8. Cognitive Psych (Object Recognition & Time Perception)

What is the fundamental question that theories of object recognition attempt to answer?

How we recognize objects and patterns by imposing structure on a stimulus

The core idea of _________ principles is that we perceive the whole as being ‘more than the sum of its parts.’

Gestalt

Gestalt principles, which describe typical grouping or organization tendencies and emphasize perceiving input as a whole object, are an example of what type of processing?

Top-down processing

Which Gestalt law states that we group together elements that are close to each other?

The Law of Proximity

Which Gestalt law describes our tendency to perceive continuous, smooth patterns rather than discontinuous ones?

The Law of Continuation

Which Gestalt law explains our tendency to fill in missing parts or ignore gaps in a figure to create a complete object?

The Law of Closure

Seeing edges that don’t physically exist, as explained by the Law of Closure, is a phenomenon known as __________ or subjective contours.

Illusory contours

What is the main limitation of Gestalt principles in explaining object recognition?

They don’t explain the entirety of a complex task like object recognition

Processing that starts with basic sensory information and builds up to a complete perception is known as what?

Bottom-up processing

Who proposed a feature-analysis model of reading where words are recognized through their individual letters?

Rumelhart & McClelland (1982)

What is a significant limitation of simple feature-analysis models, as demonstrated by the Cambridge University effect?

They struggle to explain recognition of complex objects or jumbled words

Who developed the Recognition-by-Components (RBC) theory of object recognition?

Biederman (1990)

In Biederman’s RBC theory, what are the simple 3d shapes that contribute to making up objects called?

Geons

According to Recognition-by-Components (RBC) theory, what is the most important factor in the process of identifying an object?

The relationship among the geons

Who tested the Recognition-by-Components theory using a sequential matching task with rotated objects?

Hayward & Tarr (1997)

In the Hayward & Tarr (1997) study, what was the ‘Quantitative Object Match’ condition?

The same object was shown, but the second image was rotated or inverted.

In the Hayward & Tarr (1997) study, what was the ‘Identical Object Match’ condition?

The same objects were shown.

In the Hayward & Tarr (1997) study, what was the ‘Qualitative Object Match’ condition?

The second object shown was rotated.

In the Hayward & Tarr (1997) study, what was the ‘No Object Match’ condition?

Different objects were shown.

What were the results of Hayward & Tarr’s (1997) study on object matching?

Participants struggled to recognize rotated objects, showing a high error rate.

What do the findings of the Hayward & Tarr (1997) study suggest about our perception of geons?

Our viewpoint of an object can change our ability to recognize its constituent geons.

Who proposed the ‘Viewer-Centered Approach’ to object recognition?

Shepard et al.

According to Shepard's viewer-center approach, how do we recognize an object seen from an unfamiliar angle?

We mental rotate the object to find a match from a small number of views stored in memory.

Shepard’s viewer-center approach, which involves matching stimuli to stored memories, is an example of what type of processing?

Top-down processing & Bottom-down processing

What is the inability to recognize visually-presented objects despite the preservation of elementary sensory functions?

Visual Agnosia

Visual agnosia is typically a consequence of what kinds of medical events?

A stroke or brain injury

Assessing a patient’s ability to name, describe the use of, or pantomime the use of an object are methods to test for what condition?

Visual Agnosia

The type of agnosia where impaired visual processing results in a poor perception of the object is known as ____________.

Apperceptive Agnosia

Apperceptive Agnosia is associated with impairment in which lobe of the brain?

Occipital lobe

What is a type of Visual Agnosia/an impairment where a visual percept is good, but it cannot be matches with the associated mental representation of the object?

Associative Agnosia

Associative Agnosia results from a faulty connection between which two lobes of the brain?

The occipital and temporal lobes

What is a type of Visual Agnosia/condition where patients are unable to name visually-presented objects but can demonstrate their use through pantomime?

Optic Aphasia

What is meant by ‘explicit judgments of time’ in psychology?

Measures of someone’s perceived duration of time as compared to the actual duration of time

What procedure for measuring time perception involves a person being presented with an interval of time and then asking to make an estimate of its duration (in minutes or seconds)?

The ‘Verbal Estimation’ procedure

What procedure for measuring time perception involves a person given a duration of time (like 30 seconds) and then trying to produce an interval of time with that exact duration?

The ‘Production’ procedure

What procedure for measuring time perception involves a person being presented with a constant stimulus for a duration of time and then trying to replicate that duration?

The ‘Reproduction’ procedure

How does physiological arousal generally influence the perception of time?

Arousal accelerates the mechanisms that helps perceive time, leading to longer perceived durations.

What are the results regarding Droitvolet et al.’s study on time perception?

People tend to perceive angry faces as lasting longer than neutral faces.

What is the long-term perception phenomenon that questions why time seems to go faster as you get older?

Retrospective perceptions of time at longer intervals (like a year)

According to memory theory, why might a year feel longer in early life?

We have lots of new experiences and form many new memories, so when we recall the year, there is more content between the start and end.

According to memory theory, why might time seem to pass by quickly in later life?

We have fewer new experiences and more familiar experiences, so there are fewer novel memories to recall, making the time between events seem shorter.