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Questions and Answers

What does the schema theory suggest about perception and memory?

They are identical for every individual.

They only depend on sensory input.

They may be altered to fit existing schemas. (correct)

They are fixed and unchangeable.

According to Broadbent's limited-capacity processor model, what is essential for managing information overload?

Maximizing the number of simultaneous inputs.

Prioritizing and selectively processing inputs. (correct)

Ignoring the competition between inputs.

Engaging all sensory modalities at once.

What role do feature detectors play in visual perception?

They identify specific shapes and patterns. (correct)

They only detect colors.

They enhance memory retention of images.

They simplify complex images into basic shapes.

What aspect of cognitive psychology does the cerebral cortex primarily handle?

Higher cognitive processes such as thinking and language. Signup and view all the answers

In the context of Gestalt principles, how is our perception of stimuli often characterized?

By our unique interpretation based on experience. Signup and view all the answers

What is the relationship between the left and right hemispheres of the brain in cognitive function?

Each hemisphere has specific functions and specializations. Signup and view all the answers

What can result from cognitive overload according to Broadbent's research?

Difficulty in attending to multiple inputs. Signup and view all the answers

Which theory suggests that higher-level visual processing can be achieved by combining simpler feature detectors?

Convergent wiring in feature detection. Signup and view all the answers

What aspect do feature-extraction theories focus on when analyzing objects?

The individual features that make up objects. Signup and view all the answers

What is a key characteristic of the Pandemonium model in feature-extraction?

It employs layers of 'demons' functioning in a bottom-up approach. Signup and view all the answers

In the context of visual perception, what does an illusion typically indicate?

A mismatch between perception and reality. Signup and view all the answers

What role do geons play in Marr's approach to object recognition?

They represent three-dimensional elements critical for recognizing objects. Signup and view all the answers

What does parallel distributed processing (PDP) modeling attempt to replicate?

The flexible nature of knowledge as represented in the brain. Signup and view all the answers

Which explanation best defines the phenomenon of size constancy?

Understanding that objects maintain their size regardless of distance. Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following describes a characteristic function of template theories?

Matching entire objects to stored templates. Signup and view all the answers

The term 'connectionist models' in vision perception refers to which of the following?

Neural network models that simulate brain processes. Signup and view all the answers

What does the constructivist approach suggest about perception?

Perception is constructed from incomplete sensory information. Signup and view all the answers

How does the masking effect relate to re-entrant processing?

Masking can disrupt re-entrant processing between brain areas. Signup and view all the answers

In the context of driving, what factors may lead a driver to overlook certain hazards?

Expectations based on previous experiences. Signup and view all the answers

What is a key principle of the Gibsonian view of perception?

Perception facilitates interactions with the environment. Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following describes the process of generating hypotheses about sensory information?

Acting as scientists to interpret incomplete data. Signup and view all the answers

What does the term 'masking' refer to in perception research?

The disruption of recognition by a subsequent stimulus. Signup and view all the answers

What is the assumption of stored knowledge in the constructivist approach?

Knowledge helps fill in gaps in sensory information. Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following is NOT a characteristic of the constructivist approach to perception?

The reliance on direct observation without inferences. Signup and view all the answers

Study Notes

Cognitive Psychology

Cognitive psychology studies how the brain processes information, including perception, learning, memory storage, thinking, and language.

Stages of Cognitive Processing

Input (perception)
Learning and memory storage
Retrieval
Thinking

Approaches to Studying Cognitive Psychology

Experimental psychology: Scientific testing of psychological processes in humans and animals.
Computer modeling: Simulation of human cognitive processes using computers to test feasibility of information processing mechanisms.
Cognitive neuropsychology: Study of brain activity underlying cognitive processes, often using cases of brain damage.
Cognitive neuroscience: Investigates human cognition by relating it to brain structure and function, typically using brain imaging techniques.

Behaviourism

An approach to psychology that focuses solely on observable behaviors, ignoring internal mental processes.

Gestalt and Schema Theories

Gestalt psychology emphasizes how components of perceptual input are grouped and integrated into patterns and whole figures.
Schema theory suggests that past experience influences how we interpret sensory input, potentially distorting our perception and memory to fit existing schemas.

Key Term: Schema

A mental pattern derived from past experience used to interpret new sensory input, often by identifying familiar shapes or sounds.

Schema Theory Implications

Perception and memory of input may be changed or distorted to fit existing schemas, making individual experiences unique.
Personal experience plays a role in schema creation, impacting our perception and memory of sensory input.

Key Terms: Top-Down and Bottom-Up Processing

Top-down processing: Uses stored knowledge and schemas to interpret incoming stimuli.
Bottom-up processing: Processing directed by the information contained within the stimuli, rather than existing knowledge, often contrasted with top-down processing..

