Form Perception

Question 1

What describes how we group visual input in certain ways?

Answer 1

Laws of Organization/Grouping Tendencies

aka the Gestalt principles

Question 2

Are the Gestalt principles innate?

Answer 2

Gestalt psychologists believe these are innate or acquired very rapidly after birth

Question 3

What is the following Gestalt principle called?

The ability to determine what aspect of a visual scene is part of the figure and what is part of the background

Answer 3

Figure-ground segregation

Question 4

How do figures look compared to the background?

Answer 4

Figures tend to have distinct borders or edges that give it a perceptible form and is perceived as being in front of the background (which can be formless or made up of multiple forms)

Question 5

Our ability to segregate figure from background is an __________ process that is guided by cues and influenced by prior EXPERIENCES, BIAS & NEURISTICS

Answer 5

Automated

Question 6

What is the following Gestalt principle called?

Elements that are close together in space tend to belong together

Answer 6

Proximity
- help with grouping

Question 7

How does grouping work in regard of proximity?

Answer 7

• Regions of high density as one group due to proximity
• More likely to group objects that are closer together than far apart

Question 8

What is the following Gestalt principle called?

If there are gaps in the contours of a shape, we tend to fill in those gaps and perceive a whole object

Answer 8

Closure
- we automatically fill in the parts we can’t see to perceive a single object

Question 9

What is the following Gestalt principle called?

The tendency for us to group together elements that are physically similar

Answer 9

Similarity
- helps with grouping

Question 10

How does grouping work in regards to similarity?

Answer 10

• We tend to group together objects of the same type
• We tend to see columns of the same elements as belonging together

Question 11

What is the following Gestalt principle called?

Allows us to perceive a simple, continuous form rather than a combination of awkward forms

Answer 11

Continuity

Question 12

What is the following Gestalt principle called?

The idea that things that change in the same way should be grouped together

Answer 12

Common fate
- helps with grouping
- explains why we can suddenly see a camouflaged animal once it moves

Question 13

How does grouping work in regards of common fate?

Answer 13

• objects moving together in the same direction tend to be grouped together

Question 14

Which method of processing is this?

The features that are present in the stimulus itself guides object recognition

Answer 14

Bottom-up processing
- noticing the stimulus details itself first

Question 15

What does bottom-up processing compare?

Answer 15

Compare every feature of the stimulus to memory

• you recognize what you see by analyzing the individual features and comparing those features to things with similar features that you have in memory

Question 16

Which method of processing is this?

Your own beliefs or expectations are the primary influence for determining what you’re seeing

Answer 16

Top-down processing
- using prior knowledge
- needs some input from the stimulus to work

Question 17

___________ can be primed in top-down processing

Answer 17

Recognition

Question 18

What is bi-directional activation?

Answer 18

Object recognition occurs when both top-down and bottom-up processing occurs together at once

• the features of the object in combination with our expectations guide object recognition

Question 19

What does Biederman’s geon theory suggest?

Answer 19

• suggests that we have 36 different geons or simple geometrical forms, stored in memory

Question 20

What does template theory suggest?

Answer 20

• Suggests that we store many different templates in memory and we compare the object to all the templates in our memory

Question 21

Differences between the template theory and exemplar theory

Answer 21

• template theory requires an exact match between the object and template in order for recognition to occur
• exemplar theory does not require an exact match for categorization

Question 22

Template theory

What happens if a template is found? If it is not found?

Answer 22

IF FOUND:
- the object is a familiar object and the person could name it by activating connections to other language areas in the brain

IF NOT FOUND:
- the object is an unfamiliar object and a new template is stored in the memory of this novel object

Question 23

What does the prototype theory suggest?

Answer 23

• Suggests that we compare objects to our ideal prototype

Question 24

What does the prototype theory compare?

