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PSYC3015 > final exam > Flashcards

final exam Flashcards

1
Q

What causes sensory illusions?

A

Caused by a limitation in how information is encoded

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2
Q

What causes perceptual illusions?

A

Brain misinterprets the sensory representation, often due to perceptual constancy or global interpretation

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3
Q

Define a bistable percept

A

An image that can be perceived in two ways, depending on what is interpreted as the figure and the background

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4
Q

How can results be skewed when using bistable percepts in experiments?

A

Some people have emotional responses to bistable percepts, which are linked to other cognitive processes, such as cognitive empathy. These responses can influence the target effect

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5
Q

Describe the perceptual shape constancy illusion

A

The brain’s tendency to assume the perceptual constancy in the physical attributes of an object causes a misinterpretation of a retinal image

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6
Q

What are the underlying processes that cause perceptual constancy illusions?

A

When producing a percept, the brain only has access to the retinal image during visual processing.
The retinal image is constantly changing when we move, therefore the brain actively interprets input in order to construct a stable percept

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7
Q

What can sensory illusions tell us about how the brain works?

A
  • What brain cells are tuned to and what information cortical areas process
  • How brain cells/areas interact
  • How information is transformed across brain areas
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8
Q

What can perceptual illusions tell us about how the brain works?

A
  • How the brain interprets sensory representations
  • What assumptions the brain makes about the outside world
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9
Q

What does perceived size depend on?

A

The size of the retinal image and the (estimate of) viewing distance
The brain scales the size of the retinal image by an estimate of viewing distance to generate a percept size

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10
Q

What subconscious inference does the brain make when representing size constancy?

A

The distance to the object, which is then used to scale the retinal image accordingly at a subconscious level

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11
Q

Define the visual angle in regard to size perception

A

A measurement of how big a retinal image produced by an object is on the eye

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12
Q

Describe Holway and Boring’s experiment and their results

A

Task: test disks of various sizes at various distances were compared by participant to a comparison disk at a fixed distance
Results: the size of the retinal image changes with viewing distance. Removing distance cues creates a dysfunction in perceptual size constancy as the brain can only use the retinal image

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13
Q

What is Emmert’s Law?

A

The size of a retinal after-image is fixed
Perceived size of the after-image depends on viewing distance

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14
Q

What are two factors that affect perceived size of a viewed object?

A

Relative size: comparison to the size of surrounding objects
Shape/object constancy: perceived shape of the object doesn’t change, compared to retinal image

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15
Q

What is constructivism?

A

A form of empiricism proposed by Ames. Notion that the aim of visual processing is construct an internal model of the outside world, using assumptions to form a percept

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16
Q

What assumption does the brain prioritise when viewing the Ames room illusion?

A

The brain prioritises the assumption that rooms are typically rectangular over that of constantly sized people, regardless of conscious awareness

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17
Q

Define an absolute threshold

A

Detecting the presence of a stimulus
Minimum intensity at which the stimulus is ‘just’ detectable

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18
Q

Define a relative threshold

A

Telling two stimuli apart

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19
Q

What does a psychometric curve plot?

A

Detectability vs stimulus intensity
Shape of the curve is influenced by noise

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20
Q

What are the two kinds of noise that can influence a psychometric curve?

A

External noise: variation in the stimulus or the environment that affects performance
Internal: variation in the observer

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21
Q

What are the two kinds of noise that can influence threshold values?

A

Random noise: the direction of the error varies randomly from trial to trial
Systematic: the direction of the error is constant

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22
Q

What are the outcomes of noise in threshold measurement on the shape of psychometric curve?

A

Random: curve is more shallow, more variability and less robust data
Systematic: offsets the curve producing the wrong curve

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23
Q

What are the desired properties of a threshold?

A

Validity: the observer can actually perform the task at threshold level
Reliability: you would get close to the same value if measured again

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24
Q

What are the issues with subjective threshold measures?

