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Perception
Sensation: - raw material for perception - started at entry level, data driven bottom-up processing Perception: top-down processing - concept driven, use preexisting knowledge to interpret information.
VII. PERCEPTION
Recall we are bombarded with possible energy from environment... A. To what sensations do we attend? In order to perceive something, we must attend or pay attention to it (consciousness). Selective Attention: Ability to focus awareness on a single stimulus to the exclusion of other stimuli. (We focus our awareness on only a limited aspect of all that we are capable of experiencing.)
Proposed nervous system is predisposed to respond to patterns in stimuli according to certain rules. Whole is different from its parts Example from video wooden triangle
C. FORM PERCEPTION
One of these basic rules... 1. Figure vs. Ground
To see an image, need to be able to distinguish between figure and ground. Sometimes, they can be reversible. But, at one time, we can focus on only one or other.
dging Distance
man
ive
C. FORM PERCEPTION
What stimuli are grouped together? 2. Grouping - We automatically imply order by grouping things together according to certain rules.
Judging Distance
Which is closer, the man or the house? How can you tell? -- Interposition -- Relative size -- Relative height -- Linear perspective -- Relative Clarity
Linear Perspective
E. MOTION PERCEPTION
Another possible innate ability. Speculated to have evolved more for survival than other types of perception. Why? Brain makes sense of cues:
Shrinking objects are retreating. Enlarging objects are approaching.
Perceptual Constancy
Perceptual constancy: We perceive objects as unchanging even though the stimuli we receive about those objects change.
Importance of experience and expectations? babies vs. Pygmies
INTERPRETATION IN PERCEPTION
Folk, croak, soak... 1. Perceptual Set:
A mental predisposition to perceive one thing and not another. - Power of our expectations, predisposition particularly when interpreting ambiguous stimuli.
G. Interpretation in Perception
How adaptive is our ability to interpret and organize stimuli into perceptions?
4. Perceptual Adaptation:
In vision, the ability to adjust to an artificially displaced or even inverted visual field.
Conclusions
Perception: The top-down part of understanding environment and processing information. Brain interprets and organizes information.
Amazing feats of grouping stimuli & using cues.
But that can also cause illusions...
All of these rely on taking in physical energy from environment sensations. Assumption: our experiences are tied to actual, physical events occurring in environment.... see text
Impossible Figures
Example: Cocktail Party Effect: The ability to selectively attend to one voice among many.