Cognitive Psychology Chapter 3


Perception - Experiences resulting from the stimulation of the senses.

Inverse Projection Problem - the task of determining an object responsible for a particular image on the retina.

Viewpoint Invariance - The ability to recognize objects despite seeing its different angles/viewpoints.

Bottom-Up Processing - Looking at something that creates an image to the retina. Processing that starts with the information received by the receptors.

Top-Down Processing - Knowledge that enables people to rapidly identify objects and scenes (knowledge and expectations).

Speech Segmentation - The ability to tell when one word in a conversation ends and a new one begins.

Transitional Probabilities - The likelihood that one sound will follow another within a word.

Statistical Probabilities - The process of learning transitional probabilities.

Helmoltz’s Theory Of Unconscious Inference - 1821 - 1894

Likelihood Principle - We perceive objects that is most likely caused by the pattern of the stimuli we receive.

Unconscious Inference - The result of unconscious assumptions or inferences about the environment.

Apparent Movement - Although movement is perceived, nothing is actually moving.


Gestalt’s Principles

  • Principle of Good Continuation

    • When connected, result in straight or smoothly curving lines are seen as belonging together, and the lines tend to be seen in such a way as to follow the smoothest path.

  • Pragnanz in German means “Good Figure”

  • Law of Pragnanz or Principle of Good Figure or Principle of Simplicity

    • Every stimulus partner is seen in such a way that the resulting structure is as simple as possible.

  • Principle of Similarity

    • Similar things appear to be grouped together.


two types of regularities:

  1. Physical Regularities

  2. Semantic Regularities


Physical Regularities

  • Regularly occurring physical properties of the environment.

Semantic Regularities

  • characteristics associated with the functions, carried out in different type of senses.

Oblique Effect

  • People can perceive horizontals and verticals more easily than other orientations.


Scene Schema - Visualizations contain information based on our knowledge of different kinds of scenes. A person’s knowledge about what is likely to be contained in a specific scene.


Bayesian Inference

  • named after Thomas Bayes (1791-1761)

Prior Probability

  • Initial belief about the probability of an outcome.

Likelihood

  • Extent to which the available evidence is consistent with the outcome.


Theory of Natural Selection

  • Characteristics that enhance an animal’s ability to survive, and therefore reproduce, will be passed on to future generations.


What is perception?

  • perception is to create an awareness of what’s happening to our environment, as when we see objects in scenes or we perceive words in a conversation. It is important because it enables us to interact with the environment.


Brain Ablation (Lesioning)

  • The study of the effect of removing parts of the brain in animals.


Mirror Neurons

  • Neurons that respond both when a monkey observes someone else grasping an object such as food on a tray and when the monkey itself gasps the food, the goal is to determine the goal or intention of action.


Size-Weight Illusion

  • When a person is presented with two similar objects, that are the same weight but different sizes, the larger one seems light when lifted together.