Exam #1 Flashcards
What is perception?
Fundamental freedom (and limitation), biological process that provides us with useful info about objects and events in our world that can be used to guide our cognitions and actions
Perception is self-referenced
Object and events are perceived relative to perceiver’s perspective
Perception is active
Perception guides action and action informs perception (to see, we look)
Perception is constructive
Vision tries to find “meaning” in everything we see, fills in the gaps (ex: finds faces)
Perception is relative
Depends on context (ex: same size middle circle surrounded by different sized outer circles)
Perception is invariant in the face of changing stimulation
“Perceptual constancy”: perception remains constant even when the associated sensory data varies
Perception changes in the face of unchanging stimulation
Ex: can see two different images in one image-optical illusions
Perception enhances the novel and ignores the unchanging
Certain things stand out while things that don’t change are ignored (habituation)
Perception is guided by expectations and by context
We always try to expect things (ex: moon and its changing size, camel photo with shadows)
Perception can be educated
Shown ambiguous photos, only see it when you have knowledge of what it is
Perception is an intelligent, adaptive process
Takes limited sensory data, and using built-in assumptions, deduces what in the world gave rise to that sensory data
Perception involves competing demands
- Sensory vs resolution
- Discrimination vs generalization
- Grouping vs segmentation
Sensitivity
Being able to detect “faint” signals, smallest amount of difference
Resolution
Being able to distinguish among multiple signals (eg: their location), smallest unit of measurement that can indicated by an instrument
Grouping
Combining elements based on their common features
Segmentation
Picking out a given element from a background of similar events (ex: can see the letter B behind a dark background)
Generalization
Categorize based on common feature (ex: calls all adult men “dad”)
Discrimination
Distinguish among similar objects, organism responds differently to 2 stimuli (ex: call only your father “dad”)
Is perception more useful or accurate?
USEFUL
What determines which parts of the world are sampled by perception?
Portions of the environment are perceptually important to different organisms (ex: bees can see UV light) based on habits, habitats, time most active
Psychophysics
Quantitative branch of study of perception, examines relations between observed stimuli and responses and reasons for those relations (ex: can see dimmer spot of light in darker env)
Phenomenology
What do things look, sound, smell, like? Study of consciousness and objects of direct experience (ex: moon looks larger when on horizon)
What is interpretation of psychophysical data strongly influenced by?
Known anatomy and physiology of sensory systems
What do psychometric functions look like?
Sigmoids, almost always 1 experiment
Absolute threshold
Lower limit of perception, weakest stimulus that can just barely be detected
Difference threshold (JND)
Smallest reliably discriminable difference between 2 stimuli (AKA just noticeable difference) (ex: forgot glasses)