A

Individual variation in threshold detection
No measure of if they can actually see it when they say they can

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25
Q

Describe the method of adjustments/limits for psychophysical techniques

A

The experimenter adjusts the stimulus intensity until the it is said to be detectable by the participant, in both directions.
Threshold = value at which the response changes from detectable/undetectable
Habituation: tendency to zone out and keep saying same response
Expectation: falsely anticipate a change before it occurs

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26
Q

Describe the method of constant stimuli for psychophysical techniques

A

Present a fixed set of stimulus intensities a fixed number of times in a random order
Plot frequency of responses as a function of stimulus intensity

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27
Q

Describe the staircase method for psychophysical techniques

A

Start at an intensity far from threshold value, change stimulus depending on observer’s response (+ = down, - = up) stopping after a specified number of reversals
Reversal point = where the direction of change reverses

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28
Q

What are the advantages/disadvantages of the method of limits?

A

Advantages: quick and minimal pre-testing
Disadvantages: inprecise

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29
Q

What are the advantages/disadvantages of the method constant stimuli?

A

Advantages: produces full psychometric curve, avoids habituation and anticipation effects
Disadvantages: inefficient, need to pilot test

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30
Q

What are the advantages/disadvantages of the staircase method?

A

Advantages: quick and accurate
Disadvantages: spend most of the time around threshold, sensitive to false errors

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31
Q

Define ‘Just Noticeable Difference’ (Weber’s Law)

A

Difference between intensities required to tell them apart - discrimination threshold

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32
Q

Why is spatial frequency analysis useful?

A
  • Any image can be broken down and represented as a series of sinewaves
  • Can be used to model visual system processes
  • Can be used to determine what any observer should see
  • Can account for and explain different percepts
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33
Q

What happens to a sinewave when spatial frequency increases and contrast decreases?

A

The peaks of the sinewaves become smaller and closer together

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34
Q

Define contrast in relation to spatial frequency analysis

A

The difference in the strength or intensity of a sinewave

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35
Q

Define spatial frequency in relation to sinewaves

A

The scale of the sinewave, cycles per degree (peak to peak)

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36
Q

Define phase in relation to spatial frequency analysis

A

The starting location of the sinewave in degrees

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37
Q

What does a spatial frequency spectrum show?

A

The energy in the stimulus at each spatial frequency -> how much of each sinewave is needed to form the stimulus

38
Q

Define the frequency of a sinewave

A

The number of cycles within a certain time or space

39
Q

Define the amplitude of a sinewave

A

The height of the wave

40
Q

What are square waves and how are they constructed

A

A square wave is a periodic wave form that alternates between two fixed amplitudes.
Constructed by summing the fundamental and the odd harmonic components of the sinewave

41
Q

What is the fundamental in spatial frequency analysis?

A

The square wave that has the same peak-to-peak distance as the sinewave
It is the lowest spatial frequency sinewave within an image

42
Q

What are harmonics in spatial frequency analysis?

A

Sinewaves that have a higher frequency than the fundamental
(3rd harmonic is 3x the spatial frequency of the fundamental)

43
Q

What are the two spectrums required to define an image in full?

A

Power spectrum: contrast of the different spatial frequencies
Phase spectrum: phase of the different spatial frequencies

44
Q

What is the contrast level needed to discriminate a sinewave from a square wave?

A

A squarewave and sinewave can only be differentiated at the point where the third harmonic becomes detectable, otherwise they are both at the fundamental level

45
Q

What is a modulation transfer function?

A

A plot of the sensitivity of the a non-human system (camera lens) to different spatial frequencies
Outputs the spectra of the input image, multiplied by the MTF

46
Q

Describe the human contrast sensitivity function

A

Plot of sinewaves at each spatial frequency that represents where an stimulus is visible to the human visual system

47
Q

What causes a loss of sensitivity at low spatial frequencies?

A

Low spatial frequencies are essentially uniform luminance. Simple cells in V1 are not tuned to uniform luminance, they are tuned to sinewave modulations (variation in luminance). Due to the spatial opponency of V1 simple cells, they have no excitation or inhibition responses.

