perception exam Flashcards
three methods of studying
physiological (harware)
cognitive (software)
psychophysical (report)
neurons
units of processing
synapse
gap between 2 neurons
firing rate
firing rate, not strength of each action potential carries info
localization of function
where in the brain particular info is processed
sensory coding
HOW feature of envrionment are represented
lesion studies
if a certain part of brain is damaged and particular ability disappears then that part of the brain is normally involved in this particular ability
single cell recording technique
insert a small probe that can detect electric actiivty
- measures the neurons response to preceigic stimuli
- gives precise info about timing and location but only in narrow brain regions
neuroimaging technique
detects specific functions for broader areas of brain, activity corresponds to different perceptual tasks
- ex fMRI
fMRI
functional magnetic resonance imaging
- measures the changes in blood flow that support increased neural activity
- note: blood flow increases shortly after the moment when neurons get more active
- tells precisely where brain activity occurs across a broad area, but is somewhat imprecise about timing
EEG
Electro-encephalography
- measures electrical activity through the skalp and skull
- very percise abuot timing across a broad area
less precise about location
sensory stimulus
energy that impinges on your sense (ex light)
- results in sensroy input (E.g., visual image)
sensroy CUE
a signal you extract from sensroy input
- indicates some property of the world (ex. that is my friend)
stimulus vs. cue
the stimulus that strikes a sense organ is not the same thing as the cue your brain uses to perceive things
cue integration
perceptual systems use a variety of cues, integrating information form different sources
do we perceive reality directly?
perception constructs a reality for the perceiver
- systematic relation between it and the external world, or else we would not survive
- so no
psychodynamics
determining quantitative relationships between physical stimulus (external) and perception (internal psychological)
gustav fechner epiphany
quantitative relationship between mind (mental sensation) and body (material/physical stimulus
absolute threshold
smallest amount of stimulus energy necessary for the observer to detect a stimulus
- smaller the difference between two stimulus the harder it will be to detect
- not all or nothing
inhibit
stop something from happening
- activity in one neuron can increase or decrease activation in another neuron
sequence of light entering the eye
light rays
ganglion cells
amacrine cells
bipolar cells
horizontal cells
receptors
curcuits
information is analyzed, interpreted, transformed so that the resulting signal is easier for perceptual systm to understnad
neuron B
circuit with excitation, convergence and inhibition leads to neurons B which responds best to a bar of medium-length light
receptive fields
region of tertina that when stimulated, influences firing rate of a particular neuron
- could make neurons fore more (Excitation) or less (inhibition)
center-surround receptive fields
are characteristics of retinal ganglionic cells and LGN ( low-level visual processing
- excitatory center, inhibitory surround: common
- inhibitory-center, excitatory -surround: also exists
specific coding
representation of a specific stimulus by the firing of a neuron specialized to respond to just it
population coding
representation of a specific sitmuli by pattern of firing of many neurons
- each neuron firing to each face, but by different amounts
sparse coding
- a particular object is represented by a pattern of firing in a small number of neurons
wavelength
distance between two peak of the electromagnetic wave
eye accommodation
lens changes shape so that images of nearby objects are not blurry on the retina
- cilairy muscles are what change the shape of the lens
transduction
the transformation of one form of energy to another
- nervous system con\verts patterns of physical energy (light) into neural events (photoreceptor electrical signal)
dark adaptation
increase in sensitivity that occurs when illumination changes from light to dark
two systems of dark adaptation
- faster stage due to adaptation of cones
- slower stage cue to adaptation of rods
rod-cone break
when lights go off, sensitivity of both rods and cones begins increase
- cones control vision from 4 minutes to max sensitivity
- rods from 30 minutes to max sensitivity
- after 7 minutes, rod control is dominant (more sensitive)
short wavelegnth colour
blue
long wavelength colour
red
medium wavelength colour
green
convergence
more than one neuron sends signals to another neuron
- rod convergence more than cones so rods are more sensitive
inverse projection problem
the idea that the image that is projected onto the retina could be any number of objects because it is not the retina that specifies that stimulus therefore the image on the retina is ambiguous
occludes
obscures the sight of an object
viewpoint invariance
the ability to recognize an objectseen from different angles or viewpoints
perceptual organization
the process of grouping and segregating elements in a persons visual field to create a percpetion
gestalt psychologists
tries to answer how are configurations formed from smaller elements
structuralism
distinguished between sensations and perceptions, more complex consciousness, sensations combine tocreate complex percpetions
- rejected by gestalt psychologists
frankfort wertheimer
came up with the idea of apparent movement
apparent movement
the illusion of movement cuased by two objects being presented rapidly one after another
