VII.

Perception

 Sensation: - raw material for perception - started at entry level, data driven bottom-up processing Perception: top-down processing - concept driven, use preexisting knowledge to interpret information.

VII. PERCEPTION
Recall we are bombarded with possible energy from environment... A. To what sensations do we attend? In order to perceive something, we must attend or pay attention to it (consciousness). Selective Attention: Ability to focus awareness on a single stimulus to the exclusion of other stimuli. (We focus our awareness on only a limited aspect of all that we are capable of experiencing.)

B. How do we organize stimuli?

We tend to organize stimuli into wholes. Origin: Gestalt Psychology
Gestalt: means whole or form in German.

Proposed nervous system is predisposed to respond to patterns in stimuli according to certain rules. Whole is different from its parts Example from video wooden triangle

C. FORM PERCEPTION
One of these basic rules... 1. Figure vs. Ground
To see an image, need to be able to distinguish between figure and ground. Sometimes, they can be reversible. But, at one time, we can focus on only one or other.

dging Distance

man

ive

C. FORM PERCEPTION
What stimuli are grouped together? 2. Grouping - We automatically imply order by grouping things together according to certain rules.

D. DEPTH & DISTANCE PERCEPTION

How do we perceive depth/distance?
- Image on retina is 2-d. - Need the brain uses certain cues.

1. Depth perception: a. Binocular Cues:

Cues for perceiving depth that require both eyes. - Retinas receive slightly different images of world. - Brain compares those 2 images. - Retinal Disparity: difference between 2 images. - Key to judging depth SHORT DISTANCES.

D. DEPTH OR DISTANCE PERCEPTION

But, when at a distance, there is very little retinal disparity. 2. Distance perception a. Monocular Cues
Cues for distance that require one eye. Example from video.

Judging Distance
Which is closer, the man or the house? How can you tell? -- Interposition -- Relative size -- Relative height -- Linear perspective -- Relative Clarity

 Linear Perspective

D. DEPTH OR DISTANCE PERCEPTION

3. Nature or nurture?
When would ability to perceive depth be important in terms of development? Gibson & Walk (1960):
Visual Cliff Experiments

But, is evidence for nurture also.

Use it or lose it

E. MOTION PERCEPTION
Another possible innate ability. Speculated to have evolved more for survival than other types of perception. Why? Brain makes sense of cues:
Shrinking objects are retreating. Enlarging objects are approaching.

Perceptual Constancy
Perceptual constancy: We perceive objects as unchanging even though the stimuli we receive about those objects change.
Importance of experience and expectations? babies vs. Pygmies

 Connecting the cues....

Distance Size Motion Perceptual Constancy

 Insert slide of Muller-Lyers Illusion

INTERPRETATION IN PERCEPTION
Folk, croak, soak... 1. Perceptual Set:
A mental predisposition to perceive one thing and not another. - Power of our expectations, predisposition particularly when interpreting ambiguous stimuli.

 2. Review importance of expectations

Efficiency Can not resist imposing patterns on unpatterned stimuli (gestalt). When we see a pattern, difficult to see a different pattern. Even if we formed an incorrect image, difficult to form a correct one.

 3. Where do our expectations (schemas) come from?

a. Experience b. Culture
Vulnerability to illusions

G. INTERPRETATION AND PERCEPTION

c. Context - Context Effects: We often discern the meaning of something by using the context in which it is placed. - rat/man study - Kulechov effect Importance of EXPECTATIONS

G. Interpretation in Perception
How adaptive is our ability to interpret and organize stimuli into perceptions?

4. Perceptual Adaptation:
In vision, the ability to adjust to an artificially displaced or even inverted visual field.

Conclusions
Perception: The top-down part of understanding environment and processing information. Brain interprets and organizes information.
Amazing feats of grouping stimuli & using cues.
But that can also cause illusions...

Individual differences based on experience and expectations.

All of these rely on taking in physical energy from environment sensations. Assumption: our experiences are tied to actual, physical events occurring in environment.... see text

H. Perception without Sensation?

ESP -Extrasensory perception: Perception without sensory input. Types of ESP: Telepathy, Clairvoyance, Precognition More than Americans believe in some type of ESP. Parapsychologists: Psychologists who study psychic phenomena through case studies and experiments.

H. Perception without Sensation?

Rhines Research Conclusion about ESP: No sound evidence for para-psychological phenomena No single individual who can demonstrate psychic powers to independent investigators

Impossible Figures

 Example: Cocktail Party Effect: The ability to selectively attend to one voice among many.