Perception: the Process of Integrating Sensation with Rapid Access Memory to Produce A

PreparationforPerception.doc

Perception

Perception: The process of integrating sensation with rapid access memory to produce a

near instantaneous understanding of stimuli.

NOTE the concept:
Sensation ----> Perception ------> Cognition ^ ^ ^
Rapid access LTM
Memory

Some types of memory

Very short term memory (iconic or acoustic memory) — time base is less than a second

Short term memory (time base is about 20 seconds)

Long term memory (permanent memory associated with permanent brain changes).

TOPIC: Gestalt Psychology (1880-1960)

Wertheimer

Koffka

Kohler

– The School of Psychology associated with the study of the relationship

between FIGURE and GROUND.

Founder of the school was Max Wertheimer (1880-1943)

The Gestalt Principles of organization Describe Each

Closure

Proximity

Continuation

Common fate

Similarity

Pragnanz

Gestalt psychologists also looked at issues such as the means by which we perceived

depth in an image.

MONOCULAR & BINOCULAR DEPTH CUES

The MAIN BINOCULAR cue to depth is RETINAL DISPARITY

def. RETINAL DISPARITY: The image of an object sent to one eye is different from the imagesent to the other eye since there is an angular difference in the view of the object.

BINOCULAR Parallax (the pointing of each eye at the same target but the eye position for

the whole scene provides a dynamic measure of depth.)

MONOCULAR Depth cues

Texture Gradient (most primitive cue – mention Gibson’s visual cliff research)

Relative Size

Superposition

Height in field of view

Linear Perspective.

TOPIC: Some Motion Illusions (bring in Spiral AE machine)

Phi Phenomenon– The apparent motion of an apparent single light due to the onset andoffset of a light followed be a brief delay and the onset and offset of another light that is nearby the first.

Autokinetic effect– The apparent motion of a point source of light caused by the

random movements of the body and the eye in an environment where the point

source of light has no surrounding imagery.

Spiral Aftereffect—Staring of an inwardly rotating spiral causes the apparent outward motion of the spiral when the spiral movement stops.

McCullough Effect — Alternating presentation of Green vertical bars on a black background and red horizontal bars on a black background for about 20 minutes results in perception of red vertical bars and green horizontal bars when the actual stimulus is either black and white vertical or horizontal bars. –

BRIEF TOPIC:BASIC LEVELS OF IMAGE RECOGNITION:

1) Detection – I see something

2) General classification – I see an airplane

3) Identification –I see a Canadian Regional Jet (also known as an RJ)

TOPIC: KINESTHESIA and Perception

Kinesthesisis the Perception of your bodily movement and position in space using tendons,

muscles and joints.

Proprioceptionis the process of perception of your bodily movement and position in space

using ANY sensory cues.

Example — Hitting a baseball

steering a car

Putting hand to head in position for holding telephone.

Many researchers in developmental psychology maintain that kinesthesis and proprioception

are more basic (prewired) in infants and are a “bootstrap” that enable infants to gain an

understanding of external reality

Philosophical issue — If you were a brain that never had a body except for eye and ears, could

you understand the outside (exterior) world?