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PSYC10001 > Sensation + Perception > Flashcards

Sensation + Perception Flashcards

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1
Q

Attention process

A
  • ability to PREFERENTIALLY process one stimulus over other stimulus
  • eg. when i PREFERENTIALLY process someone’s face over the environment, i pay ATTENTION to the ace
  • as a result what i pay attention to will be CLEARER
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2
Q

Why is attention needed? 2

A

1) Perceptual system has a LIMITED CAPACITY
- eg. in a crowd, i can’t pay attention to everyone, need to focus on one thing, ignore the rest

2) Avoids us becoming OVERWHELMED

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3
Q

Overt attention vs covert attention

A

OVERT
- looking directly at the object you are paying attention to
- eg. talking to somebody

COVERT
- NOT looking directly at the object you are paying attention to
- eg. looking after a kid

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4
Q

Eye movements + attention - 2 key theories

A

1) We FIXATE on the object we are paying attention to

2) We do not scan over a visual scene smoothly
- eg. not like watching a car driving

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5
Q

We do not scan over a visual scene smoothly - then what do we do?

A
  • eg. if we look at a city view, our eyes JUMP FROM POINT TO POINT
  • these JUMPS = SACCADES
  • these eye movements are very fast, so we say they are BALLISTIC
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6
Q

Saccade definition?

A

Ballistic eye movement

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7
Q

How do we monitor attention?

A
  • we track somebody’s eye movements
  • as we FIXATE on something we pay attention to
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8
Q

What directs our attention (ie. catches) - 2

A

1) FIRST = INVOLUNTARY PROCESS
- also known as ATTENTIONAL CAPTURE
- saliency

2) NEXT = VOLUNTARY PROCESS
- guided by goals AND expectations

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9
Q

Salience?

A

Quality of being noticeable. Basically CONTRAST

Contrast in…
1) Colour = eg. red bird out of white birds
2) Size
3) Orientation
4) Motion/flicker

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10
Q

Attentional capture

A
  • idea that we involuntarily FIXATE on SALIENT parts of a scene
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11
Q

Examples of expectations directing our attention? 2

A

1) SEMANTICALLY INCONSISTENT OBJECT
- eg. a kitchen with a printer on the stove
- makes us wonder why its there

2) SYNACTICALLY INCONSISTENT OBJECT
- eg. a kitchen with a floating pot on the stove
- defying prior knowledge of gravity

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12
Q

3 effects of attention?

A

1) Speeds responses
2) Influence appearance
3) Influence physiological responding

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13
Q

Efects of attention? - study on how it speeds responses?

A

POSNER

WHAT WAS THE EXPERIMENT?
- 2 screens shown
- last screen will have a big X on the right side of the screen
- first screen will either have the arrow pointing to the right or left
- ARROW POINTING TO THE RIGHT = response time is much faster
- ARROW POINTING TO THE LEFT =response time is much lower

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14
Q

Efects of attention? - study on how it changes appearance? 5 steps

A

CARRASCO

WHAT WERE PARTICIPANTS ASKED TO DO?
- report orientation of higher contrast grating
- grating = stripes

WHAT DID THEY SEE?
1) Fixation - screen with centre point
2) Cue - screen with dot on the right
3) ISI - inter stimulus interval - gives time for person to shift attention to spot, but not for your eyes to move there
4) Stimuli - 2 gratings appear either side of the centre point
5) Response - will say that right stripe (ie. the cued grating) has a higher contrast

SO…
- attention made objects appear to have a higher contrast!!
- other experiments show attention can make the object seem bigger, faster, more VIVID

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15
Q

Efects of attention? - how does it influence physiological responding?

A
  • NEURONS in the brain RESPOND more strongly to stimulus you pay attention to compared to those you don’t pay attention to
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16
Q

The binding problem - definition

A
  • the problem of COMBINING different FEATURES
  • that correspond to the same object

eg. know that green + vertical = green vertical object

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17
Q

Binding problem - what causes this issue?

