Goldstein Perception Lecture Notes

A set of vocabulary flashcards covering the core concepts of perception, including processing types, Gestalt principles, neurological pathways, and mirror neurons based on the Goldstein text.

Perception

Experiences resulting from stimulation from the senses that can change based on available information and involve reasoning-like processes occurring rapidly.

Inverse projection problem

The task of determining the object for a particular image on the retina, which involves extending rays out from the eyes and poses a serious challenge to computer systems.

Viewpoint variance

The phenomenon where objects look different from different viewpoints, which humans handle easily but computers manage through complex calculations.

Bottom-up processing

A sequence that starts at the beginning of the perceptual system where environmental energy stimulates the receptors, such as images on the retina generating electrical signals for the brain.

Top-down processing

Processing that originates in the brain at the top of the perceptual system, using knowledge to rapidly identify scenes, objects, and the stories behind them.

Speech segmentation

The ability to tell when one word in a conversation ends and another begins based on knowledge of a language.

Transitional probabilities

The likelihood that one sound will follow another within a word in a specific language.

Statistical learning

The process of learning about transitional probabilities and other language characteristics, which infants as young as $8$ months can perform.

Theory of unconscious inference

Hermann von Helmhotz's theory that images on the retina are ambiguous and the perceptual system decides through a process similar to problem-solving.

Likelihood principle

The principle stating we perceive the object that is most likely to have caused the specific pattern of stimuli received.

Unconscious interference

Unconscious assumptions or inferences we make about the environment around us to result in a perception.

Structuralism

Wilhelm Wundt's idea that overall experience can be explained by combining elements of experience called sensations.

Apparent movement

The perception of movement when nothing is physically moving, created by two lights flashing on and off with a fraction of a second of darkness between them.

Principle of Good Continuation

A Gestalt principle stating that points that result in straight or smoothly curving lines when connected are seen as belonging together.

Law of Pragnanz

Also known as the principle of good figure or the principle of simplicity, stating that every stimulus pattern is seen so that the resulting structure is as simple as possible.

Principle of Similarity

A Gestalt principle stating that similar things appear to be grouped together.

Intrinsic laws

Max Wertheimer's description of Gestalt principles as features built into the system that are more significant than the role of experience.

Regularities in the environment

Characteristics of the environment that occur frequently, such as blue skies or vertical and horizontal lines in buildings.

Oblique effect

The physical regularity that makes it easier for people to perceive horizontal and vertical orientations than angled ones.

Light-from-above effect

The assumption that light comes from above, causing footprints in the sand to be perceived as indents or mounds depending on the view.

Semantic regularities

The meaning of a scene based on typical associations, such as expecting food preparation to occur in a kitchen.

Scene schema

Knowledge of what a given scene typically contains, used to help perceive and identify objects more quickly.

Bayesian Inference

A formal mathematical procedure where prior probability is multiplied by the likelihood of an outcome to determine the probability of an outcome.

Theory of natural selection

The evolutionary process by which animals became more sensitive to horizontal and vertical orientations because these characteristics enhanced survival.

Experience-dependent plasticity

The process by which learning and exposure to specific environmental stimuli shape the response of neurons in the brain.

Greebles

Computer-generated beings used by Isabel Gauthier to demonstrate that the fusiform face area ($FFA$) can be trained to respond to non-face complex objects.

Brain Ablation

A research method involving the study of removing or damaging parts of the brain in animals to observe changes in perception or behavior.

Neuropsychology

The study of the behavior of people with brain damage to understand brain function.

What pathway

The neural pathway leading from the striate cortex to the temporal lobe responsible for determining an object's identity, also called the ventral pathway.

Where pathway

The neural pathway leading to the parietal lobe responsible for determining an object's location, also called the dorsal pathway.

Action pathway

Also called the how pathway, it leads from the visual cortex to the parietal lobe and is associated with how a person coordinates movement with perception.

Mirror neurons

Neurons in the premotor cortex that fire both when an individual performs an action and when they observe someone else performing that same action.

Size-weight illusion

A cognitive prediction error where a larger object feels lighter than a smaller object of the same weight because we expect the larger one to be heavier.

Heuristics

Rules of thumb that help people make decisions or determine solutions.