Exam 3 Deck Flashcards
Our last exam before the final !
What does RSVP stand for?
Rapid Serial Visual Presentation (RSVP)
What is Modified RSVP?
When you have two targets instead of one in a steady stream of items
What is the attentional blink?
it is the tendency not to perceive or respond to the second target stimuli that has been presented 200-500 miliseconds after the first target stimuli
Explain the ‘Fishing’ Metaphor of the Attentional Blink
The things you perceive are like things flowing by in a (dirty) river
Fishing metaphor: What happens when we Catch a Fish?
After we catch the fish our ‘net is out of the water’, and we’ll miss any other fish (targets) that come along, can explain attentional blink
Perceiving and Understanding ‘Scenes’
we perceive objects at locations within the
environmental context as part of some larger whole
– Collections of objects in the proper spatial relations to each other create “scenes”
Do we have a good picture memory?
YES! We’re very good at remembering complex scenes
– In original version, people correctly recognized 98% of 612 pictures as ‘old’
– Still 90% correct a week later
– Can be in the 80 - 90% range with sets as large as 10,000
images
What is change blindness?
The failure to notice differences between two images of a scene
A Problem: Saccade Speed
• We only make about 3–4 saccades per second
– This is too slow to account for our scene recognition abilities • We can observe more items in a scene than 3 - 4 per
second
What are Covert Attention Shifts?
we can move our attention independent of eye movements
– Attention shift without eye movement = covert attention shift
Describe the Scene Mosaic theory
• Perhaps attention shifts around a scene faster than eye movements building a collage of objects at locations that make up the scene
What are some problems with the Mosaic Idea?
• Requires a larger working memory load than we have
– Larger than the 7±2 working memory capacity
• Experimental results indicate that we can identify a scene in less than an eighth of a second (125 ms)
– Too fast for putting together a bunch of collage pieces
Define: Schema
A rough outline of a scene or situation with placeholders for details
– e.g. farm, classroom, mall
– Perhaps identified by a rough spatial frequency analysis
Are we good at recognizing a scene after we see it?
Yes, We’re really good at recognizing scenes but we’re really bad at noticing details in a scene. We have ‘placeholders’ for things that ought to be in a scene but don’t fill in those blanks unless needed
Physiology of Object Perception
• Some kinds of objects appear to be represented in specific parts of the brain
– e.g. faces appear to be represented in a special part of inferior temporal cortex
• If we’re attending to that kind of object, then that part of the brain should be more active
Define: Change Blindness
The failure to notice differences between two images of a scene
How do we extract meaning from scenes?
To extract a scene quickly from perceptual elements, we appear attend to the ‘gist’ of the scene and ignore detail
• The ‘gist’ of a scene is its core meaning, what the overall scene is
• Change perception depends on the meaning of the change – If scene meaning stays the same, we don’t notice the
change
• A market is a market, independent of the color of some
guy’s pants
The primary visual cortex is _______ and ______
retinotopic (locations close is space are close on the brain) and contralateral (right visual field processed in left hemisphere, LVG in right hemisphere)
What is the physiology of object perception?
Some kinds of objects appear to be represented in specific parts of the brain
– e.g. faces appear to be represented in a special part of inferior temporal cortex
• If we’re attending to that kind of object, then that part of the brain should be more active
How do we test the theory of object perception?
-Show pictures of faces, places, and control stimuli
• Sometimes ask subject to respond to faces
• Sometimes as to respond to places
• Measure brain activity
• Different parts of the brain light up to faces and places
How do we know it’s Attention not Perception?
• The fusiform face area likes faces
– It lights up to a face whether we’re attending to it or not – Could just be face perception
• Solution
– Show combined face/place stimulus
– Have participant attend to face or place but not both
• Same results
What could the individual neurons be doing to create these attention responses?
– Response enhancement
– Sharper tuning
– Altered tuning
all of which have been seen and studied
What does the inability to attend to contralesional space result from?
posterior parietal lobe damage (usually right
side)
Describe the waterfall illusion:
– Stare at a waterfall for a while, then stare at the still rocks beside it
• Rocks will appear to ‘crawl’ upward • After-image of downward motion is up
Why isn’t static perception enough?
