CHAPTER 3 – PERCEPTION

Cognitive Psychology by Sternberg 7th Edition

PERCEPTION - Set of processes by which we recognize, PERCEPTION – Same color or sound information, typically
organize, and make sense of the sensations we receive from answers questions of identity and of form, pattern, and
environmental stimuli; Encompasses many psychological movement
phenomenon
 Is the red thing an apple?
 We do not perceive the world exactly as our eyes
see it SENSATION focuses on qualities of stimulation
 Our brain actively tires to make sense of the many  Is that shade brighter than the red of an apple?
stimuli that enter our eyes and fall on our retina  Is that sound of that falling tree louder than the
 Perception does not consist of just seeing what is sound of thunder?
being projected onto your retina, the process is  How well do one person’s impressions of color or
much more complex sounds match someone else’s impressions of those
 Your brain processes visual stimuli, giving the stimuli same colors or sounds?
meaning and interpreting them.
COGNITION occurs as this information is used to serve further
goals.
BASIC CONCEPTS OF PERCEPTION
 Is this that apple edible?
JAMES GIBSON (1966, 1979)  Should I get out of this forest?
 Provided a useful framework for studying perception
 Introduced concepts of distal (external) object,
informational medium, proximal stimulation, and ELEMENTS OF PERCEPTUAL EXPERIENCE
perceptual object
 Distal Stimulus – the object in the external world
 Informational Medium – reflected light, sound
DISTAL OBJECT waves, chemical molecules, or tactile information
coming from the environment
DISTAL - FAR OBJECT; situated away from the center of the  Proximal Stimulus – representation of the distal
body or from the point of attachment. stimulus in sensory receptors
PROXIMAL - NEAR OBJECT; situated nearer to the center of  Perceptual Object – Mental representations of the
the body distal stimulus

PERCEPTION Sensation is your window to the world; perception is

interpreting what comes in your window.
Imagine a tree falling.

1. The event creates a pattern on an informational

medium (can be in the form of sound waves).
2. Information comes into contact with the appropriate
sensory receptors of the eyes.
3. Perception occurs when a perceptual object is
created in you that reflects the properties of the
external world.

Perception occurs when the informational medium carries

information about a distal object to a person VARIOUS PROPERTIES OF OBJECTS

 Person’s sense receptors pick up on the information  Modality

 Proximal stimulation occurs  Distal Object
 Person perceives the object  Informational Medium
 Proximal Stimulation
 Perceptual Object
VISUAL PERCEPTION TACTILE PERCEPTION

PERCEPTUAL CONTINUUM TOUCH PERCEPTION

 MODALITY VISION –Sight  TACTILE - Touch
 DISTAL OBJECT - Grandma’s Face  DISTAL OBJECT- A Computer Keyboard
 INFORMATIONAL MEDIUM – Reflected light from  INFORMATIONAL MEDIUM-Mechanical pressure and
Grandma’s face (visible electromagnetic waves) vibration at the point of contact between the surface
 PROXIMAL STIMULATION – Photon absorption in the of the skin and the keyboard
rod and cone cells of the retina, the receptor surface  PROXIMAL STIMULATION – Stimulation of various
in the back of the eye receptor cells within the dermis, the innermost layer
 PERCEPTUAL OBJECT – Grandma’s face of skin
 PERCEPTUAL OBJECT – Computer keys
AUDITORY PERCEPTION

AUDITION (Sound)

 AUDITION- Sound
 DISTAL OBJECT- A falling Tree
 INFORMATIONAL MEDIUM-Sound waves generated
by the tree’s fall
 PROXIMAL STIMULATION Sound-wave conduction to
the basilar membrane, the receptor surface within
the cochlea of the inner ear
 PERCEPTUAL OBJECT – A falling tree

OLFACTORY PERCEPTION SENSORY ADAPTATION

OLFACTION (SMELL)  Receptor cells adapt to constant stimulation by
casing to fire until there is a change in stimulation
 OLFACTION- Smell  Through this, we may stop detecting the presence of
 DISTAL OBJECT- Bacon being fried stimulus
 INFORMATIONAL MEDIUM-Molecules released by
GANZFELD EFFECT
frying bacon
 Refers to an unstructured visual field. When your
 PROXIMAL STIMULATION – Molecular absorption in eyes are exposed to a uniform field of stimulation,
the cells of the olfactory epithelium, the receptor you will stop perceiving that stimulus after a few
cells on the tongue and soft palate, combined with minutes and see just a gray field instead.
olfactory stimulation  This is because your eyes have adapted to the
 PERCEPTUAL OBJECT – Bacon stimulus

