Perception and Action Development Flashcards
Describe Gibson (1966) Bottom-up theory
perception involves innate mechanisms forged by evolution and that no learning is required
describe Gregory (1970) Top-Down theory
perceiving the world around us by drawing on our previous experiences to interpret new information
Gibson (1966) argues that perception is _
direct
- there is enough info in our environment to make sense of it in a direct way
- ‘ecological theory’ and affordances
describe the bottom-up process
raw sensory info, direct perception (constant perception-action loops)
Gibson’s Theory of perception - why doesn’t the story stop there?
- there is strong evidence to show that the brain and long term memory can influence perception
- in this case, it could be said that Gregory’s theory is far more plausible
Gregory (1970) suggests that info from our environment can be _
ambiguous, so to interpret it, we require knowledge from our past experiences
- our brain ‘fills in any missing pieces’ from our senses to make it make sense
- we are actively constructing our perception of reality
with gregory’s theory, highly ‘unlikely’ objects tend to be mistaken for_
likely objects
- ex. charlie chaplin head, hollow on other side but looked like face with nose pointed out
describe the necker cube (gregory’s theory of perception)
- stare at the crosses on the cube
- the cube orientations can suddenly change or flip
- it becomes unstableand a single physicxal pattern can produce 2 perceptions
- gregory argues that this object can flip because the brain develops 2 equally plausible hypotheses and is unable to decide between them
*1 image = 2 perceptions
summary of theories of perception:
- neither theories of perception seem capable of explaining all of perception, all of the time
- gibson’s theory lacks the ability to explain illusions
- gregory’s theory is primarily based on rare situations or experiences
What did Held and Hein (1963) study? (self produced locomotion)
- studied early motor activity in kittens
- researchers restricted the moment of some newborn kittens and permitted others to move
- wanted to keep their visual experience identical
Describe Held and Hein’s study in more detail
- kitty merry go round
- harnessed but could walk (active kitten)
- restricted and solely riding (passive kitten)
- both had equal perceptions
describe passive kittens
later failed to accurately judge depths and failed to exhibit paw placing or eye blinking when an object approached
- this demonstrates that self-produced movement is related to the development of behaviour depending on visual perception
what can the Held and Hein study tell us?
deprivation can put people at risk of deficient perceptual development
describe the role of action in perception
- developmentalists suspect that movement is important to perceptual develoopment
- movement is necessary for the coupling, or linking of perception and movement
why are perceptual-motor activities important?
they give children experience in performing skills based on perceptual info
name a great example of perception-action coupling
a musician’s brain is an excellent example of perception-action coupling because movements and intended sounds become strongly associated after long-term musical practice
what examples did claire use on how perception and action are coupled in everyday life?
cooking food, driving, playing music, knitting, golf
different surfaces require different _
movements
ex. shag carpet vs ice
how does locomotor experience influence infants actions when presented with different surface? describe what Gibson et al (1987) did
rigid surface (cloth over plywood)
deforming surface (cloth over waterbed)
- crawlers and walkers were presented with each surface
- all infants transversed the surfaces, but the walkers hesitated to cross the deforming surface
- they first stopped to examine the surface through vision and touch, and eventually crossed by crawling
- crawlers didn’t have a preference of materials
- but the walkers chose rigid
researchers have also found walkers to be more _ than crawlers to slopes
sensitive
- crawlers, less locomotor experience = will almost always attempt a slope (even if it is too steep for them)
- walkers will explore by patting the surface with their hands, or rocking back and forth on their ankles, most will descend backwards crawling down a slope over walking
how does locomotor experience affect judgements?
leads infants to make better judgements and avoid risky behaviours beyond their abilities
- through movement, infants generate perceptual info about their bodies and the environment
- these exploratory movements allow infants to calibrate environmental parameters and to start to perceive affordances
describe infant tool use (perception of affordances)
- through trial and error, infants are detecting affordances
- early movements may be building blocks for later tool use (banging objects become tuned for later percussion tool use)
- the ability to reach, grasp, control and bang objects provide the infant with the opportunity to detect affordances
define body scale
a person’s size relative to the environment
describe body scales
- body scales change over the lifespan
- scaling of sports equipment and environments allows people of various sizes to perform similar movements
