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Perception > W1: General Principles > Flashcards

W1: General Principles Flashcards

1
Q

What suggests the complexity of the cerebral cortex?

A

Only part that controls perception, half of its neurons are related to vision, specificity of deficits from brain damage and computers struggle to mimic even toddlers perceptual processes.

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2
Q

What do you call the instant and effortless experience from a stimulated sensory organ?

A

Sensation

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3
Q

What are quaila?

A

Simple sensations e.g. loudness, brightness, heat (named after “qualities of conscious experiences”)

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4
Q

What is the explanatory gap for perceptual theories?

A

How neural processes turn into subjective sensations/perception (not yet understood)

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5
Q

What is perception?

A

The mechanism which detects physical energy, processes it to turn it into mental representations and meaningful sensations. These at times require some effort and time.

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6
Q

Sensory modalities

A

A stimulus aspect, distinguished by different qualias. Modalities are qualitatively different to each other (which means that only sensations within the same modality can be misinterpreted as one)

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7
Q

Three key elements of perception

A

Stimuli
Neural response
Perceptual response.

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8
Q

Psychophysical Linking Hypothesis

A

When a perceptual response is explained by its underlying neural response to stimuli within the brain - aka. explanatory gap (but link isn’t understood)

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9
Q

Psychophysics

A

The study of the relationship between stimuli/physical stimulation and mental events/perceptual experience

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10
Q

Psychophysics perceptual principles

A

Detectability
Discrimination
Sensory magnitude
Adaptation

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11
Q

Just Noticeable Difference

A

Psychophysics - perceptual principles - discrimination
Discrimination threshold: minimal amount of change that is discriminable between two stimuli (lower threshold = better)

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12
Q

Weber’s Law

A

Psychophysics - perceptual principles - discrimination threshold
JND is a constant fraction of the standard weight

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13
Q

Fechner’s Law

A

Psychophysics - perceptual principles - discrimination threshold
Perceived stimuli size increases with stimulus intensity.
Stimulus growth by JND is equal to perceived size but neither are equal to the increase in sensory magnitude/real intensity (larger increments to large weights are perceived as the same change as smaller increments to smaller weights).

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14
Q

Absolute Threshold

A

Psychophysics - perceptual principles - detectability
Detection Threshold: intensity required to detect a stimulus - usually 75% of the time. (Lower = better = more sensitive)

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15
Q

Sensitivity

A

Psychophysics - Perceptual Principles - Detectability
Heightened awareness to lower levels of intensity (higher sensitivity = lower threshold = lower magnitude = better)

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16
Q

Suprathreshold

A

Psychophysics - Perceptual Principles - Detectability
A stimuli with an intensity that excessively exceeds the absolute/detection threshold.

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17
Q

Sensory Magnitude

A

Psychophysics - Perceptual Principles - Sensory Magnitude
The perceived size of a stimulus which is positively related to intensity.

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18
Q

Sensory Threshold

A

Psychophysics - Perceptual Principles - Sensory Magnitude
The weakest stimuli that can be detected 50% -75% of the time (due to probabilistic transition of detection)

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19
Q

Psychometric Function

A

Psychophysics - Perceptual Principles - Sensory Magnitude
“Any plot relating a quantifiable response to a physical stimulus measure”
A curved plot that represents the positive relationship between sensory magnitude and intensity and the response rate/probabilistic increase of detection (probabilistic as detection occurs at various intensities)

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20
Q

Magnitude Estimation

A

Psychophysics - Perceptual Principles - Sensory Magnitude
Identifies the non-linear relationship between physical and sensory magnitude by using numerical scale to identify the magnitude of various sized stimuli. Sensory magnitude increases non linearly at different rates in different senses.

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21
Q

Steven’s Power Law

A

Psychophysics - Perceptual Principles - Sensory Magnitude
A nonlinear relationship between stimulus intensity and perceived magnitude, in which equal ratios of intensity produce equal ratios of magnitude. (e.g. light intensity increases by 8 as brightness increases by 2). Logarithmic axes makes lines linear.

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22
Q

Compressive Non-Linear Function

A

Psychophysics - Perceptual Principles - Sensory Magnitude
Double intensity is perceived as less than double, creating a non-linear curve.

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23
Q

Adaptation

A

Psychophysics - Perceptual Principles - Adaptation
Process of altering response range to new conditions/range of stimuli as sensory systems have a small response capacity.