MENTAL PERCEPT
GUSTATORY PERCEPTION  Mental representation of a stimulus that is perceived
 Without it, you could not meaningfully grasp what
GUSTATION (TASTE) you previously had sensed
 GUSTATION – Taste
DALLENBACH’S COW
 DISTAL OBJECT- Ice Cream EXISTENCE OF PERCEPTUAL ILLUSIONS
 INFORMATIONAL MEDIUM-Molecules of ice cream
both released into the air and dissolved in water SOME THOUGHTS
 PROXIMAL STIMULATION – Molecular contact with  Sometimes, we perceive what is not there
taste buds, the receptor cells on the tongue and soft  Other times, we do not perceive what is there
palate, combined with olfactory stimulator  Other times, we perceive what cannot be there
 PERCEPTUAL OBJECT – Ice Cream
PERCEPTION - The way we represent these objects will
depend in part on our viewpoint in perceiving objects

HOW VISUAL SYSTEMS WORK

 Precondition for vision is the existence of light
 Light passes through the protective covering of the
eye (Cornea)
 Light passes through the pupil
 Continues through the crystalline lens and vitreous
humor
 Eventually, light focuses on the retina where
electromagnetic light energy is transduced
(converted)

TERMS TO REMEMBER
 CORNEA – Clear dome that protects the eye
 PUPIL – opening in the center of the iris
 VITREOUS HUMOR – gel-like substance that
comprises the majority of the eye
 RETINA – where electromagnetic light energy is
transduced
 FOVEA – small, thin region of the retina, the size of
the head of a pin

LAYERS OF THE RETINA  Ganglion Cells – axons constitute the optic nerve
 Bipolar Cells – make dual connections forward and
 Layer 1 – Layer of ganglion cells whose axons outward to the ganglion cells and backward and
constitute the optic nerve inward to the third layer of retinal cells
 Layer 2 – Consists of three kinds of interneuron cells  Photoreceptors – convert light energy into
(Amacrine Cells and Horizontal Cells, Bipolar cells) electrochemical energy that is transmitted by
 Layer 3 – Photoreceptors neurons to the brain (Rods and cones)
 Photopigments – chemical substances that react to
light and transform physical electromagnetic energy
into an electrochemical neural impulse that can be
understood by the brain
  Rods – long and thin photoreceptors, more highly  Ventral Pathway – called the what pathway;
concentrated in the periphery of the retina than in responsible for processing the color, shape, and
the foveal region. Responsible for night vision and identity of visual stimuli
are sensitive to light and dark stimuli
 Cones – short and thick photoreceptors and allow Visual Pathways in the Brain
for the perception of color; more highly “what” - Temporal lobe lesions in monkeys : Can indicate
concentrated in the foveal region than in the where but not what
periphery of the retina
 Optic Nerve – made up of axons of the ganglion cells “where” - Parietal lobe lesions in monkeys : Can indicate
in the eye what but not where
 Optic Chiasma – made up of optic nerves of the two
eyes joined at the base of the brain

HOW YOUR EYES WORK

WHAT/HOW HYPOTHESIS

 Two pathways refer not to what things are and to where

they are but to what they are and to how they function
 Argues that spatial information about where something
is located in space is always present in visual information
processing
 What differs between the two pathways is whether the
emphasis is on identifying what an object is, or, instead,
on how we can situate ourselves so as to grasp the object
 Best supported by evidence of processing deficits: There
are deficits that impair people’s ability to recognize what
 Visual Cortex – contains several processing areas; they see and there are distinct deficits that impair
each area handles different kinds of visual people’s ability to reach for what they see (How)
information relating to intensity and quality, PATHWAYS
including color, location, depth, pattern, and form.
 What Pathway – can be found in the ventral stream and
PATHWAYS TO PERCEIVE THE WHAT AND WHERE is responsible for the identification of objects
 Pathway – the path the visual information takes  How Pathway – located in the dorsal stream and controls
from its entering the perceptual system through the movements in relation to the objects that have been
eyes to its being completely process identified through the what pathway

VISUAL HYPOTHESES WHAT/WHERE PATHWAYS DIFFERENT VIEWS ON HOW WE PERCEIVE THE WORLD

Information from the primary visual cortex in the occipital  Bottom-Up Theories – describe approaches where
lobe is forwarded to fasciculi (fiber bundles): perception starts with the stimuli whose appearance you
take in through your eye; data driven or stimulus driven
 Dorsal Pathway – called the where pathway and is theories
responsible for processing location and motion  Top-Down Theories – Perception is driven by high-level
information cognitive processes, existing knowledge, and the prior
expectations that influence perceptions; when people
 expect to see something, they may see it even if it is not  We attempt to match features of a pattern to features
there or is no longer there stored in memory, rather than to match a whole pattern
to template or a prototype.