48
Q

What causes a loss of sensitivity at high spatial frequencies?

A

The ability of the visual system to extract high frequencies is limited by:
- the number of cells
- how tightly packed they are
- how many retinal ganglion cells they feed into
This causes undersampling (aliasing) which the optics of the eye handle by blurring out high frequencies

49
Q

What information do high spatial frequencies convey?

A
  • Rapid alternation between light and dark
  • Short wave-length
  • Fine detail
50
Q

What information do low spatial frequencies convey?

A
  • Slow alternation between light and dark
  • Long wavelength
  • Coarse detail
51
Q

What are the upper frequency cutoffs for humans, cats and wedge-tail eagles?

A

Maximum spatial frequency that the observer is sensitive to
Humans: ~30cpd
Cats: ~12cpd
Wedge-tail eagle: ~140cpd

52
Q

What information is required to predict the visibility of a stimulus?

A

The object’s Fourier spectrum and the observer’s contrast sensitivity function
Perceived image = stimulus FS*CSF

53
Q

What are SF channels?

A

Cells/pathways tuned to specific stimulus features, such as orientation, SF, disparity

54
Q

Describe adaptation to spatial frequencies

A

When prolonged viewing of a stimulus reduces the sensitivity of cells that are tuned to that stimulus

55
Q

What pattern of results would suggest that the human CSF is due to a single channel sensitive to all spatial frequencies?

A

After adaption, sensitivity to all spatial frequencies will be effected (global change in adaptation)

56
Q

What pattern of results would indicate that the CSF is due to multiple channels sensitive to different spatial frequencies?

A

After adaptation, only channels sensitive to the adapted SF would exhibit reduced sensitivity

57
Q

How does the visual system process different spatial frequencies in the retinal image?

A

There are debated to be 4 to 7 channels that break images down into different spatial frequency bands, each channel is tuned to a different SF.
High SFs are processed by small receptive fields.
Low SFs are processed by large receptive fields

58
Q

Describe the coarse-to-fine process analysis

A

The process by which the magnocellular system rapidly transmits the low spatial frequency information to the cortex, which maps out the rough outline of the image. Then the parvocellular system information, which has slower axon conduction speed, reaches the cortex and fills in the detail

59
Q

What happens to the spatial frequency content of an image with increasing viewing distance?

A
  • An increase in SF when the image is further away and consequently smaller
  • An increase in cycles per degree as distance increases
60
Q

What happens to humans’ contrast sensitivity function with increasing viewing distance?

A

It does not change, sensitive to the same spatial frequencies

61
Q

What does squinting your eyes do to change how we process spatial frequencies?

A

Squinting essentially creates a low-parse filter, which filters out high spatial frequencies

62
Q

How does spatial acuity differ in the central and peripheral regions of the eye?

A

Our best spatial acuity is in the fovea. As eccentricity increases, spatial acuity decrease

63
Q

How does the difference between acuity in the central and peripheral affect the contrast sensitivity function?

A

The CSF prioritises high SF information from the fovea, but when an object is viewed in the periphery, low SF information dominates

64
Q

What causes the checker shadow illusion where squares A and B have the same physical luminance?

A

The visual system processes how information is represented across all SFs when interpreting a scene
Real edges have the edge information defined at all SFs, whereas shadows are only defined at low SFs, causing square B to be interpreted as in shadow

65
Q

What are the two types of depth information?

A

Absolute: distance (depth) from the observer to an object
Relative: difference in depth between objects

66
Q

What is the relative size monocular cue?

A

If two objects are similar in size, we perceive the one that casts a smaller retinal image to be farther away, either consciously or unconsciously

67
Q

What is the occlusion/interposition cue to depth processing?

A

If two opaque objects are in the same line of sight, the near one occludes the other providing relative depth information

68
Q

What is the lighting and shadow cue to depth processing?