A
  • different aspects of a stimulus (eg. colour, orientation, size) are processed in different areas of the brain
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18
Q

Binding problem - example

A
  • there is a red vertical bar + green horizontal bar
  • how is all this random info processed in diff parts of the brain combined to prevent us seeing a green vertical bar + red horizontal bar??
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19
Q

Feature integration theory 2 parts

A

WHAT IS IT?
- binding problem but for MULTIPLE objects
- problem is that you will COMBINE DIFF FEATURES + MIX THEM UP FOR THE DIFF OBJECTS
- eg. you see red rectangle + green square, but might BIND wrong features and see a green rectangle and red square!

HOW IS THE PROBLEM SOLVED?
- done by attending to ONE OBJECT AT A TIME
- ensures that FEATURES at one location are not mixed up with other locations

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20
Q

illusory conjunctions?

A
  • if attention is inhibited
  • FEATURES from diff objects will be incorrectly bound together
  • eg. you see red rectangle + green square, but might BIND wrong features and see a green rectangle and red square!
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21
Q

illusory conjunctions - experiment done

A

TREISMAN + SCHMIDT

  • on one screen there was a flash of 9XTA5, letters were coloured
    then there was a NOISE MASK - prevents letters being flashed/trace into your eyes
  • people always report the right letters + numbers
  • but associated the wrong colour with the wrong letter (BINDED THE WRONG FEATURES W/ EACH OTHER) - ILLUSORY CONDUCTION
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22
Q

Balint syndrome

A
  • PARIETAL LOBE damage
  • causes difficulty on focusing attention on a SINGLE OBJECT at a time
  • eg. if shown different colour letters, would BIND FEATURES wrongly, match wrong colour with wrong letter
  • ie. PRONE TO ILLUSORY CONJUNCTIONS
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23
Q

Visual search

A
  • we are told to look for a target object
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24
Q

