Chapter 3 Cogntive Psych
The theory of unconscious inference includes the
likelihood principle.
Semantic regularity refers to the _____.
meaning between properties of an object
People perceive vertical and horizontal orientations more easily than other orientations according to the
oblique effect.
Why do computers have problems perceiving at a level to humans:
1. the stimulus on the receptors is ambiguous 2. objects in a scene can be hidden or blurred 3. objects look different from different viewpoints 4. scenes contain high-level information
Which of the following is an example of unconscious inference?
Perceiving that a partially covered automobile continues beneath the cover
Taking regularities into the environment into account
There are 2 types of regularities: physical regularities and semantic regularities
bottom-up processing
analysis that begins with the sensory receptors and works up to the brain's integration of sensory information (information stimulating the receptors)
The existence of transitional probabilities adds a(n) ________ quality to learning and using language.
anticipatory
light-from-above assumption
assume this placement of light due to sun and most artificial light
A person with strong ________ would likely have a deeper experience of Bayesian influence.
beliefs
The sequence of steps that includes the image on the retina, changing the image into electrical signals, and neural processing is an example of _____ processing.
bottom-up
semantic regularities
characteristics associated with the functions carried out in different types of scenes
regularities of the environment
characteristics of the physical environment that occur frequently
Which of the following adjectives has the LEAST connection to perception?
conscious
Which of the following word strings all refer to the same pathway?
dorsal, where, action
Bayesian inference
estimate of the probability of an outcome is determined by two factors: the prior (our initial belief about the probability of an outcome), and the likelihood (the extent to which the available evidence is consistent with the outcome)
perception
experiences resulting from the stimulation of the senses. rules based on experience, occurs much more rapidly than reasoning, occurs in conjunction with action
principles of perception
explain the way elements are grouped together to create larger objects
Perception is NOT essential for
improving empathy.
top-down processing
information processing guided by higher-level mental processes, as when we construct perceptions drawing on our experience and expectations (information based on knowledge) Examples = multiple personalities of a blob, how language makes it possible to perceive individual words, Saffran's experiment showing 8 month old infants are sensitive to translational probabilities in language.
Viewpoint ________ is the ability to recognize the same object even if it is seen from different perspectives.
invariance
The task of determining the object responsible for a particular image on one's retina is called the
inverse projection problem.
scene schema
knowledge of what a given scene typically contains
where pathway
leads from sriate cortex to parietal lobe. determine's object's location (landmark problem solving)
what pathway
leads from sriate cortex to temporal lobe. ablading causes problems with object discrimination.
The saying, "If you've seen one, you've seen 'em all" best reflects which of the following?
likelihood principle
The term semantics, when applied to perception, means the
meaning of a scene, often related to what is happening within the scene.
experience-dependent plasticity
mechanism through which the structure of the brain is changed by experience
direct pathway model
model of pain experience. popular in 1950s and 60s. path occurs when nociceptors are stimulated and send signals in a direct pathway from skin to brain. bottom-up.
apparent movement
movement (light in stroboscope) is perceived but nothing actually moving
perceptual organization (Gestalt)
organize sensations into meaningful perceptions based on Gestalt such as (the whole is different than the sum of its parts); like items are grouped together figure ground closure proximity similarity continuity Phil phenomenon
Speech segmentation is defined as
organizing the sounds of speech into individual words.
prior probability
our initial belief about the probability of an outcome
unconscious inference
our perceptions are the result of unconscious assumptions, or inferences, that we make about the environment
The landmark discrimination problem is more difficult to do if you have damage to your _____ lobe.
parietal
Entering a church service and seeing someone selling hot dogs and cotton candy from a cart near the altar would be perceived as a violation of
scene schema.
