Post on 28-Dec-2015
Human Cognitive Processes: psyc 345
Ch. 3: Perception
Takashi Yamauchi© Takashi Yamauchi (Dept. of Psychology, Texas A&M University)
Homework & Questions
Q1: How do we perceive?– If you are going to develop a theoretical model
of perception, how does it look like?– Describe your processing model of perception.
Q2: How does the brain become tuned to respond best to things likely to appear in the environment?
Visual illusion
• Let’s take a look at visual illusions and check how your model can explain these illusions. – Ponzo illusion– Muller-Lyer illusion– Ames room
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ttd0YjXF0no
ch 3 4
Fig. 3-6, p. 50
ch 3 5
Ch 5 6
Ch 5 7
Ch 5 8
The figure represents “some thing.”
The contours belong to the figure rather than to the ground.
Which one is the figure and which one is the ground?
Symmetric items tend to be seen as a figure.
Ch 5 19
ch 10 20
(A)
(B)
(A)
(B)
ch 10 21
ch 10 22
ch 10 23
Is your model consistent with these visual illusions?
• How does your model explain these illusions?
• What’s wrong with your models?
• Why do we have these illusions?
• Demonstration– Ames room
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ttd0YjXF0no
Some examples
• Tired
• Old
• Sick
• Dark
• Slow
• Heavy
• Hospital
• ugly
• death
• Beautiful
• Young
• Fresh
• Fast
• Energy
• Juicy
• Clean
• cheerful
• Vigorous
• Experience influences perception a great deal.
• We need a top-down process as well as a bottom-up process.
• Direct perception theories– Bottom-up processing – Perception comes from stimuli in the
environment– Parts are identified and put together, and then
recognition occurs• Constructive perception theories
– Top-down processing– People actively construct perceptions using
information based on expectations
Bottom-up and top-
down processes
Fig. 3-4, p. 59
Perceptual Organization and Gestalt Psychology
• “Gestalt” means “whole.”
• Organizational principles:– Similarity– Proximity– Continuity
Law of similarity
Similar things are put together
Items with similar colors are put together
Law of proximity
• Things that are close to each other are put together.
Law of good continuity
We tend to put things together when they show nice continuity.
Why do we need top-down knowledge?
• Because the bottom-up process is inherently ambiguous.
Why computers have trouble perceiving objects?
• The bottom-up process is difficult. solving the inverse projection problem
• Computers do not have a large amount of background knowledge as we have.
• Humans have an incredible accumulation of knowledge.
• Use knowledge to solve perception problems
Fig. 5-4, p. 96
Neurons and the Environment[Q2] How does the brain become tuned to respond
best to things likely to appear in the environment?
– Some neurons respond best to things that occur regularly in the environment
– Neurons become tuned to respond best to what we commonly experience
– Neurons that respond to similar visual information (e.g., shape, motion, color, faces, etc) are grouped together.
Two visual pathways (where & what systems)
ch 4 54
Two visual pathways (where / how & what system)
Patient D. F had bilateral damage to the ventral path.
Carbon monoxide poisoning at age 35.
• Video clip: NPR• NPR: Blind man sees with subconscious eye
(12/23/08); Interview and video record– This can be used as evidence for the “how” pathway.
– http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=98590831
– A blind man who damaged the occipital lobe can still navigate and walk without bumping into objects.
ch 4 57
Object discrimination task
Landmark discrimination task
The monkey had to select the correct object to get the food reward
The monkey had to select the food well close to the cylinder.
ch 4 58
Object discrimination task
Landmark discrimination task
Can’t do the object discrimination task but can do the landmark discrimination task
Can’t do the landmark discrimination task but can do the object discrimination task
Modularity: structures for faces, places, and bodies
Figure 4.18 (a) Monkey brain showing location of the inferotemporal cortex (IT) in the lower part of the temporal lobe. (b) Human brain showing location of the fusiform face area (FFA) in the fusiform gyrus, which is located under the temporal lobe.
Prosopagnosia
• Episode from
• “The man who mistook his wife for a hat”
• By Oliver Sacks– Oliver Sacks interview– http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=zQPI0BIkOkE
Copies of the black (A) and
the white (B) vertical contour.
Copies of the black (A) and
the white (B) diagonal contour.
• DVD: the mind eye (Ch.6 – Ch. 8) (10min)– Agnosia (Ch. 8)– Propasognosia (Ch. 6 - 7)
ch 7 66
Mirror neurons
Mirror neurons• Mirror neurons respond to a particular
“kind” of action (e.g., grasping) AND observing someone doing the action.
The activity of a particular neuron in the premotor area of a monkey.
The activity of a particular neuron in the premotor area of a monkey.
(a) This neuron responded when the monkey watched the experimenter picking up the peanut.
(b) This neuron also responded when the monkey actually picked up the peanut.
(c) This neuron did not respond when the monkey watched the experimenter pick up the food with pliers.
Mirror neurons
• Respond not only when you are doing a particular action.
• But also when you watch someone doing it.
• This neuron gives you a general characteristic of an action.
What are mirror neurons for?• Facilitate learning by imitation.
– Language development– Skill learning
• Social interaction– Empathy (understanding others or what others
think)– Connecting with others
• Autism may be caused by the deficiency in mirror neurons
• Video clip from NOVA (PBS)– 15 min
– http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sciencenow/3204/01.html