Chapter 1: Introduction to Perception

Overview of Questions Why study perception? How are perceptions determined by unconscious processes? What is the difference between perception and recognition? How is perception measured?

Why Study Perception? Future careers Graduate school work in perception Medical applications Devices to assist people with vision and hearing losses Understanding how you perceive the world Language processing Color vision Depth perception

Figure 1.1 The perceptual process. The steps in this process are arranged in a circle to emphasize the fact that the process is dynamic and continually changing. Blue arrows point to stimuli; green to processing; red to perceptual responses. Arrows A, B, and C indicate three important relationships that researchers measure.

The Perceptual Process Environmental stimuli

All available stimuli for an observer

Attended stimuli Stimuli that are the point of focus for the observer Stimulus on the receptors Image of stimulus on receptor cells

Figure 1.2 (a) We take the woods as the starting point for our description of the perceptual process. Everything in the woods is the environmental stimulus. (b) Ellen focuses on the moth, which becomes the attended stimulus.

The Perceptual Process - continued Transduction Change from environmental energy to electrical energy in the nervous system Neural processing Interconnected neurons that propagate the electrical signal from receptor cells throughout the brain

Figure 1.3 (a) An image of the moth is formed on Ellens retina. (b) Transduction occurs when the receptors create electrical energy in response to the light. (c) This electrical energy is processed through networks of neurons.

The Perceptual Process- continued Perception

Conscious sensory experience

Recognition Ability to place objects in categories that provide meaning Action Motor activities that occur in reference to the perceived and recognized object

Figure 1.4 (a) Ellen has conscious perception of the moth. (b) She recognizes the moth. (c) She takes action by walking toward the tree to get a better view.

Figure 1.1 The perceptual process. The steps in this process are arranged in a circle to emphasize the fact that the process is dynamic and continually changing. Blue point to stimuli; green to processing; red to perceptual responses. Arrows A, B, and C indicate three important relationships that researchers measure.

Two Interacting Aspects of Perception Bottom-up processing

Processing based on incoming stimuli from the environment

Also called data-based processing

Top-down processing
Processing based on the perceivers previous knowledge

Also called knowledge-based processing

Figure 1.6 Perception is determined by an interaction between bottom-up processing, which starts with the image of the receptors, and top-down processing, which brings the observers knowledge into play. In this example, (a) the image of the moth on Ellens retina initiates bottom-up processing, and (b) her prior knowledge of moths contributes to top-down processing.

Approaches to the Study of Perception Levels of Analysis Observing perceptual processes at different scales Psychophysical level - the stimulusperception relationship Physiological level - the stimulusphysiology relationship These levels are interconnected and communicate with one another

Figure 1.8 Experiments that measure the relationships indicated by the arrows in figure 1.1. (A) Stimulusperception: Two colored patches are judged to be different. (B) Stimulus-physiology: A colored light generates a neural response in the cats cortex. (C) Physiology-perception: Brain activity is monitored as a person indicates what he is seeing.

Table 1.1 Levels of analysis in the study of perception.

Table 1.2 Methods of studying relationships in the perceptual process

Psychophysics - Qualitative Methods Description

Basic description of what a person perceives

First step in studying perception

Called phenomenological method

Recognition Categorization of stimuli

Psychophysics - Quantitative Methods Absolute threshold - smallest amount of energy needed to detect a stimulus Method of limits Stimuli of different intensities presented in ascending and descending order Observer responds to whether she perceived the stimulus

Cross-over point is the threshold

Figure 1.10 The results of an experiment to determine the threshold using the method of limits. The dashed lines indicate the crossover point for each sequence of stimuli. The threshold - the average of the crossover values - is 98.5 in this experiment.

Quantitative Methods - continued Absolute threshold (cont.)

Method of adjustment
Stimulus intensity is adjusted continuously until observer detects it

Repeated trials averaged for threshold

Quantitative Methods - continued Absolute threshold (cont.)

Method of constant stimuli

5 to 9 stimuli of different intensities are presented in random order

Multiple trials are presented

Threshold is the intensity that results in detection in 50% of trials

Figure 1.11 Results of a hypothetical experiment in which the threshold for seeing a light is measured by the method of constant stimuli. The threshold - the intensity at which the light is seen on half of its presentations - is 180 in this experiment.

Quantitative Methods - continued Difference Threshold (DL) - smallest difference between two stimuli a person can detect Same methods can be used as for absolute threshold As magnitude of stimulus increases, so does DL Webers Law explains this relationship DL / S = K

Table 1.3 Weber fractions for a number of different sensory dimensions

Quantitative Methods - continued Magnitude estimation

Stimuli are above threshold

Observer is given a standard stimulus and a value for its intensity

Observer compares the standard stimulus to test stimuli by assigning numbers relative to the standard

Quantitative Methods - continued Magnitude estimation (cont.)

Response compression
As intensity increases, the perceived magnitude increases more slowly than the intensity Response expansion As intensity increases, the perceived magnitude increases more quickly than the intensity

Figure 1.12 The relationship between perceived magnitude and stimulus intensity for electric shock, line length, and brightness. (Adapted from The Surprising Simplicity of Sensory Metrics by S. S Stevens, 1962, American Psychologist, 17, p. 29-39. Copyright 1962 by American Psychological Association.)

Quantitative Methods - continued Magnitude estimation (cont.)

Relationship between intensity and perceived magnitude is a power function

Stevens Power Law
P = KSn

Figure 1.13 The three functions from Figure 1.12 plotted on log-log coordinates. Taking the logarithm of the magnitude estimates and the logarithm of the stimulus intensity turns the functions into straight lines. (Adapted from The Surprising Simplicity of Sensory Metrics by S. S Stevens, 1962, American Psychologist, 17, p. 29-39. Copyright 1962 by American Psychological Association.)

Other Measurement Methods Searching for stimuli

Visual search - observers look for one stimulus in a set of many stimuli
Reaction time (RT) - time from presentation of stimulus to observers response is measured