The demonstration in your text that asks you to visualize scenes such as an office, a department store clothing section, a lion, and a microscope often results in more details in the scene of the office or department store than the scene with the lion or microscope. The latter two tend to have fewer details because most individuals from modern society have less knowledge of _____ in those scenes.
semantic regularities
difficulties creating a perceiving machine
stimulus on receptors is ambiguous, objects can be hidden or blurred, objects look different from different viewpoints
inverse projection problem
task of determining the object responsible for a particular retinal image...involves starting with retinal image and extending rays out from the eye
inverse projection problem
task of determining the object that caused a particular image on the retina
viewpoint invariance
the ability to recognize an object seen from different viewpoints
If a Gestalt psychologist was baking a cake for an event, what would they be most focused on?
the cake
Perception
the process of organizing and interpreting sensory information: can change based on added information, involve process, occur in conjunction with actions, involve processes similar to reasoning Starts with bottom-up processing (stimulation of receptors, creating electrical signals that reach the visual receiving area of the brain) Also involves top-down processing = knowledge stored in the brain.
experience-dependent plasticity
the process through which neural connections are created and reorganized throughout life as a function of an individual's experiences
What differentiates bottom-up processing from top-down processing?
the source of information
Gestalt
the whole is different than the sum of its parts
Which of the following is NOT considered a starting point for perception?
thinking
If a word is identified more easily when it is in a sentence than when it is presented alone, this would be an example of _____ processing.
top-down
Maria took a drink from a container marked "milk." Surprised, she quickly spit out the liquid because it turned out that the container was filled with orange juice instead. Maria likes orange juice, so why did she have such a negative reaction to it? Her response was most affected by
top-down processing.
Perceiving machines are used by the U.S. Postal Service to "read" the addresses on letters and sort them quickly to their correct destinations. Sometimes, these machines cannot read an address because the writing on the envelope is not sufficiently clear for the machine to match the writing to an example it has stored in memory. Human postal workers are much more successful at reading unclear addresses, most likely because of
top-down processing.
Helmholtz's theory of unconscious inference
uses the likelihood principle (that we perceive the object that is most likely to have caused that stimuli we received). perceptions are the result of unconscious assumptions that we make about the environment
oblique effect
verticals and horizontals more easily perceived than other orientations
action pathway
visual cortex to parietal lobe
perception pathway
visual cortex to temporal lobe
likelihood principle
we perceive the object that is most likely to have caused the pattern of stimuli we have received
liklihood principle
we perceive the object that is most likely to have caused the pattern of stimuli we have received (blob experiment)
The likelihood principle states that
we perceive the object that is most likely to have caused the pattern of stimuli we have received.
semantic regularities
what would you expect to occur in a certain place (room, event, area) - scene schema
The perception pathway corresponds to the _____ pathway, while the action pathway corresponds to the _____ pathway.
what; where
The process by which small objects become perceptually grouped to form larger objects is the principle of perceptual
organization.
transitional probabilities
In language, the chances that one sound will follow another sound. Every language has transitional probabilities for different sounds. Part of learning a language involves learning about the transitional probabilities in that language.
Which of the following is NOT an example of a physical regularity in your text?
. Angled orientation
law of pragnanz/principle of good figure/principle of simplicity
A Gestalt principle of perceptual organization that states that every stimulus pattern is seen in such a way that the resulting structure is as simple as possible. Also called the principle of pragnanz or the principle of simplicity. (half a cup doesn't have a massive square coming off it - the ability to form something as a whole)
brain ablation
A procedure in which a specific area is removed from an animal's brain. It is usually done to determine the function of this area by assessing the effect on the animal's behavior.
apparent movement
An illusion of movement perception that occurs when stimuli in different locations are flashed one after another with the proper timing. 1) one light flashes on and off; 2) there is a period of darkness lasting a fraction of a second; 3) the second light flashes on and off
object discrimination problem
Differentiate between: what / ventral pathway - object discriminations - occipital to temporal lobe) perception pathway - visual to temporal = pathway allows you to define and understand objects, ----------- where / dorsal pathway - landmark discriminations - occipital to parietal how / action pathway - visual to parietal = where something is and then taking action on the object
According to your textbook, perception goes beyond the simple receipt of sensory information. It is involved in many different cognitive skills. Which of the following is NOT one of those skills as noted by the chapter?
Experiencing neuromodulation
mirror neurons
Frontal lobe neurons that fire when performing certain actions or when observing another doing so. The brain's mirroring of another's action may enable imitation, language learning, and empathy. (temporal lobe, frontal lobe and the parietal lobe) think, theory of mind
4 Concepts of Object Perception
Helmholtz Theory of Unconscious Interference (top-down) Gestalt Principles of Organization (bottom-up) Taking Regularities of the Environment into Account (top-down) Bayesian Inference (top-down)
Theory of Natural Selection
Idea, first proposed by Charles Darwin, that species survive due to favorable characteristics
size-weight illusion
Inferring the weight of an object based on its size
Which of the following is true about perception?
