COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY

MATEO | LECTURE 3

VISUAL PERCEPTION
 Gibson argued that instinct and biology play
Topic Outline: a vital role in perception.
● Introduction  In the nature vs. nurture argument, this
● James Gibson’s Concept of Distal theory leans heavily toward nature because
● Ganzfeld Effect
● Electro Magnetic Spectrum it suggests that the capacity to perceive
● Pathways to Perceive the What and the Where things and process information is innate, i.e.
● Theories and Models
● Constructive Perception that a person is born with such capacity.
● Perception of Objects and Forms
● Two Different Pattern in Recognition Systems GANZFELD EFFECT
● Perceptual Constancies
● Depth Perception  Ganzfeld is a German word means
● Deficits in Perception “Complete Field.”
 A phenomenon where individuals perceive
INTRODUCTION futureless field as having distinct quality that
 Visual – The sense of sight; processing of aren’t really there.
visual information.  Happens when there is a lack of visual
 Perception – How we interpret and organize stimulus and the brain fills in the blanks on
information around us. its own
 Visual Perception – Processing and
interpreting visual stimuli; Recognizing Dallenbach’s Cow
shapes, colors, etc.  An example of how environment and
 Retina – Very sensitive; contains lighting conditions can affect perception.
photoreceptors.

JAMES GIBSON’S CONCEPTS OF DISTAL

 Informational Medium – Environment that
carries the information about the distal object
to the observer, e.g. Light waves
 Proximal Stimulation – Patterns of energy
(light) that reaches the sensory receptors.
 Perceptual Objects – Mental representation
we construct.
 Distal Objects – Objects that are located in
the external environment, at a distance from
an observer; The real-world object.

James Gibson’s Theory of Perception

 Direct perception to the environment rather
than constructing mental models.

Elusive Triangles

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 Highlights perceptual organization. PATHWAYS TO PERCEIVE THE WHAT AND

THE WHERE
 A pathway in general is the path the visual,
The Parthenon the information taken from its entering the
 Highlights the effect of context in perception human perceptual system through the eyes
to its being completely processed.
 The dorsal pathway is also called the where
pathway and is responsible for processing
location and motion information; the ventral
pathway is called the what pathway
because it is mainly responsible for
processing the color, shape, and identity of
visual stimuli.

THEORIES AND MODELS

 Bottom-up Theories
 In bottom-up processing, we let the
Perceptual Illusions
stimuli itself, free of any prior notions,
 Misinterpreted sensory information.
influence our vision, and shape our
 Occurs when a stimulus is perceived
perception.
inaccurately.
 Describe approaches in which
 Sensation – Ability to detect sense like
perception starts with the stimuli whose
touch, pain, vision, or the movement and
appearance you take in through your
positioning of our body; detecting sensory
eye. You look out onto the cityscape,
information; Raw data.
and perception happens when the light
information is transported to your brain.
ELECTROMAGNETIC SPECTRUM
Therefore, they are data-driven i.e.,
 The electromagnetic spectrum describes all
stimulus-driven theories.
of the kinds of light, including those human
 The four main bottom-un theories of
eye cannot see.
form and pattern perception are direct
 Range of all types of electromagnetic
perception, template theories, feature
radiation.
theories, and recognition-by-
components theory.

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 We attempt to match features of a

 Top-down Theories pattern to features stored in our
 In top-down processing, we use our memory, rather than to match a whole
background knowledge and template or prototype.
expectations to interpret what we see.
 These theories then work their way  The Pandemonium Model
down to considering the sensory data,  One such feature-matching model has
such as the perceptual stimulus. You been called Pandemonium
perceive buildings as big in the ("pandemonium" refers to a noisy,
background of the city scene because chaotic place and hell). In this model,
you know these buildings are far away metaphorical "demons" with specific
and therefore must be bigger than they duties receive and analyze the features
appear. of a stimulus.
 According to Oliver Selfridge's feature-
 Gibson’s Theory of Direct Perception matching model, we recognize patterns
 The information in our sensory by matching observed features to
receptors, including the sensory context features already stored in memory. we
is all we need to perceive anything. recognize the patterns for which we
 Ecological Perception- Environment have found the greatest number of
supplies us with all the information we matches.
need for perception.
 In the real world sufficient contextual
information usually exist to make
perceptual judgements.
 We do not need to appeal to higher-
level intelligent processes to explain
perception but rather use contextual
information directly. In essence, we are
biologically tuned to respond to it.
 We use texture gradient cues for depth
and distance.