SELFRIDGE’S FEATURE-MATCHING MODE

BOTTOM-UP PROCESSING THEORIES
 We recognize patterns by matching observed features to
 Direct Perception features already stored in memory
 Template Theories  We recognize patterns for which we have found the
 Feature-Matching Theories greatest number of matches
 Recognition-by-components Theory

HOFFDING FUNCTION

 How we connect what we perceive to what we have

stored in our minds
 Named after Harald Hoffding

Direct Perception - Gibson’s Theory of Direct Perception

 The information in our sensory receptors, including the

sensory context is all we need to perceive anything PANDEMONIUM MODEL
 The environment supplies us with all the information we
need for perception (environmental perception) PANDEMONIUM - Refers to a very noisy, chaotic place and
hell
JAMES J. GIBSON

 Believed that in the real world, sufficient contextual

FOUR DEMONS OF THE PANDEMONIUM MODEL
information usually exists to make perceptual judgments
 Claimed that we need not appear to higher-level 1. Image demon – receive a retinal image and passes it
intelligent processes to explain perception on to feature demons
 Believed that we use this contextual information directly 2. Feature demon – calls out when there are matches
 We use texture gradients as cues for depth and distance; between the stimulus and the given features. These
these aid us to perceive directly the relative proximity or matches are yelled out at demons to the next level
distance of objects and of parts of objects of hierarchy
TEMPLATE THEORIES 3. Cognitive demon – shout out possible patterns
stored in memory that conform to one or more of
 Suggest that we have stored in our minds myriad sets of the features noticed by the feature demons
templates 4. Decision Demon – listens to the pandemonium of
 We recognize a pattern by comparing it with our set of the cognitive demons; decides on what has been
templates seen based on which the cognitive demon is
 We then choose the exact template that perfectly shouting most frequently
matches what we observe
 Templates – highly detailed models for patterns we GLOBAL PRECEDENCE EFFECT
potentially might potentially recognize
 Template Theories compare to templates in memory
until a match is found
 Problem of imperfect matches

TEMPLATE MATCHING THEORIES

 Belong to the group of chunk-based theories that suggest

that expertise is attained by acquiring chunks of
knowledge in long-term memory that can later be
accessed for fast recognition
 Fail to explain some aspects of the perception of letters

Feature-Matching Theories  The “Global Precedence Effect” (GPE) is a well-

established phenomenon characterised by a global
 Alternative explanation of pattern and form perception advantage (global response times that are faster than
 local response times) and an interference effect from  We quickly recognize objects by observing their edges
global distractors during identification of local targets but and then decomposing the objects into geons.
not vice versa.  Geons can be recomposed into alternative
arrangements.
 Explains how we recognize the general classification for
LOCAL PRECEDENCE APPROACH multidinous objects quickly, automatically, and
accurately.

GEONS AND OBJECTS

 Happens when letters are more widely spaced, as in

panels, the effect reversed
 Participants more quickly identify the local features of
TOP DOWN THEORIES (Constructive Approach)
the individual letters than the global ones, and the local
features features interfere with the global recognition in  Constructive Perception – the perceiver builds
cases of contradictory stimuli (constructs) a cognitive understanding (perception) of a
stimulus
GNOSTIC UNITS
 The concepts of the perceiver and his/her cognitive
 Neurons that recognize complex objects processes influence what he/she sees.
 Also known as grandmother cells because they imply that  The perceiver uses sensory information as the foundation
there is a neuron that is capable of recognizing your for the structure but also uses other sources of
grandmother information to build perception (Intelligent Perception)

INTELLIGENT PERCEPTION
 States that higher order thinking plays an important
PHYSIOLOGICAL EVIDENCE FOR FEATURES role in perception
 Emphasizes the role of learning in perception
 Hubel & Wiesel (1979)
 Simple cells – bars/edges THEORY OF CONSTRUCTIVE PERCEPTION
 Complex cells – bars/edges detect bars of particular  Proposed by Jerome Bruner
orientation  States that during perception, we quickly form and
 Hypercomplex cells -- particular colors (simple and test various hypotheses regarding percepts based on:
complex cells), bars, or edges of particular length or o What we sense (sensory data)
moving in a particular direction o What we know (knowledge stored in memory)
o What we can infer (using thinking)
LINE ORIENTATION AND CELL ACTIVATION
o What we expect
 Links human intelligence even to fairly basic
processes of perception
 Perception comprises not merely a lowlevel set of
cognitive processes, but actually a quite sophisticated
set of processes that interact with and are guided by
human intelligence

