PSC100Y
Introduction to Cognitive Psychology
Perception1-1!
Introduction to Perception!
Example: Kitchen!
•  When you perceive an object, like a flour sifter, you are
taking little bits of energy that come into your brain and
actively constructing a representation of that object.!
•  There is no little flour sifter in your head. All you have is
a pattern of light falling on the back of your eyes, and
your brain figures out that this object is silvery, about 6
inches tall, and has a little handle that turns. !
•  This is an interpretation that your brain imposes on the
incoming sensory information. !
•  There is nothing silvery about the photons of light that hit
your eyes. And there is nothing 6 inches tall coming into
your eyes.!
•  We have no direct information about objects in the
world!
•  Objects may emit energy, or they may influence
environmental energy!
–  An object may generate a sound!
–  An object may differentially reflect certain wavelengths of light!
•  This energy is picked up by receptor cells in our eyes,
ears, skin, nose, and mouth that transduce various
forms of energy into electrical signals that can be used
by neurons!
–  Photoreceptors, hair cells, mechanoreceptors, thermoreceptors,
etc.!
•  We then take this energy and construct a percept, a
mental representation of the objects in the world!
© S. J. Luck
All rights reserved
This unit on Perception will have 4 main parts: !
1.  Perception is not a passive process, but one that
requires actively constructing a representation of the
world!
2.  Detailed examples: lightness perception and perception
of motion!
3.  Object recognition!
4.  Face perception!
This is not a pipe. The actual painting is just a bunch of paint on
a canvas. !
!
What you’re seeing on your computer screen is a bunch of
computer bytes that are transformed into voltages, which in turn
control the intensity of little dots of light. But your visual system
constructs a representation of a pipe from all this stuff. !
!
The same thing happens when you look at a real pipe. Photons of
light bounce off the pipe and enter your eyes. This energy is
then interpreted by your brain to construct a mental
representation of a pipe.!
External factors that influence the energy that is transduced by
receptors:!
•  Energy sources, such as lights!
•  Object properties, such as reflectance!
•  Environment properties, such as walls!
•  Laws of physics, which determine how energy changes over time and
space!
•  Receptor properties, such as sensitivity to particular colors!
•  Algorithms and heuristics, which process the raw sensory data into a
more useable form!
•  Experience and knowledge, which influence how we classify sensory
information!
1
 PSC100Y Energy Sources!
Introduction to Cognitive Psychology Visible light is electromagnetic energy in a particular range of wavelengths!

Sunlight

Energy Tungsten
Light Bulb

Violet Indigo Blue Green Yellow Orang e Red Infrared

400 500 600 700
Wavelength (nm)

Perception1-2!
Color!

•  Interestingly, many snakes (such

as rattlesnakes) have specialized Fluorescent!
receptors on their heads that Light Bulb!
pick up infrared energy. !
!
•  Since humans don’t have
anything like these receptors, it’s
really hard to imagine what it’s
like to perceive infrared energy
with them. !

•  Almost all of the energy in a fluorescent light bulb is

in the visible wavelengths, which is why it is more
efficient than an incandescent light bulb.!

We have color constancy mechanisms that partially

Color Constancy!
cancel the effects of different light sources!

Incandescent light
•  The light that reaches your eyes from a scene will depend
not only on the objects in the scene, but also on what
wavelengths are present in the light source.!
•  Differences in the light source between two scenes create
enormous differences in the wavelengths of light that hit
your eyes, but the two scenes look only a little bit
different to you.!
•  This is because your visual system has color constancy
mechanisms that adjust your perception of color. They
work by using the distribution of wavelengths across the
whole scene to make a guess about the wavelengths
present in the source of light. They then factor out the
lighting in your perception of the objects in the scene.!
Fluorescent light

© S. J. Luck

All rights reserved
2

 High!
This is what it would look like if we didn’t have color
constancy mechanisms:!

Reflectance!
Banana!
Orange!

Apple!

Low! Celery!

400! 700!
Wavelength (nm)!

•  The appearance of an object also depends on the

properties of the object!

•  For example, the color of an object depends on which

wavelengths of light it absorbs and which wavelengths it
Incandescent light Fluorescent light reflects.!