Feature Detectors

Feature detectors are computer systems designed to identify shapes and patterns through specific components of a stimulus (like horizontal or vertical lines).
The system automatically activates feature detectors when a particular angle line is encountered.
Simple detectors combine to activate complex detectors capable of higher-level detection.

The Limited-Capacity Processor Model

Broadbent's experiments on divided attention showed difficulty attending to two separate inputs simultaneously.
Processing stages were identified as a "bottleneck" due to limited processing capacity, necessitating prioritization of inputs.
Selective attention is a process referred to by Broadbent to prioritize and selectively process information.

The Limited-Capacity Processor Model (Diagram)

Input signals are filtered by a selective filter (limited capacity).

The Brain and Cognitive Processes

The cerebral cortex is responsible for many higher cognitive processes. The lobes are interconnected, meaning a single cognitive action can rely on many cortical areas. The brain demonstrates modularity, meaning specific areas perform specific functions.

Brain Hemispheres

The left hemisphere is typically dominant in right-handed individuals, as the nerves involved in controlling the body's opposite side cross.
Left hemisphere is involved in language and speech.
Right hemisphere's primary role is processing non-verbal sensory information, such as faces and patterns.
Left-handed individuals' brain hemisphere specializations can be reversed..

Key Terms: Broca's and Wernicke's Area

Broca's area: Controls motor speech production, typically in the left frontal region of the brain.
Wernicke's area: Responsible for the perception and comprehension of speech, commonly located in the left temporal region of the brain.

Occipital Lobe

The occipital lobes, located at the back of the brain, are mainly responsible for processing visual input.
Damage to the occipital lobe can result in impaired visual perception.

Temporal Lobe and Long-Term Memory

The temporal lobe is critical for longer than a few second memory, or long term memory.
Damage in the temporal lobe can result in significant long-ter memory impairment.

Key Term: Double Dissociation

A research method to distinguish between functions showing that one function can be impaired without affecting the other.

Key Term: Neurotransmitter

Chemical substances released by neurons at synapses enabling one neuron to stimulate another.

Key Term: Synapse

The gap between the axon of one neuron and the dendrite of another.

Key Term: Cell Assembly

A group of cells in the brain that become interconnected into a larger network, representing and storing a memory trace.

Long-Term Potentiation (LTP)

Electrical stimulation to living brain tissue can cause lasting changes in neurons, reducing their firing threshold, making them more easily stimulated by future input. This is considered a key mechanism of learning.

Key Terms: Controlled and Automatic Processing

Controlled processing: Deliberate and consciously monitored processing, often slow and requiring attention, contrasting with automatic processing.
Automatic processing: Unintentional, unconscious processing not requiring capacity or attention, acting as a background to intentional processing.

Automatic Processing Examples

Everyday "action slips" (like driving to the wrong house, or adding coffee granules into a cup of tea).

Automatic Processing Functions

Provides adequate control over neural functions in routine tasks.
Requires overriding by conscious control for complex or novel tasks.

Supervisory Attentional System Model (Diagram)

A model illustrating the conceptual understanding of automatic processing and conscious control (Figure 1.17).

Automatic Processing and Frontal Lobes

Patients with frontal lobe damage exhibit perseveration of automatic behaviour and difficulty switching or inhibiting automatic processes.

Conscious Awareness

Conscious awareness is a subjective experience, its source from neural activity remains unexplained.

Key Term: Blindsight

The ability of functionally blind people to unconsciously detect visual stimuli despite lacking conscious visual awareness. Usually seen in individuals with occipital lobe damage.

Key Term: Perception

The subjective experience of sensory information after cognitive processing.

Template Matching

Recognizing a grandmother by comparing sensory information against an internal "template" or mental model of her.

Key Term: Templates

Stored representations of objects used to recognize new objects based on comparing their features against templates.

Template Matching Evidence

Research on shape recognition shows that longer matching times are needed between shapes differing more in orientation. This suggests an internal template rotation to gauge a match.

Gestalt Approach

The approach to classifying the world into recognizable figures and backgrounds.

Key Term: Reversible Figure

Images where the figure (focus of attention) and ground (background) can be switched (based on focus).

Feature-Extraction Theories

Contrast with template matching which focuses on entire objects to identify. Focuses on breaking down objects into component features.

Key Term: Pandemonium

A computer system, illustrated by demons, that breaks down the stimulus into feature units for identification. This is an example of bottom-up processing.

Key Term: Features

Individual elements (like edges or colors) that compose a visual or auditory scene.

Key Term: Primal Sketch/2.5D Sketch/3D Sketch

Key stages in Marr's model of computer vision that result in a 3-dimensional representation and object identification.

Geon

Three-dimensional features utilized for recognizing objects.

