Unit 7 Introduction To Perception

Question 1

What is perception, and the perceptional process

Answer 1

Mental process that interprets events and objects
Perceptual process : the result of a stages of mental processes collectively

Question 2

What are the steps to the perceptual process

Answer 2

1) the distal stimulus
2) the proximal stimulus
3) Receptor processes
4) Neural processing
5) Behavioural responses (percieve)
6) Behavioural responses (recognise)
7) Behavioural responses (action)

Question 3

Distal Stimulus

Answer 3

beginning
STIMULUS IN ENVIRONMENT

Question 4

The proximal stimulus

Answer 4

the image, the noise, the taste, the touch projected to the sense it called the proximal stimulus

-> light reflected off the distal stimulus passes through core and lens of eye
-> projected onto the retina = contains visual receptor

Final perception is based on the activity that the proximal stimulus produced in the visual receptors

Question 5

Receptor processes

Answer 5

Sensory receptors converts proximal stimulus into electrical energy

-> sensory receptors are cells specialised to respond to a specific type of energy
-> Visual receptors: RODS AND CONE CELLS in the retina contain a light-sensitive visual pigment that transforms light energy into electrical energy (transduction)

Question 6

Neural processing

Answer 6

Neurones transmit the electrical signal generated by sensory receptors to different areas of the brain
-> visual information is transmitted along the optic nerves
-> auditory information is transmitted along the auditory
-> Most visual is sent to occipital lobe, while more auditory info is sent to the temporal lobe

Question 7

Behavioural responses

Answer 7

at some point neural signals produced by the proximal stimulus are translated into conscious experiance

-> we perceive THEN recognise

Perception: conscious awareness and interpretation of stimulus

Recognition: placing the object in category that gives it meaning

final response is action (motor activity maybe)

perceptual process does not necessarily proceed in a linear fashion between perception, recognition, and action

Question 8

Top-down processing: knowledge

Answer 8

also plays an important role in PProcess
-> previously acquired knowledge stored in memory influences how we perceive objects

Question 9

Top-down processing: acquiring knowledge

Answer 9

recently acquired knowledge influences the category you assign a stimuli to
-> Seeing an image of smt like a mouse makes us more likely to percieving ambigous objects as mice swell

top down processing: things we have previously experienced and our expectations guide perception

Question 10

Top-down processing: Constructive procession

Answer 10

sensory forms the basis of perception, other information are used to CONSTRUCT PERCEPTION

implicit memory: knowledge and expectations help us interpret stimuli, when when the stimuli are incomplete or distorted

Question 11

Hermann von Helmholtz

Answer 11

unconsciously inferring = our perceptions are the result of automatic assumptions we make about the environment based on our previous experiences and knowledge

Based on the idea that the image that is project onto the retina is ambiguous

Question 12

unconsciously inference is due to

Answer 12

is due to the likelihood principle

Question 15

Bottom-up Processing: Theory of direct perception

Answer 15

JAME J. Gibson

suggests that the activation produced in our sensory receptions is all we need to create perception: we don’t need inferencing to produce perception

what we perceive is direct reflection of the stimulus

Gibson argued that the environment supplies us with all the information we need for perception

Question 16

Gibson’s ecological approach

Answer 16

Gibson argued that the environment supplies us with all the information we need for perception - we don’t need stored knowledge

greater detail = close , less details = further away

-> objects produces the perception of where object are located in environments

(studing perception in labs limits LACKS ECOLOGICAL VALIDITY and does not capture perceptual experiences in real-world)

GOAL: understand how movement creates perceptual information that guides movement and helps the subject perceive the environment

Question 17

travelling past an object gives the impression that the..

Answer 17

object is moving - movement create perceptual information

Question 18

Optic flow 2 characteristics

Answer 18

-> rapid near the moving subject (close objects move faster than far away objects)
-> focus of expansion: there is no flow at the destination toward which the subject is moving

Question 19

Top-down OR bottom-up

Answer 19

they contradict each other in the sense that detection of information either complete or incomplete

-> though they can be complementary: sensory information is likely rich and unambiguous, requiring little T-D control. And others where the object is degraded or ambiguous

an interaction between bottom-up processing, which starts with the image on the receptors, and top-down processing, which brings the observer’s knowledge into play