Chapter 1 pt.2

Question 1

What is Gestalt Pyshcology based on

Answer 1

The view that we percieve the world in terms of well-organized structures rather than seperated and indivudal elements

Question 2

Gestalt psychologists were also interested in “apparent motion,” what does this mean?

Answer 2

Its a reference to the interation between parts, not the individual parts themselves

Question 3

Gestalt psychologists considered the visual perception of ________ as critical to determining what objects were.

Answer 3

edges

Question 4

J.J and Eleanor Gobson developed what approach

Answer 4

The Direct Perception Approach

Question 5

What did the Gibsons emphasize? (what is the direct peprception approach)

Answer 5

That information in the sensory world is complex enough were the perceptual systems only need to directly perceive them. (in this view, senses dont send incomplete information to the brain)

Question 6

The direct perception view emphasized ecological realism in experiments, what does this mean?

Answer 6

Rather than showing simple displays to participants in experiments, direct perception theorists advocated using more natural stimuli from the environment.
(because environmental stimuli is what we will actually encounter)

Question 7

Who was Wolfgang Köhler?

Answer 7

A prominent gestalt psychologist why appliedit to auditory perception and other domains of psychology (including the famous study of problem solving in chimpanzees)

Question 8

What idea does the Information-processing approach follow?

Answer 8

The idea that perceptual and cognitive systems can be viewed as the flow of information from one process to another

Question 9

How does the information-processing approach work?

Answer 9

Information is collected by sensory processes and then flows to a variety of modules that decode the information, interpret it, and then allow the organism to act on it.

Question 10

For the information processing approach, each stage takes a finite amount of time, how can the processes be observed or measured?

Answer 10

By recording reaction times as observers do various tasks

Question 11

What is a key difference between the “information-processing view” and the “direct perception view”?

Answer 11

information-processing view requires internal cognitive processes to interpret the perceptual image, whereas the direct perception view asserts that the sensory input is sufficient in and of itself

Question 12

What is a Key difference between the Gestalt view and the information-processing view?

Answer 12

the gestalt view emphasizes patterns and organization, whereas the information-processing view emphasizes the analysis of information and its flow from one system to another.

Question 13

What is the Computational Approach?

Answer 13

An approach that studies perception by specifying the necessary computations the brain needs to carry out to percieve the world

Question 14

Who developed the Computational approach, and what was it greatly influenced by?

Answer 14

Developed by David Marr.
It was heavily influenced by the growth of computer science and early theory of AI

Question 15

David Marr attempted to specify perception in terms of what _____________ the brain needs to perform the task of perception. He believed the brain was an incredibly _________ __________.

Answer 15

Computations; Complicated computer

Question 16

Using the approaches modern form of the computational appraoch, what did researchers attempt to develop to predict perceptual phenomena?

Answer 16

Mathematical Models

Question 17

What is a key difference between the Computational approach and the information-procesing approach?

Answer 17

The computational approach is more theoretical as it focusses on modelling perception in computer simulations.
The information-processing approach is more linked to observations in behavioural experiments

Question 18

What is the goal of neuroscience?

Answer 18

To understand sensation and perception in terms of structures and processes in the nervous system that produce it.

Question 19

How does the neuroscience approach work? (2 steps)

Answer 19

1) They first examine the psysiological processes where a physical signal is converted into a neural signal
2) It then looks at connections from the sensory organs to the brain and then at regions in the brain itself that are involved in perceptual processes

Question 20

Neuroscience is interested in the _____ level, why is this necessary?

Answer 20

Cellular
At the cellular level, neuroscientists can look at the actions of individual cells and how they respond to signals

Question 21

Neuroscience is also interested in what processes occur in the brain to process and interpret sensory information. How do they do this?

Answer 21

They can look at larger units in the brain, and attemp to correlate those regions with specific perceptual functions

Question 22

What tool was one of the most important developments in neurposcience?

Answer 22

The Microelectrode

Question 23

How does the Microelectrode work?

Answer 23

Because of how small it is, it can penetrate a single neuron in the mammilian central nervous system without destroying the cell.

When in the cell, it can record the electrical activity or even stimulate the cell by carrying electrical current to the cell from an electrical source

Question 24

Who was the microelectrode first used by?

Answer 24

it was used in the sensory systems by Kuffer. He used it to determine what kind of stimuli a particular cell responds to

Question 25

Hubel and Wiesel are probably the names most associated with the microelectrode technique, why?

Answer 25

Their Nobel prize-winning work helped us to understand behaviour of individua cells and also the levels of organization in the brain and how it develops

Question 26

What did Hubel and Wiesel find in the brains of cats and monkeys?

Answer 26

They found cells in their brains that were selective to one eye or the other, and other cells that responded only when both eyes were able to see the same objects

Question 27

Single-cell recording made major constributions to neuroscience with animal models, but why is this used less often now days?

