COGPYSCH Exam 2

chapter 3 and 4

Perception

the ability to recognize and interpret information from the senses

blind spot

where the optic nerve passes through to convey visual signals to the brain

modal completion

illusory object is not obstructed and there is no objective boundary between the illusory object and the background

amodal completion

perceiving an object despite an apparently obstructed view

visual cognition

body of research on cognitive processes of perception

bottom-up information

sensory input coming in and sending signals that are translated

retina

back part of the eye (light sensitive part)

photoreceptors

collect light on the retina

fovea

center of the retina

cones

differentially sensitive to wavelengths corresponding to different colors

rods

extremely light sensitive photoreceptors

sensation

stimulation of the sensory receptors

transduction

signals are projected to pvc in this process

primary visual cortex

located at the back of the brain specialized for the rudimentary visual processing such as orientations and spatial frequences

feedforward (system)

hierarchical account of the flow of visual information processing

top-down information

knowledge and expectations that influenceand enhance our interpretation of sensory input

unconscious inference

educated guesses based on visual cues (helmholtz)

Predictive coding

visual brain seems to operate by making predictions about what input the eyes are about to receive

cognitively impenetrable

object segmentation

visually assigning the elements of a scene to separate objects and backgrounds

figure-ground organization

aspect of object segmentation in which it is not always evident which side of the boundary belongs to the object (figure) and which side of the boundary belongs to the background (ground)

occulsion

our views of objects are often partially blocked by other objects

boundary extention

ppl remembering pictures having extended beyond their edges

inverse projection

fact that we live in 3d world but get 2d images so our brains have to reconstruct things into 3d objects

binocular disparity

closer something is to you the greater the difference between what your 2 eyes see

binocular depth cues

cues that require both eyes to be effective

monocular depth cues

cues that your mind uses to construct a 3d understanding of 2d image on ur retina

linear perspective

the way parallel lines appear to move closer together and converge on a single point as they recede into the distance

texture gradient

way textural elements that are presumably of similar size appear to get smaller and more densely packed together as they recede into the distance

object constance

fact that although the same object looks very different on the retina depending on its orientation people are good at recognizing objects despite their orientation

size constancy

fact that perceived objects are stable despite radical differences in their image size on the retina

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color constancy

factoring in differences in illumination when shaping our color perception

lightness constancy

factoring in illumination conditions when perceiving the brightness of things

agnosia

inability to recognize objects

apperceptive agnosia

impaired early vision and cannot perform the simplest visual feature tasks (including copying images)

associative agnosia

inablitiy to name objects is later stage of recognition and categorization

view based approach

we match images to representaitons that are 2d pictures or templates

template

representation that fully describes the shape of an object

structural descriptions

models that represent objects as sets of 3d parts standing in spatial relationships to each other

recognition by components (geons)

recognizing things part by part or by geons(small parts)

multiple-trace memory model

we store multiple representations corresponding to multiple views of the same object that allow us to quickly match an incoming object to its corresponding representation

holistic perception

process a whole object at once including the relations of the individual parts to each other

deep learning

form of artificial intelligence that uses deep neural nets

neural nets

brainlike algorithms that analyze images in multiple steps- to process, categorize, and label natural images

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perception pathway

allows us to determine what is located where

action pathway

uses perception info to guide ongoing actions such as picking up a cup of tea

mental imagery

act of forming a percept in the mind without sensory input

aphantasia

inability to engage in mental imager

mental rotation

comparing and matching rotated images in mental imagery

depictive

brain represents mental images like it represents real images coming through the eyes

propositional

suggests that mental images are hld in a post-perceptual abstract way more like a linguistic description tan a picture

mental scanning

process of mentally moving from one point in an image to another

epiphenomenon

something that occurs toghet with a process of interest but it is not central for its function

topographic

items adjacent in visual space that are represented by neurons that are close to each other in the cortex

spatial neglect

some ppl cannot visual attend to objects on one side of their visual fields

attention

refers to family of cognitive mechanisms that combine to help us select, modulate, and sustain focus on information that might be most relevant for behavior

capacity-limited

we can only handle small amounts of info at a time

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external attention

how we attend outwardly, or select/modulate sensory information

eye tracking

using for research

saccades

small eye movemetns

overt attentnion

outward signs of people paying attention

covert attention

directing attention in a way that can’t be discerned by others

selection

singling out certain pieces of information among many things

voluntary attention

effort to select goal-relevant information

reflexive attention

attending to a stimulus because it has attracted ur attention not because you chose it

spatial attention

ability to attend to regions in space

inhibition of return

like a recovery period for attention - can’t turn your attention towards something immediately after something else has gotten it

feature based attention

ability to filter out info based on f

temporal attention

ability to pay attention to points of time

attentional blink

effect that the 2nd of 2 targets in rapid succession is more difficult to detect than the first

object-based attention

selective attention to object rather than a point in space

biased competition model of attention

stimuli in a cluttered visual environment compete with each other to drive the responses of neurons (neural real estate)

receptive field

preferred region of the viusal field

bottom-up selection

salience of the physical features

top-down selection

favor of items that are goal relevant

ambiguity resolution theory of visual selective attention

late selection

process the meaning before we select what gets more

preattentive processing

processing information before attentionally selecting it

parallel processing

processing at same time we take in stimuli

serial processing

one at a time

visual search task

look for a target embedded in an array of nontargets

conjunction

feature integration theory

features are processed in different regions of thebrain

binding problem

how we make sensse of the ways the features can be combined

illusory conjunctions

dichotic listening

2 different messages played simultaneously and you can focus on what

shadowing

repeating the message out loud as it played

cocktail party effect/problem

being able to respond to stimuli if it is importnat

filter model of attention

aimed to describe flow of info processing pre and post attention

Treisman’s attenuator model of attention

meaningful info needs to meet a lower threshold of processing in order to reach awareness (what happens in cocktail)

load theory

locus of attention selection is flexible

perceptual load

load is high when perceptual demands are difficult

working memory load

load is high bc task taxes the working memory

modulation

attention can change the way we perceive a stimulus

vigilance

state of heightened attentional anticipation

gabor patches

high contrast between dark and light stripes to report which way it was tilted