A

The brain uses light and shadow to generate a percept of depth because 3D objects typically cast shadows.
Greater depth is indicated by deeper shadows, so less depth is perceived when light is directed straight onto a surface

69
Q

What is the texture gradient cue to depth processing?

A

The SF information of visual detail on a surface varies with distance.
Increasing distance shifts the spectrum toward high SFs

70
Q

What is convergence?

A

Simultaneous inward movement of both eyes to focus on something that is closer than the current depth of fixation

71
Q

What is divergence?

A

Simultaneous outward movement of both eyes to focus on something that is further than current depth of fixation

72
Q

Define decussation

A

The crossing over of nerve fibres from one side of the brain to the other

73
Q

Define hemidecussation

A

Partial cross over of optical nerve fibres that results in cells in V1 receiving input from RFs that corresponds that correspond to the same region of space
Cells on the right VF of each eye project to the right hemisphere
Cells on the left VF of each eye project to the left hemisphere

74
Q

What are the characteristics of a large monocular visual field?

A

Larger overall VF
Better visual coverage
Worse depth perception

75
Q

What are the characteristics of a large binocular visual field?

A

Smaller VF overall
Worse visual coverage of the world
Better depth perception

76
Q

Define binocular disparity

A

The difference in the location of an object’s image in the two eyes due to horizontal offset. Images off the horopter fall on non-corresponding points and therefore generate binocular disparity

77
Q

What are the two factors that cue an object’s depth relative to a fixation point?

A

Disparity direction: direction left or right of the fixation point
Disparity magnitude: distance from fixation point, far or near

78
Q

What is the horopter?

A

The multiple points in the visual space that lead to single, corresponding vision. The horopter’s shape changes as a function of viewing distance

79
Q

What is the horopter’s shape, before, at and past the abathic distance?

A

Before: concave parabola
At: straight line
Past: convex parabola

80
Q

What is Panum’s fusional area?

A

The region around the horopter where images can be fused despite non-correspondence

81
Q

What is an anaglyph?

A

Stereoscope in which spatially overlapping red and green images are seen through filters in each eye eyes

82
Q

What is a polaroid stereoscope?

A

Stereoscope in which different images are projected onto a screen via 2 projectors with oppositely oriented polaroid filters
Viewed through cross-polarised glasses

83
Q

What is a shutter stereoscope?

A

Stereoscope in which different images are presented in rapid alteration on a computer monitor
Viewed via goggles that. alternately occlude each eye

84
Q

What is the correspondence problem?

A

The issue of how the visual system needs to determine which images in each eye correspond to the same object
Must be done on an object-by-object basis because different objects have different disparities

85
Q

What are the two theories of how the brain solves the correspondence problem?

A

A. Binocular combination prior to stereopsis and object recognition
B. Monocular object recognition prior to binocular combination and stereopsis

86
Q

Which theory of how the brain solves the correspondence problem won out?

A

Julesz used random dot stereograms, which are images composed of light and dark dots in which depth can only occur through binocular matching
Demonstrated that monocular form recognition is not a prerequisite for stereopsis

87
Q

What is the false-matching problem?

A

The fact that there are more false matches of objects that correct ones.

88
Q

How does the visual system solve the false matching problem?

A

False matches along the same line of sight are solved through inhibitory connections between cells. Due to the assumption that objects are opaque. If there is one correct match in a line of sight, there cannot be more (1 cell active)

False matches along the same line of depth are solved via excitation and the assumption of object continuity. Objects tend to be bigger than the RF of single V1 cell.

89
Q

What are the ecological constraints that the neural system employs to solve the false matching problem?

A

Surface opacity and surface continuity

90
Q

Describe the steps in the Marr-Poggio model

A
  1. Make all correct and false matches
  2. Apply constraints
  3. Stable solution emerges
91
Q

What is aliasing

A

When a high-frequency signal is sampled at a rate that is insufficient to capture the changes in the signal.

PSYC3015 (2 decks)

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