perception and attention

Question 1

perception

Answer 1

the organisation, identification, and interpretation of sensory information in order to make sense of and understand the environment

Question 2

bottom up processing

Answer 2

allows the stimulus itself to shape our perception, without any preconceived ideas.
(eg extracting shapes for object recognition)

James J. Gibson

Question 3

top down processing

Answer 3

uses our background knowledge and expectations to interpret what we see

Richard gregory

Question 4

GIBSON’S THEORY OF DIRECT PERCEPTION

Answer 4

optic flow patterns - the perceived visual motion of objects as the observer moves relative to them.
eg. To an observer driving a car, a sign on the side of the road would move from the center of his vision to the side, growing as he approached

Invariant features - An object that does not change or its characteristic when the object is viewed under different circumstances.

Affordances - environmental cues for distance of objects from viewer etc

The theory overall states that perception is a result of evolution - “what you see is what you get”

Question 5

GESTALT THEORY OF PERCEPTION

Answer 5

[perception = organisation]
principle of proximity/contiguity - things that are closer together will be seen as belonging together

principle of similarity - things which share visual characteristics will be seen as belonging together

principle of figure and ground - we see objects as either figure (distinct elements of focus) or ground (background on which the figure rests)

Principle of good continuation - we prefer continuous figures rather than separate ones

principle of closure - tendency to fill in missing information to make a whole

principle of symmetry - the whole of a figure is perceived rather than its individual parts; the mind perceives objects as being symmetrical and forming around a central point

Question 6

perceptual constancy

Answer 6

our ability to understand that objects stay constant even if we perceive them differently eg father away

Question 7

size constancy

Answer 7

shapes are the same size even if distance makes them appear bigger or smaller

Question 8

shape constancy

Answer 8

shapes of objects as a property stay the same even when viewed under a different angle

Question 9

brightness constancy

Answer 9

colour of something as a property stays the same even when viewed under different light

Question 10

monocular cues

Answer 10

cues that can be seen using only 1 eye
size, texture, overlap, shading, clarity

Question 11

BROADBENT’S FILTER MODEL

Answer 11

all info from stimuli enters a sensory buffer
the info gets passed through a “filter”
single channel model (when two different sounds are played in one ear each, we listen to only one of them)
criticisms:
people forgetting what the sounds were could be a memory issue, not a sensory one
cocktail party phenomenon: we can pick out our name from a buzz of noise even when not paying attention

Question 12

TREISMAN’S ATTENUATION MODEL

Answer 12

the sensory filter doesn’t eliminate stimulation but “attentuates” it (lowers its volume) eg when there are many stimuli, we turn our attention down for the less important ones

Question 13

specificity theory

Answer 13

specific pain receptors transmit signals to the “pain centre” (the brain) and that it produces the perception of pain

Question 14

pattern theory

Answer 14

pain signals are sent to the brain only when stimuli are grouped together to produce a specific combination or pattern

Question 15

RONALD MELZACK AND PATRICK WALL’S GATE CONTROL THEORY

Answer 15

pain signals are transmitted through the spinal chord before getting to the brain