Psy 151: Introduction to Psychology Brief notes/ points discussed during lectures Perception: How do we know?

Sensation and perception Perception is closely related to sensory processes Distinction between sensation and perception Sensory receptors: Vision, Hearing, Taste, Smell, Touch Kinesthesis (position of limbs and state of tension in the muscles, tendons and joints) Vestibular sense: Movement and stationary position of the head, important in maintaining balance What is perception? Interpretation of sensory information A constructive and a creative process Provides sensory information with meaning Perceptual processes Two basic sub-processes: Pattern recognition and attention These two processes are very relevant to cognition They prepare the raw sensory information for further processing Pattern recognition Perceiving a form in a stimulus Recognition of a pattern and organization of sensory input Comparison of sensory input with information in memory The issue of Labeling A complex process that is automatic

Theories of pattern recognition Template matching Prototype Models Distinctive features/ Feature detection Template matching Templates are specific patterns stored in memory Templates based on previously encountered information An exact fit between the template and an input is necessary for recognition to take place. Ex: A jigsaw puzzle Criticism: A simplistic approach; cannot account for complexity of perception Prototypes Prototypes are abstract patterns The match need not be exact some variation is fine Ex: Shapes can be recognized as different representations. Same shape can appear in different sizes and orientations. We also come across fragmented information. However, we recognize the pattern in these conditions also. Prototypes represent categories Several questions: Are their templates for prototypes? What is the nature of the best representation? Feature detection/ Distinctive features A stimulus as a configuration of some basic features Gibson (1968, 1969): Letter recognition Letters of alphabet are recognized on the basis of some basic characteristics. A list of features is stored in memory. This theory can explain recognition of two dimensional patterns Most research has been conducted on letters of alphabet and simple patterns Neurological basis special feature detectors in the brain

An Issue Top down or conceptually driven theories: Perception is a indirect process, involves inference making and is determined by context, prior knowledge and expectations Bottom up or data driven processes: Perception is a direct process and is solely determined by stimulus feature detected by the sensory organs. Exercise: Evaluate models of pattern recognition Attention Concentration of mental activity Divides our field of experience into a focus and a margin What we perceive clearly is the focus Vague awareness margin Attention and tuning out Attention and processing of information Shifting of attention Concept of filtering Filter models: Inputs in the margin sometimes shift to focus; Differ regarding where the bottleneck occurs (early stages: sense organs OR Later stages: interpretation and meaning processing) Role of motivational and expectancy factors Limited capacity assumption Focus & Margin Methods of studying attention Divided attention and selective attention Divided attention Example: A busy executive driving and also talking on phone; an air traffic controller working without an assistant

In DA tasks people must attend to several simultaneously active messages and respond to each Effect of practice on divided attention: Practice seems to alter the limits of attention capacity. We do not have a built-in fixed limit to the number of tasks that can be performed simultaneously Dual task technique: Attempts to divide attention Selective attention Related to divided attention People are confronted with two or more simultaneous tasks and are required to focus their attention on one while disregarding the other. Studies show that people notice little about the irrelevant tasks (Ex: picking up two stations on the radio simultaneously) Studies in auditory attention Classic study by Cherry (1953): Shadowing and dichotic listening (voice and language changes not noticed); Some characters are noticed Triesman: Subjects were instructed to shadow the message in one ear. Cocktail party phenomenon Stroop Effect Object perception Our internal representation of the world is full of objects Representation is formed even when some ambiguity is there How perception occurs? Specialized feature detectors (Hubel and Wiesel): Specialized nerve cells respond to specific visual features (lines, angles, edges, motion). A particular cell is activated only in response to a specific feature. Psychological processes in object perception SFD: Structural tradition, part to whole Gestalt approach: Perceptual processes operate by grouping visual elements in the simplest possible manner. We perceive unitary shapes and not elementary constituents

Gestalt Laws of Perception Proximity: Elements appearing close together in space or time tend to be perceived together Part-Whole Relationship: the Whole is greater than the sum of its Parts Figure and ground Closure- Gap Filling Similarity: Similar figures tend to be grouped together Continuity: We tend to perceive continuity in patterns Unitary shapes Superimposition/Overlap: An object which blocks the view of another is seen as being nearer. Also we perceive complete figures and not fragmented forms Perception as a constructive process Perception is a joint product of the stimulus information and top down constructive processes Sometimes the stimulus information may be incomplete or ambiguous. Perception may alternate unless the visual information gets stabilized - Two alternative hypotheses Example: Reversible figures Rabbit and duck (it is difficult to see both duck and rabbit together); Young woman/ old woman figure Ambiguous Figures: Same input leads to different outputs due to attention switching Combination of bottom up and top down processes Ambiguous Figures Explanation in terms of Perceptual Hypotheses Active nature of perception Example: Neckers cube Transparent cube, tinted surface sometimes appears as the front of the figure and sometimes as the back. Perception is dynamic and not a static process Perception is thus a search for the best interpretation of sensory data Perceived object is thus a hypothesis suggested by the sensory data

Perceptual system enables active and quick search for the correct percept. In case of ambiguity hypothesis selection becomes apparent Influence of context on perception Part to whole vs. whole to part debate Specialized detectors for specific features and not for complete objects A combination of bottom up and top down processes Bottom up hypothesis top down Adaptation level: Context can influence perception and is provided by prior experience. Past experience gives us certain adaptation level with respect to dimensions/ attributes of objects. Structuralism and Gestalt psy are both relevant Illusions We experience an illusion when our perception does not match with the physical characteristics We go beyond the information given in the visual input. Most often, what we see is not present in the actual visual stimulus Illusions can occur due are to physical distortion of the stimuli or misinterpretation Examples: Ponzo illusion, Mller Lyer Illusion, Titcheners Circles, Paradoxical Figures Paradoxical figures Assumption that these figures are real 3-D objects The notion of perceptual hypotheses: It is difficult to accept that paradoxical figures are just line drawings on a flat 2-D surface Due to depth cues in the drawings we try to interpret them as 3-D objects Even though we know that they are impossible figures, our perceptual system tries to test the 3-D hypothesis Illusion: Active nature of perception Illusions help to demonstrate the nature of perception - they illuminate the interpretative, indirect, top-down nature of perception and demonstrate that

perception is not determined simply by stimulus patterns, rather it is a dynamic searching for the best interpretation of the available data ... perception involves going beyond the immediately given evidence of the senses (Gregory, 1966). Source: socialscientist.us/nphs/psychIB/psychpdfs/What_Illusions_Teach_us.pdf Perceptual Constancy The stability of the environment as we perceive it The ability to perceive an object as unchanging, despite changes in the sensory information that reaches our eyes Size Constancy The image of an object on the retina of the eye depends on the distance of the object from the eye Objective size varies with distance We perceive size of objects as constant It occurs because the perceptual systems takes into account an objects distance from the perceiver Shape Constancy Perceptual system maintains constancy of shape

Location Constancy The changing retinal stimulation integrated with kinesthetic feedback from muscles and balance organ in the ear enables us to perceive one object in a constant location Stationary objects dont appear to move even though their images on the retina shift as the viewer moves around. Brightness Constancy Visual objects appears constant in their degree of whiteness, grayness, or blackness

Objects that appear to be white in bright light are still perceived as white in dim illumination Colour Constancy Familiar objects retain their colour under changing conditions of lighting