PSC100Y
Two Types of Object Properties!
Introduction to Cognitive Psychology
•  We can make a distinction between two
main types of object properties:!
•  Some are stable and diagnostic (the color of an
orange, the parts of a blender)!

•  Others are temporary and not diagnostic (the size of

the orange’s image on your retina, the outline of a
blender)!

Perception1-3!
Diagnostic and Environment!

•  The size of the image of Properties of the Environment!

the orange on your retina
is larger than the size of
the pineapple, even though
the actual orange is much
smaller than the actual
pineapple.!
•  This is an accident of the
fact that the orange is
closer than the pineapple. •  When we’re trying to perceive one object, a key property
If we move the orange of the environment is the other objects that are present
farther away, it will cast a in the environment.!
smaller image on your
•  For example, one object may occlude another (the
retina.!
object we’re trying to see is partly blocked by another
•  The retinal size of the orange is temporary and non- object that is in front of it).!
diagnostic: retinal size can change from moment to
moment without influencing our interpretation of what
the object is.!

© S. J. Luck

All rights reserved
3

 Properties of the Environment! PSC100Y
Introduction to Cognitive Psychology
•  In the auditory modality,
the walls of a room are a
property of the
environment that has a
huge impact on the sound.!
•  The nature and distance of
the walls impacts the
loudness and sharpness of
the echoes.!
•  Your auditory system has mechanisms of cancelling out
echoes, at least if the delay between the original sound Perception1-4!
and the echo is fairly short. !
Physics and Receptors!

Laws of Physics! Laws of Physics!

Inverse square law:
Intensity α 1 ÷ distance2!

•  The laws of physics play a big role in our perception,

because they govern how energy is influenced by the
environment.!
•  Many laws of optics are used to create computer-
!
•  For example, there is the famous inverse square law of generated images. !
sound, which is shown above!
•  For example, when an object blocks a source of light, it
creates a shadow according to the geometry shown
above. !

•  However, due to the way that light scatters, the edge of

a shadow is slightly blurry; that’s how we tell the
difference between a shadow and an object!

Laws of Physics! Receptor Properties!

•  Another factor that
influences our perception
is the nature of the
receptors that transduce
the energy from the
environment, turning it
into electrical signals.!
A Bug’s Life! •  The photoreceptors are in the retina at the back of the
eye!
•  For example, in this picture of the character Heimlich, the
shadow has a fuzzy edge, so we see it as a shadow rather •  Interestingly, the light has to go all the way through the
than a pool of oil or a rug or something like that.! eye and through these other cells to get to the
photoreceptors. This causes some distortion and
scattering of the light, which impairs our vision slightly.!

Why, then, are the receptors all the way at the back? !

© S. J. Luck

All rights reserved
4

 Receptor Properties! Receptor Properties!
•  Photoreceptors need to be next to the
pigment epithelium, an opaque substance
that has to be at the very back of the eyes.! •  There are three kinds of
•  There are pigments in the photoreceptors cones, each of which is
sensitive to a different
that capture photons of light, leading to a range of wavelengths.
change in the release of neurotransmitters We have red cones,
from the photoreceptors. ! green cones, and blue
•  After a pigment molecule captures a photon cones.!
•  Every one of the millions
Blue Green Red

of light, it can’t work again until it sends a

of different colors you
molecule called retinal to the pigment Relative

perceive is coded by
Absorption

epithelium to be regenerated.! your retina in terms of

400 500 600
Wavelength (nm)
700
specific amounts of red,
green, and blue!

Normal! Red/Green
Colorblind!
•  Some people (usually men) have only 2 types of cones,
and their perception of color is different.!
Normal! Achromatopsia!
•  For example, this is a simulation of what someone with
There is a true form of color blindness called “achromatopsia”
red/green colorblindness would perceive. The scene is in
that can result from brain damage. People with this disorder see
color, but it’s difficult to distinguish the color of the the world like a black-and-white photograph.!
berries from the color of the leaves.!

PSC100Y Algorithms!
Introduction to Cognitive Psychology
An algorithm is a sequence of operations
that is guaranteed to reach a correct
solution.!

Convolution with
Gaussian impulse
response function!

Perception1-5!
Algorithms and Heuristics!