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24
Q

Consequences of a sustained stimulus

A
  1. Detection thresholds increase
  2. Perceived stimulus intensity lowers
  3. Perceived properties of other similar stimuli can appear biased (e.g. the motion aftereffect)
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25
Q

Cognitive Neuroscience

A

“study the parts of nervous system involved in cognition”

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26
Q

Non-Invasive/neuroimaging cogneuro recording techniques

A

General principles:
Visually Evoked Potential: sensors on scalp that records electrical activity of neurons
Magnetoencephalography: sensors on scalp recording magnetic fields
Computerised Tomography: many x ray beams from one side of the machine are sent through the brain and absorbed by detectors on the opposite side. Shows brain structure and damage.
Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging: sends radio waves through the head to detect oxygenated active neurons - localization of function by recording during different tasks
Positron Emission Tomography: “inject radioactive glucose & track it around the brain”

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27
Q

Neuroscience: Invasive recording techniques

A

General principles: cognitive neuroscience: techniques
Lesion experiments
Microelectrode single-unit recording
Microstimulation: stimulating small population of neurons while participant is awake and see what sensation they experience - to discover their function
Optical Imaging: taking pics of brain to examine changes in blood flow (pinker/redder parts = active neurons)

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28
Q

Cognitive Neuroscience: other noninvasive experimental techniques

A

Direct brain stimulation: use of TMS to interfere with neural activity, temporarily “knocking out” cells which can be considered a temporary lesion
Clinical cases

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29
Q

Cognitive neuroscience: anatomical techniques

A

Staining: cells allows us to see the cell itself (incl. Size and density), its axons/connections to other cells, and or highlight the region that these cells reside in
Observing visible differences: of grey and white matter in dead brains
White matter: where axons are, white due to fat called myelin (insulates axons)
Grey matter: location of cell bodies

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30
Q

Transduction definition

A

General Principles: Cog Neuroscience: Physiological Principles: Transduction

first stage of the sensory process where receptors within our sense organs convert energy from physical stimuli into nerve impulses to be organised and interpreted by the brain.

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31
Q

What is a neural impulse?

A

General Principles: Cog Neuroscience: Physiological Principles: Transduction

electrical activity that carries information from cell to cell throughout the nervous system.

32
Q

How do Neural impulses send information across cells?

A

General Principles: Cog Neuroscience: Physiological Principles: Transduction

Axons to travel from dendrites to terminal button - TB synapses to next cell (excitatory or inhibitory neurotransmitters are released when impulse hits synapse).

33
Q

Axons

A

General Principles: Cog Neuroscience: Physiological Principles: Transduction

‘wire’ that carries neural impulses throughout a cell.

34
Q

Dentrites

A

General Principles: Cog Neuroscience: Physiological Principles: Transduction

‘branches’ that connect to other cells terminal buttons for axons to travel along

35
Q

Terminal Buttons

A

General Principles: Cog Neuroscience: Physiological Principles: Transduction

“a bud at the branched end of an axon, which makes contact with the dendrites of another neuron.” Through the synapse

36
Q

Synapse

A

General Principles: Cog Neuroscience: Physiological Principles: Transduction

links two neurons by the terminal button of one and the dendrite of another. This allows communication between cells through the release of excitatory and inhibitory neurotransmitters.

37
Q

Excitatory vs Inhibitory Neurotransmitters

A

General Principles: Cog Neuroscience: Physiological Principles: Transduction

Increases vs decreases the chance of the receiving neutron firing an impulse.

38
Q

Hierarchal Processing

A

Gen P’s: Cog Neuroscience: Physio P’s: Hierarchal Processing

after transduction: neural impulses are sent up through a number of synapses (they further processes info) -> cortex -> associated areas. (e.g. 5 synapses for audition)
Thalamus is a synapse for every sense but smell (due to olfactory bulb)

39
Q

Bottom-up Processing

A

Gen P’s: Cog Neuroscience: Physio P’s: Hierarchal Processing

neural signals are sent up to higher processing areas - way we receive information

40
Q

Top-down Processing

A

Gen P’s: Cog Neuroscience: Physio P’s: Hierarchal Processing

connections to higher cortical areas allow information to feedback down to thalamus or sent laterally to associated areas - when reanalysing info to alter format it was initially processed in.

41
Q

Feedback vs Lateral Connections

A

Gen P’s: Cog Neuroscience: Physio P’s: Hierarchal Processing

Feedback and lateral connections: to higher cortical areas allow information to feedback down to thalamus or sent laterally to associated areas

42
Q

Specific Nerve Energy

A

Gen P’s: Cog Neuroscience: Physio P’s

distinguishes sources of electrical signals by their destination in the cortex - different cortical areas interpret different senses

43
Q

Selectivity

A

Gen P’s: Cog Neuroscience: Physio P’s: Selectivity

Neurons selectivity means that they are tuned to particular dimensions of stimuli (e.g. location in sensory field, colour, size, orientation) and will respond less to the stimuli as the stimulus changes, which will increase the response of other neurons.