2 types of visual searches

A

1) Feature search
2) Conjunction search

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25
Conjunction search - what is it
WHAT IS IT? - when the target contains similar features to the distractors - EG. TARGET = RED, HORIZONTAL RECTANGLE - OTHER OBJECTS, DISTRACTOR FEATURES = RED VERTICAL, GREEN HORIZONTAL
26
Conjunction search - speed
SLOW - there are multiple objects w/ individual features - so...BINDING PROBLEM NEEDS TO BE SOLVED - or else mix up the features - Need to look at each object one by one for the target
27
Feature search - what is it?
WHAT IS IT? - when the target contains a feature that the distractors DO NOT - EG. TARGET = red squares - EG. OTHER OBJECTS = green squares
28
Feature search - speed
- FAST - BINDING DOES NOT OCCUR (ie. no need to combine diff features ACROSS OBJECTS) - no need to look one by one
29
Change blindness
- shown 2 images - idea that we cannot notice the changes in image
30
What causes change blindness? 2
1) When the thing we are paying attention to changes - tends to be salient objects 2) Motion transients - changes that generation motion, draws attention to change - eg. slideshow VS having a blank screen between 2 pics
31
Object perception
- basically RECOGNISING what an object is
32
Proof that object perception is hard?
- computers w/ artificial neural networks fail to recognise objects presented to them
33
What makes object perception so hard? 3
1) Stimulus on retina is ambiguous 2) Objects can be occluded/blurred 3) Obejcts look different from different viewpoints + orientation
34
Stimulus on retina is ambiguous
- many stimulus can create the same RETINAL IMAGE - eg. a wire to a star can make a similar shadow - it is hard for us to infer the original 3d object from the 2d shadow alone OR - idea that 2d image may not mean the 3d image - for example, holding the eiffel tower when its not actually being done
35
Objects can be occluded/blurred
- eg. glasses can be covered by the book - harder to perceive the object as glasses
36
Objects look different from different viewpoints + orientation
- objects (eg. glasses) look totally different from the side, front, back angle - harder to perceive the object as glasses
37
How do humans solve problems in object perception? 2 theories
1)Structuralism = DISPROVED 2) Gestaltism = PROVED, CONTRADICTION OF ABOVE
38
Structuralism
- stimulus --> sensations --> sum of sensations = perception - If your retina receives an image -> causes sensations = you see it - If something isn’t physically on your retina -> doesn't cause sensations = you don't see it
39
Strucuralism - defintion
Perception (conscious awareness of objects+scenes) is based solely on sensations Gestalt = CONSCIOUS AWARENESS is more than the sum of elementary sensations
40
gestaltism
- your brain puts the pieces/sensations together - fills in the gaps - see things like motion, patterns, shapes EG. - movie is just still frames - but our brain combines the sensations, fills in the gap to make it appear as if there is motion
41
How was gestaltism proved? 2
1) Apparent motion 2) Illusory contours
42
Apparent motion?
TEST DONE - 2 STATIONARY dots flashed quickly after the other - original sensation = stationary dots - BUT we perceive that there is MOTION
43
Illusory contours?
TEST DONE: - no physical contour, but seems like there is - original sensations DO NOT have this characteristic - CONSCIOUS AWARENESS makes it seem like there is
44
Perceptual organisation - 2 parts, why is it important
GESTALTISM WHY IS IT IMPORTANT - allows us to differentiate + perceive objects 2 PARTS 1) Grouping - eg. silver part + green rubber = scissors 2) Segregation - apple + scissors
45
Grouping definition
- parts of an image are BOUND together to be perceived as a whole
46
Segregation definition
- parts of an image are SEPARATED from other images - used to form separate objects/wholes
47
Gestalt Principles of Grouping 7
- What makes features of one object more likely to be grouped to form one whole object? 1) Good continuation 2) Prägnanz 3) Similarity 4) Proximity 5) Common fate 6) Common region 7) Uniform connectedness
48
Good continuation
WILL GROUP DUE TO CONTINUATION - 2 wires on top of each other - may seem like 4 separate parts due to occlusion - BUT as A+B have good continuation (ie. no interruptions), seen as the same wire
49
Prägnanz
WILL GROUP AS THE FEATURES WILL RESULT IN A SIMPLE FIGURE - eg. panda - Bunch of black blobs in the logo - BUT we call it an image of a panda as it creates a SIMPLE figure
50
Similarity
FEATURES WILL BE GROUP FEATURES BASED ON SIMILARITY - eg. blue + red dots rows - will group blue dots to form columns
51
Proximity
FEATURES WILL BE GROUPED BASED ON PROXIMITY - the closer the clump of dots, the most likely the whole collective dots = 1 object/cube - opposed to being perceived as rows + columns of dots
52
Common fate
FEATURES WILL BE GROUPED IF THEY MOVE IN THE SAME WAY - eg. 2 dots move upwards while the other 2 dots move downwards