conclusions of apparent movement
- apparent movement cant be explained by sensation alone because there is nothing in the dark space between the flashes of light (this is why they reject structuralism)
- the whole is different than the sum of its parts because the perceptual system creates the perception of movement when there actually is non
illusory contours
when you perceive an object in the outline of other objects even though its not actually there
gastalt principles of perceptual organization
describes how elements in a scene become grouped together
- the principle of good continuation
- the principle of pragnanz or principle of simplicity
-principle of similarities
-principle of proximity
- principle of common fate
-principle of common region
- principle of uniform connectedness
-percpectual segregation
the principle of good continuation
- points that when connected result in straight or smoothly curving lines are seen as belonging together and the lines tend to be seen in such a way as to follow the smoothest path
the principle of pragnanz or the principle of simplicity
every stimulus pattern is seen in such a way that the resulting structure is as simple as possible
- ex. seeing the Olympic symbol as 5 circles instead of a bunch of complicated symbols
principle of similarieties
similar thigns seem to be grouped together
principle of proximity
things that are near each other appear to be grouped together
principle of common fate
thigns that are moving in the same direction appear to be grouped together
principle of common region
elements that are within the same region of space appear to be grouped together
principle of uniform connectedness
a connected region of the same visual properties such as lightness colour texture or motion is perceived as a single unit
perceptual segregation
the perceptual segregation of one object from another
- figure ground segregation
- reversible figure-grreound
recognition of components theory
objects are comprised of individua geometric components called geons and we recognize objects based on the arrangement of those geons
global image features
information that may enable observers to rapidly perceive the gist of a scene, includes:
- degree of naturalness, apenness, roughness, expansion, and colour
degree of naturalness
natural scense such as the ocean or forest have texture zones and undulating contours that tell us they are natural whereas men made things have straight and sharp lines
degree of openness
open scenes like the ocean have a visual horizon line and contain few objects
degree of roughness
smooth scenes like the ocean contain fewer small elements while roughness like a forest contain many small elements and are more complex
degrees of expansion
convergence of parallel lines like when you look down a train track that appear to vanish in the distance indicates a high degree of expansion
degree of colour
some scenes have characteristic colours like the ocean being blue and forests being green and brown
physical regularities in the environment
physical regularities in the environment
- ex. there are more vertical and horizontal orientations in the environment than oblique orientations which occur more in man made environments
semantic regularities in the environment
meaning of a scene
- ex. perparation, cooking and perhaps eating occur in a kitchen
therefore the characteristics associated with activities that are common in different typeso f scenes
bayesian ingerence
the idea that our estimate of the probability of an outcome is determined by two factors
- the prior probability which is our initial estimate of the probability of an outcome
- the extent to which the available evidence is consistent with the out come
predictive coding
a thoery that describes how the brian uses our past experiences to predict what we will perceive
- pretty much our brains determine whether what were seeing matches with what we expect to see
brain responses to objects and faces
the ventral (“what”) pathway, extends from the occipital lobe into the temporal lobe and is involved in recognizing object
lateral occipital complex (LOC)
active when the person views any kind of object such as an animal, face, house, or tool
- but not when viewing textures or an object with the parts scrambled
- also does not differentiate between types of objects like faces vs. other objects
fusiform face area (FFA)
specialized to respond to faces
- damage here cases prosopagnosia - dificulty recognizing the faces of familiar people
use of amygdala in identifying faces
emotional reactions (face expressions) and familiarity (cuases more activity in the amygdala)
use of frontal lobe in identifying faces
evaluation of attractiveness
use of superior temporal salcus in identifying faces
identifies gaze direction, mouth movement, general face movement
Extrastriate body area (EBA)
activated by pictures of bodies and parts of bodies but not by faces or other objects
parahippocampal place area (PPA)
area in the temporal lobe that responds to places but not objects or faces
binocular rivalry
when both eyes are viewing a completely different image that the brain cannot process both at once so the brain has to pick either the left or right eye image
attention
the process that results in certain sensory infomration being selectively processed over other information
overt attention
occurs when you move your eyes from one place to another to focus on a particular object or location
covert atttention
you shift your attention without moving your eyes
dichotic listening
presenting different stimuli to the left and right ears
cocktail party effect
the ability to focus on one stimulus while filtering out the other