Answer 27

Because its difficult to do with humans, and we have increased concerns about animal welfare

Question 28

What is Neuropsychology?

Answer 28

It is the study of the relation of brain damage to changes in behaviour. Scientists know what part of the brain is damaged and then look for behavioural changes in that individual

Question 29

When did the study of neuropsychology begin?

Answer 29

In the 1870's of Europe as antiseptic (prevent disease) procedures allowd soldiers to survive gunshot wounds

Question 30

Explain the D.B case study.

Answer 30

A patient called DB had part of his occipital lobe (the V1 area) removed as a treatment for a tumor that was causing seizures. It fixed his seizures, but he develped partial blindness in one area of his visual field. As a result, it was discovered that the occipital love was responsible for seeing in a certian part of the visual field

Question 31

What is Agnosia?

Answer 31

A deficit in some aspect of perception as a result of brain damage

Question 32

What is Prosopagnosia?

Answer 32

A form of agnosia caused by damage of the temporal lobe, damage to this area results in the inability to recognize faces (also called fusiform face area)

Question 33

What is Amusia?

Answer 33

Where damage to areas of the right temporal lobe results in a persons loss of appreciation of music

Question 34

Neuroscience research also includes neuroimaging techniques, what is neuroimaging?

Answer 34

Neuroimaging involves technologies that allow us to map living brains as they ingage in tasks like percieving, learning, and thinking.

Question 35

One method of Neuroimaging is the Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI), explain how this works.

Answer 35

The fMRI can image blood levels in different areas of the brain, which correlates with activity levels in those regions. This allows us to correlate activity in the brain with our sensory abilities

Question 36

Why is the fMRI technique thought of as a hemodynamic technique (refers to measurement of the functional characteristics of the heart and the circulatory system)

Answer 36

Because it measures the bllood flow to the brain

Question 37

What assumption does the fMRI technique make (why is it useful)

Answer 37

It assumes that because the brain is a biological organ, it requires oxygen. And the areas of the brain that are active require more oxygen therefore more blood than other areas of the brain. For example, a person talking will need more oxygen delivered to the parts of the brain that are responsible for speech production

Question 38

Kau et. al recorded the neural activity in the brains of participants tracking moving dots across a screen, what did he find?

Answer 38

There was an activity in the area of the brain called V3 located in the occipital lobe (associated with movement perception)

Question 39

Why is neuroimaging important in scientific psychology?

Answer 39

It offers the oppotunity to watch the human brain as it does its work and can tell us a lot about the structure and function of the brain, and the nature of sensation and perception

Question 40

Why can Neuroimaging be misleading sometimes?

Answer 40

Small differences in how studies are conducted can lead to significant variations in results, and some neural activity might appear significant just by chance. It also only measures groups of cells instead of cells individually.

Question 41

What is cognitive penetration?

Answer 41

The view that cognitive and emotional factors influence perception

Question 41

What is Cognitive impenetrability?

Answer 41

The view that perception is NOT affected by cognitive factors, our perception remains the same regardless of our cognitive and emotional state (the opposite of cognitive penetration)

Question 42

The dominant view in the field is that perception is cognitive ____________.

Answer 42

Impenetrable

Question 43

Delk and Fillenbaum did a study on colors and shapes, explain the study

Answer 43

They asked participants to match red objects (all the same red/orange color) to a color backround that ranged from light to dark red. Some of the object were object that would be red in real life (like an apple, lips, and heart), other red objects were object that would not usually be red objects (like a bell and mushroom)

Question 44

What did Delk and Fillenbaum find in their shape/color matching experiment

Answer 44

That participants added more red as a background to the objects that would be red in real life, and used less red for the objects that would not be red in real life. This suggests that the knowledge of the objects was influencing people to percieve them as being more red than other objects (the cognitive association of objects to color influences how we perceive that color)

Question 45

Freeman and colleagues did an experiment using pain and creams, explain what they did.

Answer 45

They gave three different identical creams to different groups before presenting a painful stimulus. In the first condition, they told the participants that it would reduce the pain. In the second condition, they told participants that the cream would increase the pain. In the third they said it was neutral and wouldnt affect pain levels

Question 46

What was the results of the Cream experiment?

Answer 46

The belief that the cream would lead to less pain led to less pain experienced compared to the second group, who experienced more pain after being told the cream would cause more pain. These results suggest that our expectations influence the pain we experience

Question 47

What illusion does the size-arrival effect lead to?

Answer 47

That smaller objects are less likely to collide with the viewer than bigger objects

Question 47

DeLucias research shows that the human visual system uses two cues to make judgements about impending collisions, what are they?

Answer 47

1) Time collision = estimating the time it will take for an object to collide with you by dividing the objects optical size by the objects rate of expantion 2) Size of the object = also known as the size-arrival effect, larger objects are judged to be closer than smaller objects.