Sensation/Perception Part 2 Lecture Notes PDF

Lecture Monday, January 6, 2025 1:25 PM Sensation/Perception Part 2: The Five Senses: - Vision - Hearing - Touch - Taste - Smell - Without these 5 senses, our brains would not be able to process anything about our worl Sensation vs. Perception: -...

Lecture Monday, January 6, 2025 1:25 PM Sensation/Perception Part 2: The Five Senses: - Vision - Hearing - Touch - Taste - Smell - Without these 5 senses, our brains would not be able to process anything about our worl Sensation vs. Perception: - Sensation: the process through which the senses pick up visual, auditory, and other sensory stimuli and transmit them to the brain; sensory information that has registered in the brain but has not been interpreted. - Perception: the process by which sensory information is actively organized and interprete by the brain. Stimulus Filtering: - Both bottom up and top down theories must account for stimulus filtering ○ Stimulus filtering: process of separating and extracting meaningful information from the many sensory cues in the environment. - Ex: Humans can hear a spectrum of sounds, but are acutely sensitive to those used in speech. - Stimulus filtering in animals is accomplished by sign stimuli ○ Sign stimuli: the essential features of a stimulus which are necessary to elicit a specific behavioural response. Sign Stimuli: - Responses to sign stimuli are typically species-typical behaviours that occur in a fixed order. - Ex: Red dot on herring gull bill, red belly on stickleback males, egg-rolling responses in geese. - Because they reliably produce species-specific behaviours that promote survival, they are sometimes called releasers. Attention: ld. n ed m e  - geese. - Because they reliably produce species-specific behaviours that promote survival, they are sometimes called releasers. Attention: - Attention is a mental process that allows us to select which information will be processed in a world that is full of both relevant and irrelevant stimuli. - Attention is difficult to quantify ○ Tended to be ignored in early S-R learning promoted by behaviourists. - Nonetheless, many psychologists recognized that attention likely had important implication for many cognitive processes, particularly memory. ○ With the rise of cognitive psychology, greater interest in attention occurred. Selective Attention: - Selective attention is the ability to attend to a limited range of sensory information while actively inhibiting competing input. - A well known example is the “cocktail party effect” ○ Private convo in a loud room, but if you hear your name you will turn around even though you tune out the loudness to focus on private convo - Eye tracking experiments show adaptive importance of selective attention—ability to focus on eyes (rather than whole face) allows one to recognize anger, fear, or friendliness very quickly. - Tinbergen (1960) proposed the idea of a search image ○ Search image: a mental representation of a target formed by foraging animals. Pietrewics & Kamil (1981): - Blue jays presented with moths and tested ability to focus on them. - Found that they performed search image on their preferred moth type Sustained Attention: e d e s Pietrewics & Kamil (1981): - Blue jays presented with moths and tested ability to focus on them. - Found that they performed search image on their preferred moth type Sustained Attention: - Sustained attention: allows animals to focus on one aspect og their surroundings for an extended period of time. - Measured in both humans and animals using a vigilance task ○ Subjects are required to monitor a particular location and to indicate when a target stimulus has been presented - Both humans and animals show wide variability in sustained attention - Important implications in the wild for vigilance/watching out for predators (easier for animals in social groups). Divided Attention: - Divided attention: is the ability too process sensory information from more than one source simultaneously. - Allows us to do more than one task at once, although usually one or both tasks will suffer ○ Dukas & Kamil (2000): Blue Jays locate prey better when they can focus on one target, rather than dividing attention between two targets. ○ Feeding guppies are slower to react to predators than resting guppies (Krause & Godin, 1996) - Almost all cognitive processes are compromised when attention is divided between too many sources. Attention Summarized: - Selective attention is the ability to attend to a limited range of sensory information, and i aided by mental search images. - Sustained attention is the ability to maintain focus on one aspect of the environment for an extended period of time. This aids animals in remaining vigilant in watching for predators or prey. - Selective and sustained attention work in opposition to divided attention, which allows a animal to process input from more than one source at a time. Memory: - The stored representation of past experiences - More precisely, the mental processes of acquiring and retaining information for later retrieval. ○ Given this, its difficult to think of any cognitive process that is independent of memory. Memory vs. Other Cognitive Processes: - Ex: To categorize cats vs. dogs, or different types of dogs, we first need to remember t r is an  retrieval. ○ Given this, its difficult to think of any cognitive process that is independent of memory. Memory vs. Other Cognitive Processes: - Ex: To categorize cats vs. dogs, or different types of dogs, we first need to remember different types of