315 visual perception (1)

Cognitive Psychology

The science of the human mind and its mental function, including learning, memory, attention, and perception.

Transduction

Converting a sensory stimulus into neural impulses.

Visual Accommodation (Nearby Objects)

Ciliary muscles tighten and bulge the lens.

Visual Accommodation (Distant Objects)

Ciliary muscles relax and flatten the lens.

Rods

Photoreceptors in the periphery of the retina; very sensitive to light, color-blind, and have lower acuity.

Cones

Photoreceptors in the fovea; less sensitive to light, color-sensitive, and have higher acuity.

Where System

The occipital-parietal pathway responsible for locating objects and guiding responses.

What System

The occipital-temporal pathway responsible for the identification of objects.

Functional Specialization

Cells are specialized in function and what they respond to; a key efficiency in visual processing.

Parallel Processing

Many different types of analyses happening at the same time to speed up processing.

Binding Problem

The challenge of how we combine various pieces of sensory information into an integral percept.

Solving the Binding Problem

Achieved through spatial position, neural synchrony, and attention.

Bottom-up Influence

Incoming information about the world that is stimulus-driven.

Top-down Influence

Stored knowledge used to alter how the world is processed.

Gestalt Principle: Similarity

Stimuli that are similar to each other tend to be grouped together.

Gestalt Principle: Proximity

We tend to group nearby figures together.

Gestalt Principle: Good Continuation

We tend to perceive stimuli in smooth, continuous ways.

Gestalt Principle: Closure

We tend to fill in gaps to create a complete, whole object.

Gestalt Principle: Simplicity

We tend to interpret a form in the simplest way possible.

Perceptual Constancy

Properties of an object appear constant despite changing sensory information, achieved through unconscious inference.

Binocular Disparity

A binocular depth cue most effective for objects up to 6m away.

Monocular Distance Cues

Includes interposition, relative size, linear perspective, texture gradient, and lighting/shading.

Depth Through Motion Cues

Includes motion parallax and optic flow.