Cognitive Psych exam 1 vocab (PERCEPTION)

light, cornea, lens, retina

trajectory of light

rods

sensitive to low levels of light, low acuity, color blind, few in fovea

cones

detect bright colors, higher acuity, color sensitive, mostly in or near fovea

lateral inhibition

when cells are stimulated, they inhibit the activity of neighboring cells, leads to edge enhancement

single cell recording

each cell in the visual cortex has a receptive field which has firing rates depending on if the stimulus is presented

dot detectors

stimulus in the center of receptive field leads to faster firing rates, stimulus in the surrounding areas of the receptive fields leads to slower firing

orientation, angles, motions, direction, corners

receptor specializations

what system

pathway connecting occipital lobe and inferotemporal cortex to aid in identification of visual objects

where system

pathway connecting the occipital lobe and posterior parietal cortex to aid in perception of an objects location

binding problem

task of reuniting elements of a stimulus that were addressed by different systems in different brain regions

neural synchrony

attributes are registered as belonging to the same object if the neurons detecting these attributes fire in synchrony

gestalt principles

we assume more than what is definitely present, stimuli require interpretation

proximity, similarity, continuation, closure, figure and ground

gestalt principles

law of pragnaz

the human brain naturally turns complex or fuzzy visual shapes into the simplest, clearest forms possible

perceptual constancy

we perceive constant object properties (size + shape) even though the sensory information about these attributes are changing when circumstances change

unconscious inference

as an object distance doubles, image size decreases by half. relationship between objects in the visual field stay the same on the retina regardless of your viewing distance

binocular disparity

difference between the stimulus received by each eye

monocular depth cues

depth cues that depend only on what each eye sees by itself

redundancy

cues become more or less important under different circumstances

Photoreceptors, Bipolar cells, Ganglion cells, optic nerve, LGN, V1

pathway from retina to visual cortex

proximity

when objects are placed together, the eye perceives them as a group

similarity

when objects look similar to one another, the eye perceives them as a group

continuity

the eye is compelled to move rom one object to another as a continuous object

closure

when an object is incomplete or not completely enclosed

figure and ground

when the eye differentiates an object from its surrounding area