Answer 24

Comparing novel objects to our internal “best” representation

• does not need to be an exact match between the object and what’s stored in memory
• it’s likely we have more than 1 type of representation for each object

Question 25

What is the following constancy called? Our ability to perceive an object as unchanging even though the visual image produced by the object is constantly changing

Answer 25

Perceptual constancy

Question 26

What is the following constancy called? An object is perceived to have a constant shape despite the shape of its retinal image changing with shifts in point of view or changes in object position

Answer 26

Shape constancy eg. a door is perceived as rectangular despite its visual chance when opening

Question 27

What is the following constancy called? An object is perceived to be stationary despite changing location on our retina due to body movements

Answer 27

Location constancy eg. when driving, we don't perceive the objects to be moving

Question 28

What is the following constancy called? An object is perceived to be the same size despite the size of its retinal image varying distance

Answer 28

Size constancy eg. a person walking away is not perceived as shrinking in size

Question 29

What is the following constancy called? An object is perceived to have a constant colour despite different illumination conditions

Answer 29

Colour constancy eg. a white dog is still recognized even under a red light

Question 30

What is the following constancy called? An object is perceived to be the same brightness despite reflecting more or less light onto our retina

Answer 30

Brightness constancy eg. objects have the same brightness whether in high or low illumination

Question 31

Existing knowledge provides top-down influence on _________

Answer 31

Perception

Question 32

Existing knowledge makes sense of changing _______ stimuli

Answer 32

visual

Question 33

Cues in the scene indicate ____________ constancies

Answer 33

perceptual

Question 34

________ cues indicate the size of an object relative to its distance

Answer 34

Depth

Question 35

________ cues indicate the influence of a light on an object's colour

Answer 35

Colour

Question 36

Perceptual constancies exist from prior _________ and cues in our _______

Answer 36

Prior knowledge & cues in our scene

Question 37

Visual illusions arise from ______________ in perception

Answer 37

Ambiguities

Question 38

The Muller-Lyer illusion misapplies ______ constancy and misinterprets ______

Answer 38

Size & depth

Question 39

Who is less susceptible to the Muller-Lyer illusion?

Answer 39

Cultures without exposure to right angles

Question 40

The Ames room manipulates _________ to trick size constancy

Answer 40

Distance

Question 41

The Ponzo illusion manipulates _________ cues to trick size constancy

Answer 41

Depth

Question 42

Visual illusions indicate that perception is an ________ process

Answer 42

Active

Question 43

What is the process in the brain when processing visual input?

Answer 43

Ganglion cells (in retina) --> exit via optic nerve --> optic chiasm --> optic tract --> LGN (lateral geniculate nucleus) --> primary visual area of cortex

Question 44

Why are some cells in the primary visual cortex called FEATURE-DETECTORS?

Answer 44

B/c they detect features

Question 45

Visual cortex neuron firing can be affected by the stimulus's __________, ____________, ___________________

Answer 45

Location Orientation Direction of movement

Question 46

When does each feature detector cell fire maximally?

Answer 46

Each feature detector cell is very specific about what will make it fire the most - these cells fire maximally to stimuli of a certain shape, size, position and movement - this defines the receptive field for that cell

Question 47

What type of cell is the following? Responds maximally to a bar of a certain orientation in a particular region of the retina

Answer 47

Simple cells

Question 48

How is the receptive field of simple cells organized?

Answer 48

In an opponent fashion

Question 49

What is the preferred orientation for simple cells

Answer 49

Horizontally aligned preferred orientation

Question 50

What type of cell is the following? Responds maximally to a bar of a certain orientation, regardless of location

Answer 50

Complex cells - some also respond maximally to a specific direction of movement - indifferent to the position of the light on its receptive field - some care about the direction of movement

Question 51

What type of cell is the following? Responds maximally to a bar of a particular orientation and direction of movement, ending at specific points within the receptive field

Answer 51

Hypercomplex cell - receptive fields have a region of inhibition at the end

Question 52

Why do we have 3 cell types?

Answer 52

B/c it allows the brain to optimally balance the function of each wile consuming the least possible amount of energy