Chapter 3: Visual Perception

Question 1

Lens

Answer 1

The transparent tissue located near the front of each eye that (together with the cornea) plays an important role in focusing incoming light. Muscles control the degree of curvature of the lens, allowing the eye to form a sharp image on the retina.

Question 2

Cornea

Answer 2

The transparent tissue located near the front of each eye that plays an important role in focusing incoming light.

Question 3

Retina

Answer 3

The light-sensitive tissue that lines the back of the eyeball.

Question 4

Photoreceptors

Answer 4

Cells on the retina that are sensitive to light and that respond (i.e. send a signal to adjacent cells) when they are stimulated by light (rods and cones are the two types of photoreceptor).

Question 5

Rods

Answer 5

Photoreceptors that are sensitive to very low light levels but that are unable to discriminate hues and that have relatively poor activity. Often contrasted with cones.

Question 6

Cones

Answer 6

Photoreceptors are able to discriminate hues and that have high acuity. Cones are concentrated in the retina’s fovea and become less frequent in the visual periphery. Often contrasted with rods.

Question 7

Acuity

Answer 7

The ability to see fine detail.

Question 8

Fovea

Answer 8

The center of the retina and the region on the eye in which acuity is best; when a person looks at an object, they are lining up that object with the fovea.

Question 9

Bipolar Cells

Answer 9

A type of neuron in the eye. Bipolar cells receive their input from the photo and transmit their output to the retinal ganglion cells.

Question 10

Ganglion Cells

Answer 10

A type of neuron in the eye. The ganglion cells receive their input from the bipolar cells, and then the axons of the ganglion cells gather together to form the optic nerve, carrying information back to the lateral geniculate nucleus.

Question 11

Optic Nerve

Answer 11

The bundle of nerve fibers, formed from the retina’s ganglion cells, that carries information from the eyeball to the brain.

Question 12

Lateral Geniculate Nucleus (LGN)

Answer 12

An important way station in the thalamus that is the first destination for visual information sent from the eyeball to the brain.

Question 13

Lateral Inhibition

Answer 13

A pattern in which cells, when stimulated, inhibit the activity of neighboring cells. In the visual system, lateral inhibition in the optic nerve creates edge enhancement.

Question 14

Edge Enhancement

Answer 14

A process created by lateral inhibition in which the neurons in the visual system give exaggerated responses to edges of surfaces.

Question 15

Single-Cell Recording

Answer 15

A technique for recording the moment-by-moment activation level of an individual neuron within a healthy, normally functioning brain.

Question 16

Receptive Field

Answer 16

The portion of the visual field to which a cell within the visual system responds. If the appropriately shaped stimulus appears in the appropriate position, the cell’s firing rate will change. The firing rate will not change if the stimulus is of the wrong form or is in the wrong position.

Question 17

Center-Surround Cells

Answer 17

A type of neuron in the visual system that has a “donut-shaped” receptive field. Stimulation in the center of the receptive field has one effect on the cell; stimulation in the surrounding ring has the opposite effect.

Question 18

Area VI

Answer 18

The site on the occipital lobe where axons from the LGN first reach the cerebral cortex. This site is (for one neural pathway) the location at which information about the visual world first reaches the brain.

Question 19

Parallel Processing

Answer 19

A system in which many steps are going on at the same time (e.g.: rods and cones). Usually contrasted with serial processing.

Question 20

What System

Answer 20

The system of visual circuits and pathways leading from the visual cortex to the temporal lobe and especially involved in object recognition. Often contrasted with the where system.

Question 21

Where System

Answer 21

The system of visual circuits and pathways leading from the visual cortex to the parietal lobe and especially involved in the spatial localization of objects and in coordination of movements. Often contrasted with the what system.

Question 22

Binding Problem

Answer 22

The problem of reuniting the various elements of a scene, given that these elements are initially dealt with by different systems in the brain.

Question 23

Neural Synchrony

Answer 23

A pattern of firing by neurons in which neurons in one brain area fire at the same time as neurons in another area; the brain seems to use this pattern as an indication that the neurons in different areas are firing in response to the same stimulus.

Question 24

Conjunction Errors

Answer 24

An error in perception in which a person correctly perceives what features are present but misperceives how the features are joined, so that – for example – a red circle and a green square might be misperceived as a red square and a green circle.

Question 25

Reversible (or ambiguous) Figure

Answer 25

Drawings that can be readily perceived in more than one way. Classic examples include the vase/profiles, duck/rabbit, and the Necker cube.

Question 26

Figure/Ground Organization

Answer 26

The processing step in which the perceiver determines which aspects of the stimulus belong to the central object (or “figure”) and which aspects belong to the background (or “ground”).

Question 27

Gestalt Principles

Answer 27

A small number of rules that seem to govern how observers organize the visual input, grouping some elements together but perceiving other elements to be independent of one another.

Question 28

Visual Features

Answer 28

The elements of a visual pattern – vertical lines, curves, and so on – that, together, form the overall pattern.

Question 29

Perceptual Constancy

Answer 29

The achievement of perceiving the constant properties of objects in the world (e.g., their size, shape, and color) despite changes in the sensory information we receive that are caused by changes in our viewing circumstances.

Question 30

Size Constancy

Answer 30

The achievement of perceiving the constant size of objects despite changes in the size of the retinal image that result from variations in viewing distance.

Question 31

Brightness Constancy

Answer 31

The achievement of perceiving the constant brightness of objects despite changes in the light reaching the eye that result from variations in illumination.

Question 32

Unconscious Inference

Answer 32

The hypothesized steps that perceivers follow in order to take one aspect of the visual scene (e.g., viewing distance) into account in judging another aspect (e.g., size).

Question 33

Distance Cues

Answer 33

Information available to the perceiver that allows the perceiver to judge how far off a target object is.

Question 34

Binocular Disparity

Answer 34

A distance cue based on the differences between the two eyes’ views of the world. This difference becomes less pronounced the further away an object is from the observer.

Question 35

Monocular Distance Cues

Answer 35

Features of the visual stimulus that indicate distance even if the stimulus is viewed with only one eye.

Question 36

Pictorial Cues

Answer 36

Patterns that can be represented on a flat surface to create the sense of a three-dimensional object or scenes.

Question 37

Interposition

Answer 37

A monocular distance cue that relies on the fact that objects farther away are blocked from view by closer objects that happen to be in the viewer’s line of sight.

Question 38

Linear Perspective

Answer 38

A cue for distance based on the fact that parallel lines seem to converge as they get farther away from the viewer.

Question 39

Motion Parallax

Answer 39

A distance cue based on the fact that as an observer moves, the retinal images of nearby objects move more rapidly than do the retinal images of objects farther away.

Question 40

Optic Flow

Answer 40

The pattern of change in the retinal image in which the image grows larger as the viewer approaches an object and shrinks at the viewer retreats from it.