Chp 5.6: Active Perception

Question 1

What are the 2 processing functions?

Answer 1

• bottom-up processing

- top-down processing

Question 2

bottom-up processing

Answer 2

perceptual processing that begins with the analysis of individual elements of the stimulus and works up to the brain’s integration of them into a unified perception

Question 3

top-down processing

Answer 3

perceptual processing in which existing knowledge, concepts, ideas, or expectations are applied to make sense of incoming stimulation

Question 4

Attention, and what are the 2 types?

Answer 4

the selective processing of some information at the expense of other information
•Amplification
•Filtering

Question 5

Inattentional Blindness

Answer 5

Failure of unattended stimuli to register in consciousness
•Attention acts as a set of blinders
•“Looking without seeing”

Question 6

“Gestalt” - pattern/shape/form

Answer 6

•Wholes we perceive are more than sum of their parts
•Early psychological movement studying mind/behaviour as a whole
-Suggested perception was governed by laws that determined how things were grouped together

Question 7

Gestalt laws

Answer 7

the laws of perceptual organization advanced by the Gestalt psychologists—namely, similarity, proximity, closure, and continuity

Question 8

Figure-Ground Separation (2)

Answer 8

•Attend to scenes such that some information is processed as foreground, while other information is processed as background
-This principle helps explain ambiguous figure perception

Question 9

Perceptual set (4)

Answer 9

-Perception Is Influenced by Expectations
•Readiness to perceive stimuli in particular way
•Creates psychological context to use in top-down processing
•“Seeing is believing”

Question 10

Perception Is Influenced by _______

Answer 10

Expectations

Question 11

binocular disparity

Answer 11

the binocular depth cues produced by the projection of slightly different images of an object on the retinas of the two eyes

Question 12

Illusions (3)

Answer 12

• Compelling but ultimately “incorrect” perceptions
• Erroneous perceptual hypotheses about the nature of the stimulus
• Due to perceptual schemas, hypotheses, sets, constancies etc.

Question 13

Cognitive penetrability

Answer 13

the extent to which knowing the “trick” of the illusion diminishes the effect

Question 14

Cross-Cultural Research on Perception (2)

Answer 14

• Humans normally come into the world with the same perceptual abilities
• The culture one grows up in helps to determine the kinds of perceptual learning experiences people have

Question 15

Critical Periods in Perception

Answer 15

Time period during which certain experiences must occur in order for perception to develop normally