44
Q

Tuning

A

Gen P’s: Cog Neuroscience: Physio P’s: Selectivity

is the rate at which neurons respond to stimuli based on their selectivity

45
Q

Organisation

A

Gen P’s: Cog Neuroscience: Physio P’s: Organisation

Neurons are organised by stimuli preference within the brain - preference slowly alters as you move finger along brain

46
Q

Receptive Field

A

Gen P’s: Cog Neuroscience: Physio P’s: Organisation/Selectivity
“The area of a stimulus field in which presentation of a stimulus causes a change in the firing rate of a given sensory neuron.” receptive fields are very small

47
Q

Gen P’s: Cog Neuroscience: Physio P’s: Organisation

the pattern reflected onto the retina is also the same pattern that the active neurons create on the cortex (“about the organisation of neural activity reflected in a map of projection from the retina”)

A

Topographical Organization

48
Q

Gen P’s: Cog Neuroscience: Physio P’s: Organisation

Cortical surface size devoted to body part reflect the the importance of the body part rather than the size.

A

Cortical Magnification

49
Q

Gen P’s: Cog Neuroscience: Physio P’s

neural coding principal: a neurons rate of firing
“can be produced by different combos of stimulus values (e.g. position, size, orientation, motion direction).” ‘This means one neuron can respond to many stimuli, and one stimuli can excite many different neurons.’

A

Univariance

50
Q

Plasticity

A

Gen P’s: Cog Neuroscience: Physio P’s

sensory systems adapt themselves as one grows (so we still know body position as our limbs grow with us) and to different sensory environments (e.g. colour castle adaptation trick)

51
Q

Noise

A

Gen P’s: Cog Neuroscience: Physio P’s

Variability of neural signals response to same stimuli after repeated presentation
influenced by stimuli factors and other factors.

Two sources of variability: fluctuations in neurons excitability or synaptic transmission
Spontaneous Activity: when neurons fire at a baseline rate w/o stimuli

‘measure a neuron’s activity level by the freq. Of electrical impulses’ 0-800 impulses/second, averaging from 100-200/second. ‘Change of response reflects the outer world’

52
Q

Computational Neuroscience

A

Gen P’s:
the study of computations performed by the nervous system

53
Q

Gen P’s: Comp Neuroscience: Main Theories

every powerful computing device is basically the same and can therefore perform the same functions. Consider the brain a computing device - can use a computer to imitate functions of the brain

A

Universal Computation Theory (Turning)

54
Q

Information Theory (Shannon)

A

Gen P’s: Comp Neuroscience: Main Theories
how info processing systems send info from the signal source through the transmission line to the receiver, which can be applied to neural systems. The following components influence the behaviour of neural activity:
“Channel capacity— the number of signals it can transmit simultaneously
Transmission rate— signals travel speed along channel
Signal redundancy— the amnt of info carried in signal w/o info loss - relates to selectivity and adaptation (only respond to useful info to preserve energy)
Noise— intrusion of information unrelated to signal.”

55
Q

Three levels of Perceptual Analysis (Marrs)

A

Gen P’s: Comp Neuroscience: Main Theories
“Computational theory: What is computations goal, why is it appropriate, and what is the logic of the strategy for carrying it out?
Representation and algorithm: implementation of theory. representation of input and output + transformation algorithm
Hardware implementation: How can the representation and algorithm be realized physically?””

56
Q

Representation

A

Gen P’s: Comp Neuroscience: Core Ideas
Perception is a representation of the outer world.
neural activity gets processed by internal representations at synapses on it’s way to the brain.
The physical brain system represents the state of outer world’s system - can be applied to other systems (e.g. thermometer reflects the worlds temperature). This perceptual system is considered a representational system of the world

57
Q

Analog Representation

A

Gen P’s: Comp Neuroscience: Core Ideas: Representation
“magnitudes in one system, such as spatial position or response rate, map onto analogous magnitudes in another system (e.g. height in thermometer = temp, progress bar when downloading something)”

58
Q

Symbolic Representation

A

Gen P’s: Comp Neuroscience: Core Ideas: Representation

“A representation in which discrete symbols in one system, such as characters or words, act as tokens to denote states or entities in another system.”
*perceptual representations tend to be analog, object perception is symbolic

59
Q

Rate Coding

A

Gen P’s: Comp Neuroscience: Core Ideas: Representation

“Neural coding principle in which the firing rate of a neuron carries information about the stimulus; it is associated with neural coding of magnitude (light intensity, loudness, mechanical pressure, or stretch).”
*perceptual representations tend to be analog, object perception is symbolic

60
Q

Computation

A

Gen P’s: Comp Neuroscience: Core Ideas
- manipulating quantities or symbols in line with rules/algorithms.
- The brain is considered a computing device - neural processes (e.g. analog: brightness; symbol: object property) can be described as a computational process.

