Margaret W.

Matlin, Cognition, 8e Outline Chapter 2 Page 1 of 7

CHAPTER 2

Perceptual Processes I:
Visual and Auditory Recognition

CHAPTER INTRODUCTION
perception
previous knowledge

BACKGROUND ON VISUAL OBJECT RECOGNITION

object recognition
pattern recognition
The Visual System
distal stimulus
proximal stimulus
retina
sensory memory
iconic memory, visual sensory memory
primary visual cortex
Organization in Visual Perception
Gestalt Psychology
figure
ground
ambiguous figure-ground relationship

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Margaret W. Matlin, Cognition, 8e Outline Chapter 2 Page 2 of 7

Organization in Visual Perception (continued)

Explanation for Figure-Ground Reversal
1) adaptation of neurons in visual cortex
2) people try to solve the visual paradox
Illusory Contours (subjective contours)
Human perception is more than the sum of the information in the distal stimulus.
Theories of Visual Object Recognition
templates
Feature-Analysis Theory
distinctive feature
compare new letter to stored list of distinctive features
Eleanor Gibson's research
 time required to decide if two letters are different
 recognizing letters and numbers on envelopes
Hubel and Wiesel's research
 measure response of single neuron to simple visual stimulus
 retinal region and orientation
 feature detectors
Problems with feature-analysis approach
 complex shapes in nature
 relationship between features
 distortion of features with movement
The Recognition-by-Components Theory
Irving Biederman
 geons
 combining geons to form meaningful objects
 fMRI research
Modifications
 need to account for quicker recognition with standard viewpoint compared
to different viewpoint
 viewer-centered approach—store multiple views of objects, rather than a
single view

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Margaret W. Matlin, Cognition, 8e Outline Chapter 2 Page 3 of 7

TOP-DOWN PROCESSING AND VISUAL OBJECT

RECOGNITION
The Distinction Between Bottom-Up Processing and Top-Down
Processing
bottom-up processing—emphasizes stimulus characteristics
top-down processing—emphasizes concepts, expectations, memory
 Top-down processing is strong when a stimulus is registered for
just a fraction of a second.
 Top-down processing is also strong when stimuli are incomplete or
ambiguous.
 Object recognition combines bottom-up and top-down processing.
Top-Down Processing and Reading
Context helps us recognize letters of the alphabet during reading.
We don't read letter-by-letter.
Analyzing all the individual features in the letters of words would be too
much work for the perceptual processes.
We can still manage to read a sentence, even if some of the middle letters
in a word have been rearranged.
word superiority effect
The context of a sentence facilitates the recognition of a word in a
sentence.
 Rueckl and Oden's bears/beans experiment
 Both bottom-up and top-down processing operate in a coordinated fashion.

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Margaret W. Matlin, Cognition, 8e Outline Chapter 2 Page 4 of 7

In Depth: Overactive Top-Down Processing and "Smart

Mistakes" in Object Recognition
Change Blindness
fail to detect a change in an object or a scene
Simons and Levin's stranger-and-the-door study
Detecting the difference between two scenes
 Top-down processing encourages us to assume that the basic meaning of
the scene will remain stable.
 important changes identified more quickly
 do not store a detailed representation of a scene
Inattentional Blindness
fail to notice when an unexpected but completely visible object suddenly appears
Simons and Chabris's basketball study
Reconciling "Smart Mistakes" in Object Recognition
 ecological validity
 Perceptual representations change rapidly; the visual system does not track
each detail.
 The visual system is fairly accurate in creating the "gist" or general
interpretation of a scene.
 focus on what is important
 Theme 2: Our cognitive errors can often be traced to the use of a rational
strategy

FACE PERCEPTION
should be a challenging task
recognize faces from different angles, in different settings, with different
expressions
Recognizing Faces Versus Recognizing Other Objects
face perception as "special"
Tanaka and Farah—facial features in context vs. isolation
feature identification vs. holistic approach
gestalt

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Margaret W. Matlin, Cognition, 8e Outline Chapter 2 Page 5 of 7

Neuroscience Research on Face Recognition

prosopagnosia
inferotemporal cortex
face recognition cells in monkeys
fMRI studies
 brain's response to faces in upright and upside-down positions
 face-inversion effect
Applied Research on Face Recognition
cashiers' judgments about ID photos
security surveillance systems
 video clips of professors
 later recognize from photos
 familiarity and expertise
other research
Individual Differences: Face Identification in People with
Schizophrenia
individual differences
schizophrenia
difficulty perceiving faces and facial expressions
general cognitive deficit or specific to faces?
similar accuracy judging facial emotion
control group responded faster than individuals with schizophrenia

SPEECH PERCEPTION
Speech perception requires the auditory system to:
 record sound vibrations of someone talking
 translate vibrations into a sequence of sounds that you perceive to be
speech
 distinguish the sound pattern of one word from all other irrelevant words
 separate voice of speaker from background noise, including other
conversations

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Characteristics of Speech Perception

phoneme
Characteristics of Speech Perception
1. Listeners can impose boundaries between words, even when these words are
not separated by silence.
2. Phoneme pronunciation varies tremendously.
3. Context allows listeners to fill in some missing sounds.
4. Visual cues from the speaker’s mouth help us interpret ambiguous sounds.
Word Boundaries
The actual acoustical stimulus of spoken language rarely shows clear-cut pauses
to mark the boundaries between words.
Listeners use knowledge about language in order to determine the boundaries
between words.
Variability in Phoneme Pronunciation
Phoneme pronunciation varies tremendously.
 pitch, tone, and rate
 lack of precision, sloppy pronunciation
 coarticulation
Context and Speech Perception
Top-down factors influence speech perception.
We use our knowledge of language to help us perceive ambiguous words.
Phonemic restoration
 Warren & Warren's wheel/heel/peel study
Role of top-down processing
Visual Cues as an Aid to Speech Perception
Visual cues from the speaker’s mouth help us interpret ambiguous sounds.
McGurk effect
 compromise between discrepant sources of information
 superior temporal sulcus

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Margaret W. Matlin, Cognition, 8e Outline Chapter 2 Page 7 of 7

Theories of Speech Perception

The Special Mechanism Approach
 Humans are born with a specialized device that allows us to decode speech
stimuli.
 Speech sounds are processed more quickly and accurately than other
auditory stimuli.
 phonetic module/speech module
 categorical perception
The General Mechanism Approaches
 more favored than the special mechanism approach
 Humans use the same neural mechanisms to process both speech sounds
and nonspeech sounds.
 event-related potentials (ERPs) research
 phoneme judgment and visual cues

©2013 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.