Cognitive- Held & Hein

Question 1

Sensation

Answer 1

the process of bringing information from the outside world into the body and to the brain.

Process of sensing our environment through touch, taste, sight, sound, and smell. Requires sensory receptors.

This information is sent to our brains in raw form where perception comes into play.

Question 2

Perception

Answer 2

the process of selecting, organizing, and interpreting the information brought to the brain by the senses.

Question 3

Nature

Answer 3

humans are born with all their perceptual functions ready to be used

Bottom up theories of processing: also known as “small chunk” processing, suggests that we perceive our environment by starting with the smaller, more fine details then building upward until we have a solid representation of it in our minds

Question 4

Nurture

Answer 4

perceptual abilities have to be learned and adapted to

Top down theories of processing: also known as “large chunk” processing, states that we form perceptions of our environment by starting with the larger concepts and then working our way down to the finer details of that concept

Question 5

5 Study methods

Answer 5

by studying human babies/neonates & cataract patients & animals & different cultures & studying adaptation

Question 6

Aim

Answer 6

To test whether self produced movements are necessary for visually guided behavior.

Question 7

Method & Design

Answer 7

Laboratory Experiment

Independent Groups (or independent measures) design. Where each participant is in just one condition of the independent variable
Each kitten performed in only one condition of the independent variable

Question 8

Independent Variable

Answer 8

IV1 – kitten pairs ‘X’ and kitten pairs ‘Y’

IV2 – active kitten and passive kitten

Question 9

Dependent Variable

Answer 9

Perception

Question 10

Apparatus

Answer 10

‘Exposure’ apparatus consisting of a striped environment and a carousel. One ‘active’ kitten can walk about freely(or round and round) and through the harness movement is transmitted to the other ‘passive’ kitten, which is placed in a ‘gondola’ preventing movement by its own legs.

A comfortable cage with no light, where each pair of kittens spent non-experimental time with their mother and litter mates.

Question 11

Controls

Answer 11

All participants in each group were exposed to the same environment for the same amount of time and performed exactly the same tests
All participants had the same ‘living conditions’ and spent time with their mother and litter mates.

Question 12

Kittens experience

Answer 12

speed of travel
direction of travel
distance travelled
height from the floor
contact with the floor
the view of the apparatus

Question 13

Procedure

Answer 13

None of them received light before the experiment, as they were all reared in darkness from birth.
The point of this experiment is that both kittens were made to learn to see the world receiving the same visual stimulation. The difference was that the one moved actively, the other was moved passively.

The pairs spent 3 hours per day in the apparatus for 6 weeks.
When not in the apparatus, all kittens were housed in darkness with their mother and littermates

Each pair was attached to a ‘roundabout’ which was propelled by the movements of kitten A.
A could move up, down, toward or away from the center, and rotated clockwise or counterclockwise.
Kitten B was also attached to the roundabout but was carried in a basket so it could not control its own movements. It moved exactly the way kitten A moved.

Question 14

Tests of the capacity to make visual-spatial discriminations

Answer 14

Visually-Guided paw placement

Avoidance of Visual Cliff

Blink to an approaching object

Question 15

Tests of visual receptors and their responses

Answer 15

Visual pursuit of a moving object

Pupillary Reflex to light

Tactual Placing Response

Question 16

Visually-Guided Paw Placement

Answer 16

the kitten was held above a table and slowly moved towards it. A kitten with normal visual experience extends its paws ready to make contact with the surface.

Question 17

Avoidance of Visual Cliff

Answer 17

this equipment is like a bridge between two tables with an ‘invisible’ glass surface between them (so the animal can’t fall). One side of the bridge covers a shallow drop and the other side a deep drop. A kitten with normal visual experience walking across from one side to the other will walk onto the shallow surface but avoid the deep drop.

Question 18

Blink to an Approaching Object

Answer 18

the experimenter brought his hand quickly towards the kitten’s face (stopping just in front of it). A kitten with normal visual experience blinks in response.

Question 19

Visual Pursuit of a moving object

Answer 19

the kitten was shown the experimenter’s hand moving slowly in front of it. The movement of the kitten’s eyes was recorded. A kitten with normal visual experience follows the movement with its eyes.

Question 20

Pupillary Reflex to Light

Answer 20

a flashlight beam was moved across the eye and the change in pupil size was noted. The pupil of a kitten with normal visual experience shrinks in response.

Question 21

Tactual Placing Response

Answer 21

the kitten was held as in the paw placement test but its front paws were put against the vertical surface of the table. A kitten with normal visual experience responds by moving its paws to the horizontal surface.

Question 22

Findings

Answer 22

The findings fit the idea that self-produced movement and concurrent visual feedback are essential for the development of visually-guided behavior.

Following the 48 hours of freedom in a lighted room the passive kittens were retested.
They displayed normal visually-guided paw-placement and performed all descents to the shallow side of the visual cliff.
However, they were never normal

Question 23

Explanation

Answer 23

Self-actuated movement is necessary in order to develop the normal visual perception with depth.
Our movement in the world gives the dimension of depth to mere visual sensations.

Movement is the key to understanding the vision.
Overall the evidence is that some parts of perception are learned and some innate, and although it tends to be the more complex ones that are learned, there is still no total certainty as to which are innate and which rely on experience.

Question 24

Strengths

Answer 24

The amount of control

This shows that the kittens’ visual deficits were due to the fact that its movements were not self-actuated

Question 25

Weaknesses

Answer 25

May have merely distorted inborn abilities rather than proved that the abilities were learned (Construct validity?)

Can this generalize to all mammals? Even people?

Ethics of working with animals

Question 26

Subjects

Answer 26

Ten pairs of kittens were used; each pair from a different litter
In each pair there was one ‘active’ (A) and one ‘passive’ (P).
Population= Higher mammals
(humans are higher mammals)