53
Common region
FEATURES WILL BE GROUPED IF THEY OCCUPY THE SAME REGION OF SPACE
54
Uniform connectedness
FEATURES WILL BE GROUPED IF THEY ARE CONNECTED TO EACH OTHER eg. a line drawn between 2 dots - so 2 dots tend to be grouped tgth
55
Segregation - what is the theory
OBJECTS ARE SEPARATED BASED ON GROUND + FIGURE - Figure = object - Ground = background
56
What makes an object more likely to be seen as figure? 4
1) They are in front of the rest of the image 2) They are at the bottom of the image 3) They are convex (FAT) 4) Experience NO LEFT-RIGHT BIAS - if object is on the left/right, wouldn't influence perception as a figure
57
Depth ordering
- bringing objects to the front - eg. vase + faces
58
Convexity - is it always seen as figure?
- only DEFINITELY seen as a figure when there are MULTIPLE convex regions - if only one convex region, not really seen as figure
59
Experience + segregation
- eg. overlapping letters - can recognise the individual letters, so will segregate them OR - let's say woman flipped upside down. tend to recognise the standing woman as figure
60
Gist perception
- when you are flashed a scene, you get an OVERALL IMPRESSION of the scene SUPER FAST - BUT not detailed - won't identify individual objects - the longer it is viewed, the more detailed - eg. cafe, house, library
61
Gist perception speed - evidence?
- observer saw 16 random scenes - each shows for only a few milliseconds - afterwards, asked about if any of the scenes match a certain description - saw 100% accuracy
62
how many seconds needed to get a general gist of a scene?
27ms is enough - accurate perception needs 250ms
63
What is the function of colour perception? (ie. what is the purpose of us seeing colour?) 4
1) SEARCH FOR THINGS - eg. finding berries 2) MAKE JUDGEMENTS - eg. is the banana ripe? 3) KNOW POISONOUS ANIMALS, IF THEY INJECT VENOM - eg. yellow snake, red spiders = shows they are dangerous, want to avoid injecting venom as it is energy consuming 4) USES TO ATTRACT MATES - eg. peacocks
64
What is visible light?
- part of EM (electromagnetic) radiation - wavelengths vary from 400-700nm
65
White light - what does it consist of?
- a mixture of ALL THESE WAVELENGTHS - contains a mixture of RED, GREEN, BLUE
66
What is an opaque object?
- not all transparent - so...light cannot just pass through - it will REFLECT/TRANSMIT light
67
What determines the colour of an object?
- based on the colour of light the object REFLECTS - eg. an object that reflects red light will appear red - BUT...this reflected light depends on 2 factors Reflected light = reflectance (object's surface) x illumination (colour of light shone on it)
68
Reflected light we see depends on illumination...what problem does this pose?
- this means the same object under different lights will appear to be a different colour!
69
Reflected light we see depends on illumination...how is this problem solved? 2
COLOUR CONSTANCY 1) Habituation - eg. club with red light - visual system HABITUATES (ie. becomes less sensitive) to red light - so...everything appears less red 2) Discounting illuminant - eg. club with red light - brain INFERS light is red - it will MENTALLY remove this, fill in the gaps and allow you to see the object's true colour
70
Colour constancy definition
- ability to see a colour of an object as STABLE - regardless of the colour of light
71
Blue light - what does it absorb + reflect?
- absorbs red - reflects blue + green
72
Yellow light - what does it absorb + reflect?
- absorbs blue - reflects red+green
73
2 types of photoreceptors
1) CONES - helps you see NORMAL light levels - helps you distinguish different COLOURS 2) RODS - helps you see only in LOW LIGHT LEVELS
74
3 types of cones
S CONES = responds to blue light M CONES = responds to green light L CONES = responds to red light
75
What happens when we mix paint?
SUBTRACTIVE EFFECT BLUE PAINT - absorbs red, reflects blue+green YELLOW PAINT - absorbs blue, reflects yellow+green OVERALL - absorbs red+blue, BUT only reflects green SO...SUBTRACTIVE EFFECT - the more colours you add, the fewer wavelengths reflected
76
What happens when we mix light?
ADDITIVE EFFECT YELLOW LIGHT - it is basically red+green light MIX YELLOW LIGHT W/ BLUE LIGHT = red+green+blue light - so we see white light SO...ADDITIVE EFFECT - the more colours you add, the more wavelengths seen!
77
Metamers definition
different stimuli appear the same
78
Metamers example
STIMULI 1: What is it? - pure green light = test field What does it do? - strongly activates M cones - somewhat activates L cones - weakly activates S cones STIMULI 2 What is it? - a mixture of red, green, blue light = match field What does it do? - we can TRICK the brain into thinking its the same pure green light - we can do this by adjusting the PRPORTIONS of R+G+B light - this will stimulate the cones in the exact same way as pure green light

PSYC10001 (4 decks)

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