Parallel Distributed Processing (PDP)

A model of cognition which suggests parallel processing in the brain to deal with various 'grandmother cells'. These are more flexible than templates.

Visual Illusions

Illusions occur when perceptual systems cannot accurately represent the external world.

Sensation vs. Perception

Sensation: Raw, bottom-up sensory input.
Perception: The end result of processing sensory information, potentially differing from conscious awareness.

Numena vs. Phenomena

Numena—objects or events independently of the senses.
Phenomena—Our experience of the numena based on our senses and cognitive processing.

Sensory Conspicuity

The ease with which an object is detected by our senses based on properties like shape, color, brightness, etc. (often determined by contrast with the background).

Attention Conspicuity

Needs to be high as well as sensory conspicuity for an individual to be conscious of an object and react to it to avoid harm.

Visual Search and Driver Bias

Drivers are often biased towards searching for larger, shape and speed conforming objects, such as other cars, while hazards that don't match those standards may be missed (e.g., a cyclist).

Visual Search (Procedure)

Experimental procedure for searching a field of objects (distractors) for a desired target object.

Constructivist Approach

Perception is active and involves constructing our perception from incomplete sensory information by using existing knowledge.

Perceptual Hypotheses

Using what we already know and sensory input to generate probable perceptions of a scene.

Masking as Evidence for Constructivism

Masking can disrupt processing of an early stimulus. Noise mask disrupting early stimulus processing is considered early selection.

Re-entrant Processing

Communication between different brain areas isn't unidirectional.

The Gibsonian View of Perception

Perception is directly related to interaction with the environment.
The focus is on how perception supports actions.

Key Terms: Ventral and Dorsal Streams

Ventral stream: Pathway in the brain that deals with object recognition.
Dorsal stream: Pathway that carries visual information about the spatial location of an object.

Ventral and Dorsal Streams: Function

Ventral deals with recognition of what objects are.
Dorsal directs visual guided behavior (pointing, grasping, etc).

Ventral and Dorsal Streams: Summary of Function

Ventral system appears knowledge based using stored representations for faster object recognition.
Dorsal stream has limited short term storage but faster processing capabilities.
Ventral processes object centered understanding
Dorsal processes are viewer centered understanding the location in space of an object.
These two systems work synchronistically together impacting how we perceive and act in the real world

Dichotic Listening Experiments and Breakthrough

Participant hears two different messages simultaneously and only the one channel is attended to. Breakthroughs occur when the unattended message is noticed (e.g., when one's name is in the unattended message).

Early Selection

The unselected stimuli must wait in a high-capacity fast-decay sensory memory; if not selected they will be lost.

Late Selection

Input are analyzed for meaning before selective attention takes place, bottleneck in processing occurs at the point of selecting response.

Subliminal Priming Effects

Semantic effects of unattended stimuli using indirect measurements such as GSR. Subjects unknowingly reacted to stimuli.

Subliminal

Below the threshold of conscious awareness or confident report.

Masking

The disruptive effect of an auditory or visual stimulus, hindering the detection of earlier stimulus.

Negative Priming

Prior presentation of a distractor stimulus slows the reaction time for that distractor if it appears again.

Guiding the Spotlight of Visual Attention

Attention spotlights get highlighted on specific parts of a scene, those outside are not prioritized.
Eye movements(saccades) are used to direct attention to specific locations when searching visually.

Cover Attentional Orienting

Orienting attention without making any eye movements.

Attention processes between multiple senses, such as visual and auditory input.

Local-Global Processing

Attention is selectively directed to global (coarse) or local (fine) properties of stimuli at once.

Visual Search

The process of finding a specific object in a cluttered scene, which uses attention to avoid distractions to locate the object of interest.

Feature Integration Theory (FIT)

Attention is the "glue" that combines properties of items. Features are independently represented in feature maps.

Evidence For/ Against FIT

Conjunction search times increase as objects in the display (distractors) increase; evidence of serial processing.
Unique- feature items with fewer distractors take shorter time to process -evidence of pop out or parallel processing.

The Importance of Task Differences

Selective filtering (listening to one channel, identifying one quality) is comparatively easier than selective set tasks(locating multiple features in a complex visual environment).

Key Terms: Selective Filtering/Selective Set

Selective filtering: Directing attention to a single source of information while ignoring others.
Selective set: Determining the target object from a set of possible options.

Everyday Slips of Action

Examples from real-life scenarios demonstrating errors in actions.

Contention Scheduler

An automatic system controlling schema activation, ensuring proper and ordered automatic responses.

Shifting Goals and Frontal Lobe Syndrome

Shifting goals or updating/monitoring is demanding on attention and working memory, demonstrated by poor behavior of patients with frontal lobe damage.

Combining Tasks

Doing multiple tasks at once.

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