 Template Theory
 Template theories suggest that our
minds store myriad sets of templates.
Templates are highly detailed models  Global Precedence Effect
for patterns we might recognize. We  Our tendency to perceive and process
recognize a pattern by comparing it with visual information globally before
our set of templates. We then choose attending to local detail.
the exact template that perfectly
matches what we observe.
 Feature-Matching Theories
 Another alternative explanation of
pattern and form perception may be
found in feature-matching theories.

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 Our brain first processes the overall

shape or structure before focusing on
individual components.
 This effect suggest that our perception
is biased towards recognizing the
larger context rather than individual
parts.
 Local Precedence Effect
 Opposite of Global Precedence Effect.
It refers to our ability to focus on and
process local details before grasping CONSTRUCTIVE PERCEPTION
the overall global structure.  The perceiver builds a cognitive
 When presented with visual stimulus, understanding of a stimulus; they do not
individuals with a local precedence only use sensory information as the
processing style tend to notice and foundation for the structure, but also uses
pay more attention to the individual other sources of information to build the
elements or components rather than perception.
the entire scene.  According to constructivists, during
perception we quickly form and test various
 Line Orientation and Cell Activation hypotheses regarding percepts. The
 David Hubel and Torsten Wiesel percepts are based on three things.
discovered that cells in our visual  Sensory Data - What we sense
cortex become activated only when constitute what we, as perceiving
they detect the sensation of line subjects, are directly aware of in
segments of particular orientations. perceptual experience, prior to cognitive
acts such as inferring, judging, or
 Recognition-by-Components Theory affirming that such-and-such objects or
 According to Bieder-man's properties are present.
recognition-by-components (RBC)  Knowledge Stored in Memory - Once
theory, we quickly recognize objects the information has been encoded, we
by observing the edges of them and somehow have to retain it. Our brains
then decomposing the objects into take the encoded information and place
geons. it in storage. Storage is the creation of a
 Geons also can be recomposed into permanent record of information. In
alternative arrangements. You know order for a memory to go into storage
that a small set of letters can be (I.e., long-term memory), it has to pass
manipulated to compose countless through three distinct stages: Sensory
words and sentences. Similarly, a Memory, Short-Term Memory, and
small number of geons can be used to finally Long-Term Memory.
build up many basic shapes and then
myriad basic objects.

 Using High Cognitive Process –

Higher order cognition is composed of

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a range of sophisticated thinking skills;

concept acquisition, systematic
decision making, evaluative thinking,
brainstorming (including creativity)
and rule usage.

PERCEPTION OF OBJECTS AND FORMS

 In Gestalt's principles for perception, which
clarify why we perceive some objects as in
groups, but others as not so grouped.

Two Ways to Perceive the Objects

 Viewer Centered – The individual stores the
object the way it looks to him or her. What
matters is the form of the object to the
viewer, not the actual structure of the object.
 The shape of the object fluctuations,
depending on the angle from which
we look at it.
 Object Centered - The individual stores a
representation of the object, autonomous of
its appearance to the viewer. In this
situation, the shape of the object will stay
stable across different orientations.

The Perception of Groups – Gestalt Law

 The Gestalt approach to form perception
that was developed in Germany in the early
twentieth century is particularly useful for
understanding how we perceive groups of
objects or even parts of objects to form
integral wholes.
 Law of Pragnanz – Suggest that when
people are presented with complex shapes
or a set of ambiguous elements, their brains
choose to interpret them in the easiest
manner possible.

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