Midterm 2 Flashcards
behavioral ecology
observation and field experiments
experimental psychology
laboratory experiments on spatial learning
three core navigation processes
path integration, scene recognition, and reorientation
path integration
how do you get from one point to another
scene recognition
how we recognize and use the scene around us to navigate
reorientation
if you do get mixed up or turned around, what do you use in the environment and how do you reorient yourself to get back?
two uniquely human navigational abilities
flexible reorientation; pictures, models, and maps
flexible reorientation
humans can reorient themselves based on a number of factors
bee navigation
bees assess direction traveled by optic flow (reflection of light on eyes varies from if the bee is going straight to if they are going sideways, etc.); communicate with each other about where they traveled through the waggle dance
the waggle dance
tells the distance and direction to a food source to other bees
limits of path integration
subject to cumulative error –> correction occurs through enduring representations of environment
representations that underlie place learning
representations are like real maps or representations are like photographs
representations are like real maps
capture locations of places; relationships of different places; independent of the observer’s viewpoint
representations are like photographs
capture appearance of each place; particular point of observation
morris water maze task
place a rat in a tank filled with water that looks like the shade of diluted milk; let it swim around until it can find the platform to stand; results found the rat can find the platform from any viewpoint based on external cues on the walls surrounding the tank
Tunisian desert ant
the pedometer hypothesis; ants count the amount of steps they took to get to a food source and take that same amount of steps to get home; have an internal clock to base the direction of home on the sun’s position
hippocampal region
crucial for memory consolidation
parahippocampal place area
near hippocampus; central to navigation in rats
place learning in insects and rats
view-dependent representations of places; linking those places together as routes
scene representations are not like…
real maps
humans form…
view-dependent representations
three components of reorientation
domain specific; task-specific; encapsulated
reorientation in young children
children reorient by shape of the room; fail to reorient by color of wall
three systems of navigation
path integration, view-dependent scene recognition, and geometric module
geometric module
domain-specific –> geometry of surfaces, not patterns
task-specific –> reorientation, not other tasks
encapsulated –> detect and remember other cues but don’t use them
what is unique about human spatial representation?
humans have unique ways of combining information; spatial language; other representational devices also may give us unique spatial abilities (pictures, models, maps)
problems of object representation
unity and boundaries; occlusion
unity and boundaries
what goes with what?
occlusion
what is the complete shape of each object?
nativist perspective of object representation
the developmental primitives of object representations go beyond information from our senses; some parts of object representations are not learned; core knowledge of objects
empiricist perspective of object representation
the developmental primitives of object representation are sensory representations; learning is accomplished by general learning mechanisms such as the capacity to form associations, to detect correlations, etc.; all parts of object representation (except senses) are learned; knowledge of objects is constructed from sensory representations
two object representation systems
object tracking system; object recognition system
object tracking
ability to track objects; “mental finger” pointing to an object; operate over spatiotemporal information; can track multiple objects at once
object recognition
ability to recognize kinds of objects; operates over feature information
signatures of object tracking system
only 3-4 objects can be tracked at once; objects survive occlusion; tracking operates over entire objects, not parts; cohesion and rigidity influence object tracking
objects survive occlusion
signature of object tracking; we are still able to track an object even when they go behind something/disappear
tracking operates over entire objects, not parts
signature of object tracking; more difficult to track an individual part of an object, rather than the whole object
cohesion and rigidity influence object tracking
signature of object tracking; objects disappearing and appearing somewhere else is difficult to track
object recognition is viewpoint invariant
we can recognize an object regardless of its orientation; we have sensitivity to non-accidental features
object tracking under various conditions
people able to track under conditions of no occlusion, virtual occlusion, and occlusion; not able to track under conditions of implosion/explosion
signature limits of object recognition
sensitive to non-accidental properties in a visual image; objects are learned by associating patterns of neural activity over time; we recognize things as kinds of things
objects are learned by associating patterns of neural activity over time
signature of object recognition; neural paths adjust to what they’re used to –> can lead to visual illusions; ex. recognizing an object as a box when it is arranged in a certain way because it has the features of the box, when it actually is not a box
we recognize things as kinds of things
signature of object recognition; recognize species of dogs as kinds of dogs
non-accidental properties
qualitative differences
metric properties
quantitative differences
around 4.5 months of life
infants begin to discern shapes and sizes
around 7.5 months of life
infants begin to discern patterns
around 11.5 months
infants begin to discern colors and luminance
experiment proving newborns learn caregiver’s face quickly
2-choice visual preference; two displays, one showing the infant’s mother and the other showing another infant’s mother; the infant will look longer at the image of their mother than the other mother; visual system is not fully developed, but they recognize their mother better
is the empiricist or nativist perspective correct in the case of object recognition
nativist
imprinting
phase-sensitive learning that is rapid and apparently independent of the consequences of behavior
can chicks recognize objects immediately after being hatched?
place the chicks in an environment without any objects; show them a display with an object and the chick imprints on the object; then, show the chick two displays: one of the original object rotated and the other of a completely different object; continue showing the same two objects on the two displays but in different orientations each time; for each trial, the chick preferred the original object; results show that the chick was able to tell that the object they imprinted on was the same object in each trial despite any changes in orientation
cross-cultural experiment with a Himba tribe
Himba tribe has few words for simple shapes in language; compared Himba tribe to USC students; showed participants two displays, one with non-accidental properties and the other with metric properties and they were told to match-to-sample; participants had to say which object matched the main object; results: non-accidental properties are lower in their error rate than metric properties and both groups follow the same trend –> thus, both groups had the same kind of processing of the objects
does the cross-cultural study support the nativist or empiricist perspective of object recognition?
nativist
conclusions of object representation
-many signatures of object recognition found in humans are also found in nonhuman animals
-object recognition signatures are culturally universal
-infants innately perceive object shape
-evidence suggest object recognition is innate
energy hypothesis of how ants represent distance traveled
ants measure their distance through the energy required for locomotion; experiment where the ants carried varying loads, but ants were found to still be able to assess the walking distance with great accuracy regardless of the load they carry
optic flow hypothesis of how ants represent distance traveled
they take into account how light reflects off of different objects and scenery as they make their route; experiment where the ants’ eyes were covered during homebound runs, but the ants were still able to assess traveling distance correctly despite not being able to see
pedometer hypothesis experiment
after the ants have reached the food, the experimenters cut off half the legs of some ants (stumps), put some ants on stilts, and left the rest the same; as the ants walked home, the ants with stumps ended up short of the nest, the ants of stilts ended up passing the nest, and the normal ants got back to the nest like normal; proves that the ants count their steps