• Camouflage
– Adaptations to obscure object recognition
• Sometimes motion is the best object cue
Describe the Motion Detector Model:
• Two receptors with adjacent receptive fields
• Stimulus (bug, spot of light) enters receptive field of A, then a
little later B
– First A fires, then B
• Motion detector M gets input from A & B – When A & B both fire, then M fires
What is the problem with the motion detector model?
It can’t distinguish between a small bug moving between receptive fields and a large bug in both receptive fields at once
– Both will activate A & B, thus activating M
What is a solution for the motion detector model?
• Add a ‘delay’ neuron
– Bug goes through receptive field A – A activates ‘delay’ neuron D
• Rapid adapting
• “Holds” the activation
– Later, B gets activated
– Simultaneous activation of D & B activates motion detector
describe the motion detection circut
a string of ‘delay’ neurons that can rapidly adapt, are sensitive to direction, one-way, and can also be velocity sensitive
The motion detection circuit exists in the brain through interneurons
TRUE
What are some ambiguity issues with motion perception?
• ✔ Can’t always tell direction of movement
– Due to aperture & correspondence problems
• Can perceive movement when there’s neither real nor apparent movement
• Can’t always tell what’s moving
What is real motion?
an object moving through space
what is apparent motion?
something that gives the perception of motion
• Successions of still images can give rise to the perception of motion (animation)
Explain Phi motion
– Perception of motion without intermediate positions
• Looks like single dot jumping back and forth
– Happens at fast switch rates (ISIs)
Explain Beta motion
– Perception of motion with intermediate positions
• Looks like single dot
– Happens at slower ISIs
– Perceptual system ‘fills in’ missing in-between stimuli
– One dot moving smoothly between two locations
how fast do photos in motion pictures run?
24 frames per second
How fast do drawings in animation run?
12 frames per second
How fast do computer rendered images in computer animation run?
Don’t know, it’s all computer generated so there are no frames
Motion sensitive areas appear to be located in the brain where?
in the medial temporal lobe
– Area MT, AKA V5
Define: Akinetopsia
inability to perceive motion, occurs in humans who have lesions near V5
Define: First-order motion
Object motion defined by luminance change
• As the object moves, reflected or projected light changes locally
– i.e. brightness change
Define: Second Order Motion
– Defined by texture change
• Luminance stays the same
• Pattern or texture stays the same
What is involuntary eye movement?
small eye jerks to avoid retinal stabilization
What is voluntary eye movement?
convergent and divergent movements to focus
-tracking a moving object (smooth eye pursuit)
What are saccades?
rapid eye movements to change the location of fixation
Why doesn’t the world jerk around as our eyes move?
Saccadic suppression. The visual system shuts down visual processing during a saccade
What are the 3 pairs of muscles that move the eyes?
– Obliques • Superior & Inferior – Rectus • Superior & Inferior • Medial & Lateral
Why doesn’t the world seem to move when we move our eyes?
A ‘copy’ of the eye movement motor program is sent to a ‘comparator’
– Compares visual scene changes with eye movement changes and compensates perceptual system for retinal image changes caused by eye movements
What is optic flow?
a perceptual flow of object representations around us
Time To Collision and Tau
• As we approach something, it’s retinal projection gets bigger • The ratio of the retinal image size to the rate of its expansion
is Tao
– Provides good estimate of how fast something is
approaching based on fast calculation from retinal image size alone
• Don’t have to know anything about the object
What is sound?
compressed and rarified air radiating away from a vibrating source
What is amplitude?
the height of peaks of sound waves
What is wavelength or frequency?
how close together the peaks (amplitude) are
T/F: Sound travels faster than light
FALSE: Sound travels slower than light, which is why you see lightning before you hear thunder
T/F: Sound travels fastest through less dense substances
FALSE: travels faster through denser substances
T/F: As distance from the source becomes greater, the pressure wave pattern stays the same
TRUE
T/F:Amplitude decreases because the pressure is spread over a larger area
TRUE
What is pressure amplitude?
maximum amount of change from
atmospheric pressure caused by given sound