Chapter 1 - Wayne's Notes

Question 1

Affordances (Gibson)

Answer 1

Info that indicates what the object is used for

Perceptions of objects include more than physical properties; also about how the object is used

Question 2

Affordance of the environment

Answer 2

What it offers/provides/furnishes for the environment

eg. chair affords sitting

Question 3

Evolutionary aspect of sensation/perception

Answer 3

Shows us what is most important for surviving, and what the organism has learned as most important
Evolved for efficiency and effectiveness, not always accuracy/completeness

Question 4

How to study affordances

Answer 4

Look at behaviour of brain damage patients

eg. MNP temporal lobe damage - could not id object by looking at it, had to be told what it does

Question 5

Characteristics of the perceiver

Answer 5

Species have different requirements for perception and survival (eg. humans don’t need to know if flowers are producing nectar but bees do)
These requirements affect what is perceived and influenced by
Variation also exists within species (eg. living in plains vs jungles affects depth perception)

Question 6

Physiological approaches

Answer 6

Phenomenological approach

Experimental approach

Question 7

Phenomenological approach

Answer 7

Person describes their experience

Question 8

Experimental approach

Answer 8

Control and careful manipulation of the stimulus

What aspects of stimulus are related to what aspects of perception?

Question 9

Psychophysics

Answer 9

Detection (thresholds)
Matching (strength)
Magnitude estimation (perceived strength)
Recognition and search

Question 10

Sensory-physiology

Answer 10

Relationship between stimulus characteristics (magnitude, orientation, etc) and physiological response (eg. brain activity)

Question 11

Sensory-physiological psychology

Answer 11

Relationship between physiological activity is related to phenomenological experience

Question 12

Biological approaches

Answer 12

How perceptual and biological phenomena are related

Question 13

Lesion techniques

Answer 13

Destroy neurons in specific areas (burning, chemicals or surgery)
Examine effect of natural neural destruction in humans
Chemical lesions can be helpful because they are reversible

Question 14

Evoked potentials/event related potentials

Answer 14

Measure change in brain activity with EEG
Present w/ same stimulus
Look for consistencies or vary stimuli to see how activity is affected

Question 15

Brain imaging techniques

Answer 15

PET
fMRI
MEG

Question 16

Single-cell techniques

Answer 16

Activity of an individual neuron in a perceiving animal

1. Record activity of specific neurons during stimuli
2. Input weak elec signals to see how bhvr chgs

Question 17

When you think about the perceptual process as outlined in your text (p. 5), and you put that together with Gibson’s notions of “affordances” and the discussion above, how might these influence each other when we are actually perceiving things in our environment? Give examples from your experience in support of your argument.

Answer 17

Think