© S. J. Luck

All rights reserved
5

 Heuristics! Heuristics!
The Ponzo Illusion! The Ponzo Illusion!

•  This illusion happens because the railroad tracks are
getting closer and closer as we go higher up in the
picture, and the stones are getting smaller and smaller.!
•  Your visual system uses these factors to guess that the
upper part of the scene is farther away than the lower
part.!
•  This sort of heuristic usually works. !
•  For example, it tells us that all of the poles along the side
of the train track (circled in orange) are actually the same
size, even though some cast a larger image on your retina
than others.!
•  However, sometimes it creates illusions.!

PSC100Y The Simultaneous Contrast Illusion!

Introduction to Cognitive Psychology

•  This illusion is the result of a heuristic in which the visual

system uses the region surrounding an object to make a
judgment about the lightness of the object—that is, how
well the object reflects light—and the overall amount of
Perception1-6! light coming from the light source.!
Lightness Constancy!

Stimulus Viewed Stimulus Viewed

In Full Sunlight Under Candlelight
Intensity = 100 units! Intensity = 20 units!

Intensity = 20 units! Intensity = 4 units!

•  Although the number of photons hitting your eyes from •  Lightness Constancy: we see the lightness of an object as
the A is much larger in sunlight than in candlelight, you being the same (constant) regardless of the intensity of
don’t perceive this as a change in the lightness of the A! the light source.!

•  Your perception is that the white A is still white, but that •  The is different from Color Constancy, in which we see
the intensity of the source of illumination has changed.! the color as being the same even when the pattern of
! wavelengths of light changes.!

© S. J. Luck

All rights reserved
6

 PSC100Y
Introduction to Cognitive Psychology

LIGHTNESS!

•  The “S” in the bottom example appears as if it is

brighter than the “L” at the beginning.!

•  This is because having this much intensity in a Perception1-7!

region of shadow must mean that the object is very
light.! Experience and Knowledge!

Experience & Knowledge! Experience & Knowledge!

Knowledge! Knowledge!
Top-Down Processing! Top-Down Processing!

Perception! Perception!
Bottom-Up Processing! Bottom-Up Processing!

Sensory Inputs! Sensory Inputs!

•  Because THE and CAT are common words in English, but

TAE and CHT are not, we are biased to see this as THE
•  Both our sensory inputs (bottom-up processing) and and CAT!
our previous experience and knowledge of the world
(top-down processing) influence our perception of
the world.!

Experience & Knowledge! Bayes’s Theorem!

•  This theorem tells us the probability that some
Knowledge! hypothesis is true given some evidence.!
Top-Down Processing! •  The hypothesis might be that this middle letter
Perception! is an H, and the evidence would be the shape of
Bottom-Up Processing! the middle letter.!
Sensory Inputs! •  The theorem states that the probability of the
hypothesis being true given the evidence is
Bayes’s Theorem! equal to the probability that it would be true
P(H|E) = P(H) x P(E|H)! even without that evidence (based on other
letters in the word) multiplied by the probability
!! ! P(E)!
that this pattern of evidence would occur if the
hypothesis is true (probability we’d get the
slightly odd shaped “H “if it really is an “H”), and
then divided by the probability that we would
get this pattern even if it wasn’t an “H.”!
Thomas Bayes (1701–1761)!

© S. J. Luck

All rights reserved
7

 Real-World Example: Voice Recognition!
Shape Constancy!

Why does the transcript of

the voice begin with Elmo
rather than Hello?!
•  The outline changes from a rectangle to trapezoid,
The prior probability of the but we do not perceive the shape of the door as
first word of a phone changing.!
message being hello is much
higher than it being Elmo.! •  Shape Constancy: The ability of the visual system to
! see an object as having the same 3D shape in the
The voice recognition face of changes in your viewpoint that influence the
system (in this case) did not 2D image that hits the eyes.!
take that into account.!

•  This is analogous to color constancy; the ability to

see an object as having the same reflectance
properties in the face of changes in lighting that
influence the specific pattern of wavelengths that
hits the eyes.!

•  In both color and shape constancy, the visual

system is combining multiple sources of information
to make a best guess about what is really going on
in the world.!

© S. J. Luck

All rights reserved
8