It involves rapid processes.
What is a scene schema?
Knowledge of what a scene typically contains
principle of good continuation
Law of perceptual organization stating that points that, when connected, result in straight or smoothly curving lines are seen as belonging together. In addition, lines tend to be seen as following the smoothest path. (rope going around a person and knowing that the rope is still a whole)
Helmholtz theory of unconscious inference (likelihood principle, unconscious inference)
Perception depends on knowledge.. We perceive the object that is most likely to have caused the pattern of stimuli we have received. our perceptions are the result of unconscious assumptions, or inferences, that we make about the environment
Gestalt principles of organization (apparent movement, perceptual organization, principles of good continuation, principle of good figure, principle of simplicity, principle of similarity)
Principles that determine how a scene is organized into components. The principles include proximity, similarity, good continuation, closure, and good form.
landmark discrimination problem
Problem in which the task is to remember an object's location and to choose that location after a delay. Associated with research on the where processing stream.
Which of the following is an example of an effect of top-down processing?
Recognizing a crying friend's sounds as words in a sentence
Bayesian inference
The idea that our estimate of the probability of an outcome is determined by the prior probability (our initial belief) and the likelihood (the extent to which the available evidence is consistent with the outcome).
How does the phenomenon of apparent movement work?
The perceptual system creates the perception of movement from stationary images.
speech segmentation
The process of perceiving individual words within the continuous flow of the speech signal.
Members of a security team are stationed on rooftops surrounding a large city plaza before a scheduled rally. Suddenly, three team members in different locations radio in to the command center, each stating that they have spotted a suspicious box on the ground with a pipe coming from the top. What enables the security team members to report seeing the same object despite being stationed on different rooftops?
Viewpoint invariance
Which term best reflects what we do with an image projected onto our retina?
We interpret it.
What is the process of unconscious inference?
When our perceptions are the result of inferences that we make about the environment
Evidence for the role of top-down processing in perception is shown by which of the following examples?
When someone accurately identifies a word in a song on a radio broadcast despite static interfering with reception
Which of the following would have the most semantic regularities?
a shopping mall
viewpoint invariance
ability to recognize an object from different viewpoints
brain ablation
removing part of the brain by lesioning
statistical learning
certain sounds (making words) are more likely to occur together and babies are sensitive to those probabilities
speech segmentation
determining where one word ends and another begins, requires knowledge of language
Taking regularities of the environment into account
physical regularities and semantic regularities - oblique effect ( no coincidence that people can perceive horizontal lines and vertical lines more easily than other orientations) - light from above (assuming that light comes from above)
The fact that trees are more likely to be vertical or horizontal than slanted is an example of ____.
physical regularity
placebo
pill patients believe contains painkillers but contains no active ingredient. can relieve pathological pain, leading to placebo effect. pain is influenced by expectation, attention, and distracting stimuli
principle of good continuation
points that, when connected, result in straight or smoothly curving lines are seen as belonging together, and the lines tend to be seen in such a way to follow that smoothest path. objects that are overlapped are perceived as continuing behind the overlapping object
The notion that every stimulus pattern is seen in such a way that the resulting structure is as simple as possible is called the law of
pragnanz.
physical regularities
regularly occurring physical properties of the environment
bottom-up processing
sequence of events form eye to brain, starts at the bottom/beginning of system when environmental energy stimulates the receptors
principle of similarity
similar things appear to be grouped together
Principle of similarity
similar things appear to be grouped together (Olympic symbol)
You are at a parade where there are a number of marching bands. You perceive the bands that are all in the same uniforms as being grouped together. The red uniforms are one band, the green uniforms another, and so forth. You have this perceptual experience because of the law of
similarity.
When Carlos moved to the United States, he did not understand any English. Phrases like "Anna Mary Can Pi and I Scream Class Hick" didn't make any sense to him. Now that Carlos has been learning English, he recognizes this phrase as "An American Pie and Ice Cream Classic." This example illustrates that Carlos was not capable of ____ in English
speech segmentation
law of pragnaz (principle of good figure or simplicity)
every stimulus pattern is seen in such a way that the resulting structure is as simple as possible
The Gestalt psychologists believe that _____.
perception is affected by experience, but built-in principles can override experience
top-down processing
starts in brain, top of perceptual system, involves factors like prior knowledge, expectations, attention
