perception and cognition

Question 1

What are the 4 main ways of studying human cognition?

Answer 1

Cognitive psychology- behavioural evidence
Cognitive neuropsychology- studying brain damaged patients
Cognitive neuroscience- evidence from behaviour and the brain
Computational cognitive science- computational models to further understanding cognition

Question 2

How does energy become a representation?

Answer 2

Transduction (transforming energy from the outside world into a neural signal) -> Sensation (picking up that raw signal from the outside world) -> Perception (recognising what that signal means).

Question 3

What is the difference between perception and sensation?

Answer 3

Example: duck and rabbit image. We all sense the same thing but perception differs- it is aimed at getting the best possible sensation of the stimulus

Question 4

What are examples of top down processing?

Answer 4

Speech segmentation- speakers of a language can hear when one word ends and another begins even though the input is a continuous sound stream- KNOWLEDGE creates the perception of individual words

Question 5

What are examples of bottom up processing?

Answer 5

sensory input such as sight, hearing, touch, smell and taste
Visual perception is influenced by memory- once you see something in an image you cannot undo this.

Question 6

What is Helmhotiz’s theory of unconscious inference?

Answer 6

a particular pattern of activation in the retina can be caused by a range of objects, e.g. likelihood principle: we perceive the object that is most likely to have caused that pattern. Thus, judgement is a result of unconscious assumptions (inferences) that we make about the environment and it happens automatically. We see objects in a 3-dimensional world; if there is a chance to interpret an object as 3D, we do. Illusion shows we do not see 2D rectangles as they are but instead the 3D shape of objects.

Question 7

Briefly list the 6 Gestalt principles (grouping)

Answer 7

Law of: Similarity, Pragnanz, Proximity, Continuity, Closure, Common Fate

Question 8

What is the Law of Similarity?

Answer 8

things that look similar are grouped together

Question 9

What is the Law of Pragnanz?

Answer 9

simplest explanation

Question 10

What is the Law of Proximity?

Answer 10

things that are near to each other seem to belong together

Question 11

What is the Law of Continuity?

Answer 11

points that are connected are seen as belonging together rather than separate

Question 12

What is the Law of Closure?

Answer 12

things are grouped together when they seem to appear like one entity; our brain draws the picture even if there are gaps

Question 13

What is the Law of Common Fate?

Answer 13

grouped together as an object if it moves at the same speed and or direction as a single stimulus

Question 14

What is categorisation?

Answer 14

The brain has to figure out what the object is and what characteristics make it a member of a category of objects

Question 15

What are the monocular cues of depth?

Answer 15

Relative size- a person is perceived as smaller when further away- we take distance into account when perceiving size.
Interposition- the overlapped object seems further away
Linear perspective: parallel lines converging in the distance are seen as further away, e.g. railway lines
Arial perspective- the scattering of blue light in the atmosphere- distant items seem more blue, e.g. mountains on clear days, mountains seem closer
Light and shade- we assume light comes from above- perspective changes if an image is viewed upside down- shade is reversed
Monocular movement parallax- when the head moves close, the object moves fast, far objects move relatively slowly

Question 16

What do overlapping visual fields enable?

Answer 16

Stereoscopic visions by blending slightly dissimilar views of an object; allows us to see farther into the distance with higher resolution.

Question 17

What did Held and Hein investigate using kittens?

Answer 17

Looked into whether movement was necessary to develop normal vision. Kittens were used in an active or passive condition (walking or in a box)- all active kittens developed a visually guided paw placement response after 63 sessions- but none of the passive kittens did.
All active kittens avoided the deep end of a glass cliff but passive kittens went randomly to the deep and shallow side- tells us self produced movement and concurrent visual feedback are essential for the development of visually guided behaviour. Data coming in from our eyes only means something when we cross reference it.

Question 18

What do cruss cultural studies of perception tell us?

Answer 18

Western cultures are more susceptible to the Muller Lyer illusion and the Sander parallelogram illusion. This has also been seen in people who live in urban environments that contain more rectangular shapes.

Question 19

How can language influence perception?

Answer 19

Attentional blink paradigm- second stimulus is difficult to process and ppts had to say if it was blue or green. native language influences perception- german ppts performed the same for blue and green stimuli, whereas Greek and Russian performed better for blue- as they have separate words for light and dark blue

Question 20

What disorder involves a crossover of sensory modalities?

Answer 20

synesthesia: when presented with stimulation in one sensory modality, another modality is simultaneously activated- a blending of the senses occurs