perception

define distal stimulus

actual object presented before you and your eyes

define proximal stimulus

the retinal image of said object

define percept

the experience of what you're perceiving

describe the electromagnetic spectrum

a figure that displays the full range of electromagnetic radiation

which parts of the electromagnetic spectrum are humans sensitive to

humans are sensitive to the visible light portion because we decided that it was sufficient for our evolutionary survival

what is the blind spot

the blind spot is located at the back of the retina where the optic nerve enters. there are no rods and cones there

what do we normally see in the blind spot

our brains will use the surrounding perceptual context to fill the blind spot in. this can occasionally lead to inaccurate perceptions

describe rods

including their neural wiring

describe cones

including their neural wiring

what is the distribution of rods and cones

rods are mostly concentrated in the peripheral retina

explain the significance of microtremors or changes in the actual stimuli

if everything was completely still

define a stabilized retinal image

an sri is produced from an artificial method that locks an image onto your retina (even accounting for our involuntary microtremors)

list five methods to produce a stabilized retinal image

1) attaching a contact lens with a pole that is connected to the visual object (whenever the eye moves

provide examples of other stabilized-like effects

1) not sensing the feeling of jewelry on your body after a while

2) not smelling a scent after being in a room with it for a while

what is hubel and wiesel's feature detection theory

each visual cell has a specific orientation preference to contours

what's a criticism of hubel and wiesel's theory

so many factors can affect visual perception such as context or surrounding stimuli

describe a split brain study

analyzing a case study where an individual has their corpus callosum

what do split brain studies tell us about visual pathways

our visual fields aren't based on the eyes but rather where the visual input hits the eyes. they can see without being connected

what is the LGN

it is the lateral geniculate nucleus

describe the LGN layers

layers 1

what did schiller do and what were his findings

he injected monkeys with a neurotoxin into specific LGN layers to see how it would affect vision. monkeys were taught to press a button upon seeing a certain ball

describe gauthier's greebles' results

the fusiform face area (FFA) is a brain region known to respond greatly to faces

describe gauthier's main findings

since the greebles activated the FFA like faces do

define figure ground segregation

the process of separating an object (figure) from its surrounding environment (background)

what rules govern figure ground segregation

ROSS: resemblance to other things (meaningfulness)

define shape from shading

the shadows that result from light may define the shape of a 3-d object

what does shape from shading tell us about our visual system

it tells us that our visual system is heavily based on what we regularly experience in our environment (since we perceive based on light from above heuristic)

define size constancy

the understanding that the size of an object is the same even if the retinal image stays the same (aka

define equivalent stimuli

when the same stimuli is caused by multiple objects

what are the oculomotor cues?

oculomotor cues are based on howe we can sense the position and tension in our eyes. these include

1) convergence: how we turn our eyes inwards when looking at very close objects

2) accommodation: how our lens adjusts its shape to focus on objects at various distances

what are monocular cues?

monocular cues utilize only one eye. these include accommodation

what are pictorial cues?

pictorial cues are any cues that can be experienced with a picture

what are movement produced cues?

movement produced cues occur when we are physically moving across the scene and noticing how our visual field changes.

1) motion parallax: the slower it takes for an object to shift with our perspective

what are binocular cues

binocular cues rely on both eyes being active. the main example for this is binocular disparity. since our eyes have slightly different views

what is the relationship between size and distance

an object's size affects our perception of its distance and vice versa. for example

describe the holway and boring study and the four conditions

the holway and boring study took place at the intersection of two hallways

why was condition 4 not flat and how would we test this?

condition 4 still had motion parallax present since the subject would turn from the projector to the test circles. to remove this

define the moon illusion

the moon is seemingly bigger on the horizon than it is above us in the sky.

boring's explanation for the moon illusion

eye-elevation hypothesis: when we look up

rock's explanation for the moon illusion

apparent distance theory: since the moon on the horizon is surrounded by other objects in the environment

how can experience affect the muller lyer illusion

carpenter theory: because people are used to the corners of rectangular shaped buildings

tms

transcranial magnetic stimulation: using a figure 8 magnet against the scalp of the head to create a temporary lesion that shuts off neural transmission

cat

computer aided tomography: using x-rays to create a 3d image of the brain to show its structure

fnis

functional near infared spectroscopy: using electrodes on the scalp to measure temperature changes (essentially measuring higher blood flow from brain activity

pet

position emission topography: injecting radioactively traced glucose and tracking it through its usage in the brain

mri

magnetic resonance imaging: putting the head inside a coil's magnetic field to force hydrogen and oxygen atoms to line up the current and analyzing the pace it takes for each atom to return to their original position to create a structured image of the brain

fmri

functional magnetic resonance imaging: tracks the oxygenated and deoxygenated blood flow to see the active regions

eeg

electroencephalogram: electrodes track neural activity via neural impulses

erp

event related potential: recording the average amplification of a region of the brain over multiple test trials

ivo kohler's study and its findings

he had peolpe wear inverting goggles that flipped their visual world upside down to study how they would adapt. it took them a month to adapt with direct environmental experience

describe gibson's ecological approach

gibson focuses on how the environment affect our perception. for example

how does gibson explain size perception

even if an object projects the same sized proximal stimulus on the retina