61
Q

Algorithm

A

Gen P’s: Comp Neuroscience: Core Ideas: Computation
“A specific computational procedure used to transform one representation into another.”

62
Q

Representation and Computation

A

Gen P’s: Comp Neuroscience: Core Ideas: Rep & Comp

as a representation goes through each processing stage within the brain, computations cause the representation to be further refined, transforming new representations at each stage. The type of computation performed depends on the form of representation.

   Computations for analog representation/signal processing: creating and manipulating quantities of values from og representation according to rules
Computations for symbolic representation: “​​comparisons between symbols to test for equality, and the combination of symbols to create new symbol structures. (IF Size = Small AND Flight = Undulating AND . . . THEN Bird = Goldfinch)”
63
Q

Bottom-up Processing

A

Gen P’s: Comp Neuroscience: Core Ideas
from receptors to cortex

64
Q

Top-Down Processing

A

Gen P’s: Comp Neuroscience: Core Ideas
between thalamus and higher cortex

65
Q

Psychometric Functions

A

Gen P’s: Comp Neuroscience: Measurement
“Any plot relating a quantifiable response to a physical stimulus measure”

66
Q

Classical methods in computational neuroscience

A

Gen P’s: Comp Neuroscience: Measurement
measure participants threshold and psychometric function. Two following methods are the only ones still used today

67
Q

Method of Adjustment (MoA)

A

Gen P’s: Comp Neuroscience: Measurement: Classical Methods
participant adjusts stimulus (e.g. dial that controls intensity) until they can detect stimulus.
+ Quick and easy
- Unreliable: participants control of stimulus can bias their sensitivity towards higher or lower intensity levels

68
Q

Method of Constant Stimuli (MoCS)

A

Gen P’s: Comp Neuroscience: Measurement: Classical Methods
“preselected stimuli are presented to the subject in random order over a series of trials; the subject makes a binary response after each trial.”
+ More reliable: participants unaware of stimulus intensity level
+ More reliable: “constructs full psychometric function”
+ Increased efficiency: computers can select stimulus
- More labor intensive
Yes-No response: yes = detected; no = not detected

69
Q

Bias in Comp neuroscience classical methods

A

Gen P’s: Comp Neuroscience: Measurement: Classical Methods
arise in both MoA and MoCS - SDT takes this into account

70
Q

Signal Detection Theory

A

Gen P’s: Comp Neuroscience: Measurement
“takes bias into account by assuming stimulus detection is a two step process… A theory of performance in psychophysical experiments in which subjects’ decisions are determined jointly by their sensory response and by a tendency to respond in a certain way.”

71
Q

Signal detection theory stages

A

Gen P’s: Comp Neuroscience: Measurement: Signal Detection Theory
Stage 1: ‘sensory response occurs, depends on stimulus intensity and sensory system sensitivity - subject to noise’
Stage 2: ‘decides state of detection, based on if response magnitude exceeds criteria or not’ - subject to bias

72
Q

Yes-No Paradigm

A

Gen P’s: Comp Neuroscience: Measurement: Signal Detection Theory
“A psychophysical procedure in which only 50% of presentations contain a stimulus, and the subject must respond “yes” or “no” after each.”
estimate sensitivity d-prime (d ′ )

73
Q

Two-Alternative Forced Choice

A

Gen P’s: Comp Neuroscience: Measurement: Signal Detection Theory
“A psychophysical procedure in which each presentation contains two intervals, only one of which (randomly selected) contains the stimulus; the subject must select the correct interval.”
estimates bias

74
Q

What are the experimental and control conditions referred to as in computational neuroscience?

A

Gen P’s: Comp Neuroscience: Measurement: Signal Detection Theory

Experimental conditions where stimuli is presented is called noise + signal presentation; control condition is noise presentation

75
Q

Gen P’s: Cog Neuroscience: Physio P’s: Selectivity

the range of stimuli that our senses can detect. Single unit recordings can determine this.

A

Sensory Space

Perception (5 decks)

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