perception Flashcards
what is the three stage process of perception?
analysis
synthesis
perception
what is a sensation? (two answers)
conscious or mental process generated by stimulating a sense organ, sensory nerve, or sensory region in the brain
sense organs (eyes, ears, nose, tongue, and skin) react to external stimuli
sensation happens at what point?
first
perception happens at what point?
last
STAGE 1 - what is a distal object? and example?
the item (STIMULUS) doing the stimulating
cow mooing (sound) -> stimulates your audition (sense is stimulated)
what are the distal objects from hearing, sight, smell, feel, and taste?
audition
vision
olfaction
touch
gustation
STAGE 2 - what is the information medium? and examples?
how the information travels from the distal object
e.g. waves, light (vision), molecules (taste), pressure (touch)
STAGE 3 - what is proximal stimulation? and examples?
how the information medium is received
e.g. sound generates movement on the basillar membrane in the ear
how does sound travel?
sound -> ear -> transmitted to basillar membrane -> basillar membrane moves -> info transferred to cochlear -> auditory system
how does vision travel?
light absorbed by rods/cones in retina
how does taste travel?
molecule reception at taste buds
how does touch travel?
stimulation of receptor cells
STAGE 4 - what is the perceptual object? and example?
recognising the object as the object
e.g. recognising the sound as a cow
what does ‘Gestalt’ mean?
‘form’ or ‘shape’
who created the gestalt approach?
kofka, kohler, wertheimer
what is gestalt theory?
tries to understand how the human brain perceives experiences
it suggests that structures, perceived as a whole, have specific properties that are different from the sum of their individual parts
what does the gestalt theory principles provide?
explain how we make sense of the world
what is the law of pragnanz?
see a set of ambiguous or complex objects and tries to make them as simple as possible
what is figure-ground segregation?
ability to separate the figure in a picture from the background
what are the gestalt laws?
proximity - when objects are played together, the eye perceives them as a group
similarity - when objects look similar to one another, the eye perceives them as a group or pattern
continuance - the eye is compelled to move from one object through another
closure - when an object is incomplete or not completely enclosed
figure & ground - when the eye differentiates an object from its surrounding area
common region - things in the same closed region (circle/shape) tend to be perceived as belonging to the same group
what are the problems with the gestalt theory?
- there is no actual explanation, just description
- principles do not explain why perception happens
- does not offer any clues as to WHERE in the brain it is happening
what is bottom up processing? (data driven) and example?
begin with basic stimuli and work up.
e.g. Gestalt
what did gibson say about biological tuning?
we are biologically tuned to respond to certain shapes
what are template theories (Selfridge and Neisser 1960)?
perceive shapes in the world by matching them to templates that we have in our head
what are the limitations of template theories? (two answers)
e.g. the letter ‘a’ can be wrote so many different ways and in many different fonts
where would we fit all of the templates
what is rosch’s prototype theory?
stores the closest version of an object and compares to it
what are feature/pandemonium theories? and example?
store individual small parts that we can make up parts rather
e.g. letter A is made up of three lines
what is navon’s local features?
local processing is processing information in a smaller, more detailed way
what is navon’s global features?
global processing is processing information in a bigger whole picture way
what is an example of the differences of local and global features?
the letter ‘H’ made up of smaller ‘x’’s
Global - the letter H
local - the smaller x’s
what did Biedermen (1987) discovered from his cognition theory?
recognise the world through ‘viewpoint invariant geons’:
= we recognise the shape no matter what angle it is
= components are quickly identified
what is top down processing?
engage with the world around us through experience
and expectations
What is Marr’s conceptual theory?
- Hybrid of top-down & bottom-up
- raw data in the retina is categorised into features
- descriptive but goes off experience too
