Visual Perception Flashcards
Extramission Theories
- Includes Euclid and Plato
- Theory: A stream of light or fire comes from the eyes to allow us to see objects
Intromission Theories
- Democritus; Objects cast off some kind of material substance that enters the eye
- Epicurus; Objects cast off one-atom-thick layers that arrive in the eyes
- Made sense of object constancy
Aristotle’s Theory of Visual Perception
- Rejected extramission theory
- HIs and his pupil’s theory: Light was generated from the Sun and reflected from objects. It travelled through a medium (air) to the eye. Without this medium, we would see nothing.
Alhazen’s Contribution to Visual Perception
- Considered the ‘father of modern optics’
- Studied stereopsis, refraction and several illustrations including moon illusion
- Proposed that rays originate from objects, not eyes
- Proposed that vision occurs in the brain, not the eyes
- Proposed that experience affects perception, and hence perception can be mistaken
17th Century Physics: Johannes Kepler
“… Thus vision is brought about by a picture of a thing seen being formed on the concave surface of the retina” which basically means that an image is formed/starts in the retinal surface of the eye
17th Century Physics: Isaac Newton
Many contributions but the one highlighted in the topic of visual perception is his use of prisms to decompose white light into its spectral components.
18th Century Philosophy: If starting point is 2D retinal image, how do we see a 3D world?
- Locke and Berkely; Rejects the empiricist position that all knowledge is innate
- Immanuel Kant; Rejects the empiricist position that all knowledge is learned and suggests that there must be some inborn assumptions or categories
- A nature vs nuture debate
Definition of Psychophysics
Systematic study of the relationship between sensations and physical events
19th Century Psychophysics: Gustave Fechner
- Influential scientist in Leipzig
- Introduced the term, “psychophysics”
- Published the ‘Elements of Psychophysics’ in 1860
- Fechner et al. introduced methods still used today, e.g. Method of limits, Method of constant stimuli
19th Century Psychophysics: Ernst H Weber
- Influential scientist in Leipzig
- Noticed that JND in some sensory dimension or other is a constant proportion of usually about 3%
- Weber fraction -> (I₂ - I₁)/I₁ = constant
Biography of Hermann von Helmholtz
- Studied medicine
- Published ‘Handbook of Physiological Optics Vol. 1’ (1856)
- Chair of Physiology at Heidelberg (1858)
- Chair of Physics at Berlin (1871)
- His biography is an example of how ideating the basis of psychology required mastery across different disciplines
Hermann von Helmholtz’s Contributions
- Invented ophthalmoscope (allows you to look into the back of the eye to look at the health of the retina, optic nerves, etc.)
- Associationist and empiricist doctrine
- Unconscious inference (what people use to deduce what they perceive)
- Theory of depth perception (visual cues plus felt positions in space, learned by associations)
- Young-Helmholtz trichromatic theory of colour perception
Hermann von Helmholtz’s Contributions
- Invented ophthalmoscope (allows you to look into the back of the eye to look at the health of the retina, optic nerves, etc.)
- Associationist and empiricist doctrine
- Unconscious inference (what people use to deduce what they perceive)
- Theory of depth perception (visual cues plus felt positions in space, learned by associations)
- Young-Helmholtz trichromatic theory of colour perception
Associationist Theory
The theory that complex mental processes (ex. thinking, learning, and memory) can be wholly/mainly explained by the associative links formed between simpler ideas
Associationist Theory
The theory that complex mental processes (ex. thinking, learning, and memory) can be wholly/mainly explained by the associative links formed between simpler ideas