Perception (Lecture 3) Flashcards
What is sensation?
The passive process of bringing information from the outside world into the body and to the brain
What is perrception?
The active process of selecting, organizing and interpreting the information bought to the brain by the senses
What is the pathway for perception ( in neural terms)?
Sense organ— receptor cells— nerve conduit—- brain area
What are the three main approaches for studying perception in psychology?
Gestalt psychology- we perceive things as more than the sum of their parts (we fill in the gaps in our mind
Neuroscientific/computational view- focusing on representations and how we perceive the environment
Perception/behaviour- regards how our behaviour affects our perception and vice versa
What are the small parts/lines that make up shapes in our vision?
geons
What are the five gestalt principles?
similarity- elements that look similar will be perceived as being part of the same form
proximity- elements that are close together will be perceived as belonging together
Good continuation- we will assume things look the right way, rather than be incorrect or broken
closure- a boundary is not necessary for us to perceive a shape, we will fill in the gaps
The law of Pragnanz- We organize a scene according to the simplest explanation
What are three Gestalt Laws?
common fate- elements that move together tend to be grouped together
Law of symmetry- elements that are symmetrical tend to be grouped together
Law of parallelism- element that are parallel tend to be grouped together
How can we investigate how cells are stimulated in visual processing?
Record the activity form a single neuron, present this neuron with different visual stimuli, check which of these visual stimuli elicit a response
Do cells in the PVC react more to circles or lines?
lines
What are the three levels of cortices in visual processing?
the PVC- just processes geons/lines
The secondary visual cortex- more complex processing- builds the lines into corners/shapes
The inferotemporal cortex- creates shapes and images
What do the ventral and dorsal streams process?
ventral- what images are
Dorsal- where images are
What is the top down approach?
It suggests that our perceptions are driven by our expectation and background knowledge (more holistic), hence why it correlates with the assumptions and “filling in the gaps” in Gestalt therapy.
What are the main elements of bottom up processing?
processing the visual stimuli in small elements influences what is perceived
What is perceptual constancy?
When a familiar object will be seen at the same brightness, even when it’s illumination and surroundings change, However, colour is processed in context, what is surrounding an object affects the perceived colour.
