their experiment to demonstrate how EDP plays a role in a neuron’s response to faces
Isabel Gauthier
how does movement facilitate perception
helps perceive objects in the environment more accurately
reveals objects that are not apparent from a single viewpoint
explain the importance of interaction of perception and action
aids the coordination occurring between perceiving stimuli and taking action
what is brain ablation
the study of the effect of removing parts of the brain in animals
neuropsychology is the study of
behavior of people with brain damage
Leslie Ungerleider and Mortimer Mishkin used what method on monkeys to study its ability to identify and locate an object
brain ablation
what is object discrimination?
being able to identify an object
what is landmark discrimination
being able to locate an object
removal of the temporal lobe affected what? which pathway was discovered in this part of the experiment?
object discrimination
what/ventral pathway
removal of the parietal lobe affected what? which pathway was discovered in this part of the experiment?
landmark discrimination
where/dorsal pathway
David Milner and Melvyn Goodale named the what and where pathways what?
perception = what
action = where and how
who investigated the monkey’s premotor cortex as a monkey performed an action
Peligrino
what are mirror neurons
neurons that respond when one observes 2 different individuals repeat the same action
what is the mirror neuron system
mirror neurons are distributed throughout the brain in a network
who studied mirror neurons using short films with the same action with different intentions
Mario Iacoboni
what did Iacoboni observe?
intentions behind actions amplified brain activity more than no intentions
what did Mario Iacoboni conclude about mirror neurons
they are involved in understanding the intentions behind actions