CONSTRUCTIVISTS

 During perception we quickly form and test various

hypotheses regarding percepts
 Percepts are based on › What we sense (sensory data)
RECOGNITION-BY-COMPONENTS THEORY
o What we know (knowledge stored in memory)
 Developed by Irving Biederman (1987) o What we can infer (using high level cognitive
processes)
 o What you perceive is shaped, at some level, by - We do not perceive simply in terms of what is out
what you know and what you think there in the world. We perceive in terms of the
expectations and other cognitions we bring to our
CONTEXT EFFECTS interaction to the world
 Not explained fully by bottom-up (data driven) theories - In this view, intelligence and perceptual processes
interact in the formation of our beliefs about what it
 Influences of the surrounding environment on
is that we are encountering in our everyday contacts
perception
with the world at large.
CONFIGURAL-SUPERIORITY EFFECT
TAKEN TO THE EXTREME
 Objects presented in certain configurations are easier to
TOP DOWN POSITION
recognize than the objects presented in isolation, even
if the objects in the configurations are more complex  drastically underestimate the importance of sensory
than those in isolation. data.
 We would be susceptible to gross inaccuracies of
perception
 We frequently would form hypotheses and
expectancies that inadequately evaluated the
sensory data available
 Highly error-prone and inefficient

BOTTOM UP POSITION
 Subjects more readily perceive differences among  Would not allow for any influence of past experience
integrated configurations comprising multiple lines © or knowledge on perception
than they do solitary lines (a).  Why store knowledge that has no use for the
 Lines in the panel (b) are added to the lines in panel (a) perceiver
to form shapes in panel ©, thereby making panel ©
more complex than panel (a). HOW THE THEORIES GO TOGETHER

OBJECT SUPERIORITY EFFECT BOTTOM UP THEORIES

 A target line that forms part of a drawing of a 3-D object  Emphasize the completeness of information from
is identified more accurately than a target that forms the receptors themselves
part a part of a disconnected 2-D pattern TOP DOWN THEORIES

 Emphasize the importance of prior knowledge in

combination with relatively simple and ambiguous
information from sensory receptors.

FORMS THAT MENTAL REPRESENTATION TAKES

 Viewer Centered Representation – the individual

stores the way the object looks to him or her; what
matters is the appearance of the object to the
viewer, not the actual structure of the object
WORD SUPERIORITY EFFECT
 Object Centered Representation – the individual
Indicates that when people are presented with strings of stores a representation of the object, independent
letters, it is easier for them to identify a single letter if a string of its appearance to the viewer
makes sense and forms a word instead of being just a
LANDMARK CENTERED REPRESENTATIONS
nonsense sequel of letters
- Characterized by its relation to a well-known or
- House - Huseo
prominent item
CONSTRUCTIVE/INTELLIGENT PERCEPTION
THE PERCEPTIONS OF GROUPS (GESTALT LAWS)
- Shows the central relation between perception and
 Gestalt approach to form perception
intelligence
 Developed in Germany in the early 20th century
- According to this viewpoint, intelligence is an integral
part of our perceptual processing
  Useful for understanding how we perceive groups of
objects or even parts of objects to form integral
Wholes
 Founded by Kurt Koffka, Wolfgang Kohler, and Max
Wetheimer SIMILARITY - We tend to group objects on the basis of their
 Based on the notion that the whole differs from the similarity
sum of its individual parts

LAW OF PRAGNANZ

 We tend to perceive any given visual array in a way CONTINUITY - We tend to perceive smoothly flowing or
that most simply organizes the different elements continuous forms rather than disrupted or continuous ones.
into a stable and coherent form.
 We do not merely experience a jumble of
unintelligible, disorganized sensations
 We tend to perceive a focal figure and other
sensations as forming a background for the figure on
which we focus.

CLOSURE - We tend to perceptually close up or complete

objects that are not, in fact, complete

GESTALT PRINCIPLES TO FORM PERCEPTION

 Figure-Ground
 Proximity
 Similarity
 Continuity
 Closure
 Symmetry SYMMETRY - We tend to perceive objects as forming mirror
images about their center

- When we view the configuration of assorted brackets,

FIGURE GROUND - When perceiving a visual field, some we see the assortment as forming four sets of brackets,
objects (figures) seem prominent, and other aspects of the rather than eight individual items, because we integrate
field recede into the background (ground) the symmetrical elements into coherent objects

PROXIMITY - When we perceive an assortment of objects, we

tend to see objects that are close to each other as forming a
group. RECOGNIZING PATTERNS AND FACES
Martha Farah – suggests humans have two systems for
recognizing patterns

Pattern Recognition Systems

1. Feature Analysis System – specializes in recognition

of parts of objects and in assembling those parts into
distinct whole
2. Configurational system – specializes in recognizing
larger configurations; most relevant to the
recognition of faces