COGNITION

DEFINITION

• What is ‘COGNITION’?

→ Sensing
→ Interpreting
→ Decision-making

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 VISUAL COGNITION

• HOW WE SEE?
a) Light: EM Wave, Frequency Range, Reflection

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 VISUAL COGNITION

• HOW WE SEE?
b) Eye: Simple Receptor for Light stimuli

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 VISUAL COGNITION

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 VISUAL COGNITION
• HOW WE SEE?
c) Brain: Receiving, Interpreting, Directing sensory information

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 VISUAL COGNITION

• 3 STRIKING OBSERVATIONS OF BRAIN:

→ Specific parts of visual cortex are responsible to
specific visual stimuli (spatial frequency analysis)
→Massive parallel distributed processing (PDP)
of signals throughout the brain, iteratively and
multi-modally
→ There are functional asymmetries between the
two hemispheres of brain: Left more logical and
analytical; while Right is more for organizing and
synthesizing (art-related)
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 INTERESTING OBSERVATIONS
The Commissurotomized Brain Experiment:

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INTERESTING OBSERVATIONS

• VENTRILOQUISM SHOWS

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 VISUAL COGNITION

Evolution of Human Eye and Brain:

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 VISUAL COGNITION

Saccadic Eye Movements (Scanpaths):

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 VISUAL COGNITION
Yarbus (1967): Will, Economic, Age, Activity, Clothing, Position, How long

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 VISUAL COGNITION

• GESTALT PRINCIPLES – natural compulsion of

finding order in disorder:

How humans typically gain meaningful

perceptions from the chaotic stimuli around
them - grouping similar elements,
recognizing patterns and simplifying
complex images into simpler forms when
they perceive an object

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 VISUAL COGNITION

• GESTALT PRINCIPLES :

1. Continuation/Closure - human eye follows the

paths, lines, curves and shapes of a design

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 VISUAL COGNITION

• GESTALT PRINCIPLES :

2. Proximity - we group closer elements together to

impart a bigger meaning

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 VISUAL COGNITION

• GESTALT PRINCIPLES :
3. Pragnanz - our eyes can simplify complex shapes
into simple shapes to understand conveniently

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 VISUAL COGNITION

• GESTALT PRINCIPLES :
4. Similarity - human eye tends to build a
relationship between similar elements (shape,
colour, size) within a design.

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 VISUAL COGNITION

• GESTALT PRINCIPLES :
5. Figure/Ground - how eyes can separate shapes
in a design from the background of that design

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 VISUAL COGNITION

• GESTALT PRINCIPLES :
6. Common Fate - when objects point in the same
direction, we see them as a related group

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 VISUAL COGNITION

VISUAL DISSONANCE:

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 VISUAL COGNITION

DEPTH PERCEPTION:

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 VISUAL COGNITION

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 AURAL COGNITION

• HOW WE HEAR?
a) Sound: Mechanical Wave, Frequency Range, Diffraction

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 AURAL COGNITION

• HOW WE HEAR?
b) Ear: Convert Mech. vibration to Elec. impulses

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 AURAL COGNITION

Impedance Matching, Amplification, Equalization

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 AURAL COGNITION

Basilar Membrane and Tonotopic Frequency distribution

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 AURAL COGNITION

Auditory Masking

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 AURAL COGNITION
• HOW WE HEAR?
c) Brain: Receiving, Interpreting, Directing sensory information

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 AURAL COGNITION

Tonotopic and Binaural Hearing (stripes of EE and EI)

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 AURAL COGNITION

• AUDITORY ANALOGUE FOR GESTALT THEORY

→ Figure-Ground vs Audio Depth of Field
→ Proximity-principle vs a regular interval
of Short-clicks (temporarily or spatially)

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 AURAL COGNITION

• SOUND LOCALIZATION & BINAURAL HEARING

It is because of our two ears that we are able to qualitatively
determine the angle that the direction of sound makes with
the line joining the two ears. the ears' ability to perceive the
direction of sound is due to:
(i) different arrival times of sound at the two ears (ITD -
Interaural Time Difference) - LF
(ii) different sound levels (ILD - Interaural Level Difference)
(iii) the path length differential, more due to the face and head
producing an acoustical shadow on the farther ear - HF

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 AURAL COGNITION

• SOUND LOCALIZATION & BINAURAL HEARING

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 AURAL COGNITION

• PATTERN-MATCHING IN AUDITORY PERCEPTION

→ For weak signal, but strong in meaning (name,

soft signals for predators)

→ Previously learnt experience (Amygdala)

→ Aggregate firing of the nerve cells together
with rate of firing match an earlier waveform
(‘volley theory’ and ‘place theory’)

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 SOME ONGOING PROJECTS

• BLUE BRAIN PROJECT

• Lumosity’s HUMAN COGNITION PROJECT

• EXPLORATION ON AUGMENTED REALITY

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 COGNITION

THANK YOU

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