animals. Categorization therefore is dependent on memory. - The same holds true for other cognitive processes. - Another important example is Spatial Memory, which is often studied in non-human animals (typically rats) using a radial maze. Radial Maze: - Hippocampus is related to memory, specifically related to spatial memory Cognitive Maps: - One possibility is that the rats are making a mental list of the arms they have visited. But rats are good at this task even when the maze has 16 arms (Cole & Chappell-Stephenson, 2003), so this seems unlikely. - More likely that the rats are using a mental “map” or representation of how the maze is arranged. ○ They could then use this cognitive map to navigate the maze (O’Keefe & Nadel, 1978). - Beacons, landmarks, and geometric cues are all also helpful tools which can help an anim navigate within this map. Why Did Memory Evolve? - Sometimes we make costly mistakes with our memory (ex: eating wrong food, wandering into wrong territory)...so why did this trait evolve? ○ Answer: Because our world is ever-changing. In a perfectly stable environment we could operate strictly through S-R associations. The most adaptive responses would then be passed on to offspring. ○ Allows for behavioural flexibility - Difficulty in studying memory across different species...how do we decide what an anima  , mal g d al  into wrong territory)...so why did this trait evolve? ○ Answer: Because our world is ever-changing. In a perfectly stable environment we could operate strictly through S-R associations. The most adaptive responses would then be passed on to offspring. ○ Allows for behavioural flexibility - Difficulty in studying memory across different species...how do we decide what an anima “should” remember, and how do we measure it? - Another approach is to consider the ecology of the animal (ex: food caching birds). Stages of Memory Processing: - Memory processes involve 3 phases: 1. Encoding 2. Consolidation § Rehearsal & retention 3. Retrieval 1 - Encoding: - The conversion of incoming information into neural signals that will be used for later coding. - Memory depends on us experiencing an event, and having recorded some memory of tha event. - We do not keep a perfect/literal record of this event, rather, our experiences are coded in our nervous system. ○ Not every piece of sensory info becomes a memory § Attention plays key role here! Elaboration: - Enhances encoding - The process of adding meaning, images, or other complex information to sensory input. - The greater the level of processing, the more durable the encoding. - Ex: tagging a visual image to a person’s name (Mark = image of “X” on chest) - Difficult to know whether this is a uniquely human trait (can’t ask animals if they do this) Chunking: - One od the criticisms of encoding is that there is a limit on the amount of information tha the nervous system can process. - Miller (1956) suggested that we increase memory capacity by reducing the amount of information that is encoded through chunking Better Encoding Leads to Better Memory: - Encoding is not a passive transfer of information. - It is an active mechanism, and is facilitated by cognitive processes such as attention, elaboration, and chunking. d al at n at Better Encoding Leads to Better Memory: - Encoding is not a passive transfer of information. - It is an active mechanism, and is facilitated by cognitive processes such as attention, elaboration, and chunking. Retrospective & Prospective Coding: - So far, we have talked about how animals code information required to navigate spatially - We generally think of memory as involving retaining information about information in the past...but it also involves planning for the future. - Consider a football quarterback during a huddle. He must recall the plays that were learned during practice. This involves retrospective coding. - Executing the play requires the team to remember what they need to do next in order to complete the play. This involves prospective coding. Prospection & Retrospection: - Prospection: imaging the future - Retrospection: thinking about the past - The cognitive processes involved in thinking about the past vs. imagining the future seem to be very similar, which has generated a great deal of interest amongst cognitive researchers. - Mental moving back and forth in time is referred to as mental time travel. Feeney, Roberts, & Sherry (2011): - Future planning in chickadees - Experimental Chickadees were given sunflower seeds for 5 minutes, then mealworms (a preferred food) after a delay. Control Chickadees receive sunflower seeds, but no mealworms. Question—will the experimental chickadees “save room for dessert”? 2 - Consolidation: - The process of modifying encoded representations so they become more stable over tim - Two components: retention and rehearsal (important in working memory) ○ Retention: ability to remember info over time ○ Rehearsal: keeping info in an active state, so that it is readily available for use (ex. Remembering a phone number) - Accuracy of recall can be modified by cues indicated that something should or should not be remembered. Directed Forgetting: - Studies show that the accuracy of recall can be modified by cues indicated that somethin should or should not be remembered - Directed forgetting occurs when a stimulus (a forget cue) indicates that working memory will not be tested on that trial. Milmine, Wantanabe, & Colombo (2008):  y. e o m me. t ng y  - Studies show that the accuracy of recall can be modified by cues indicated that somethin should or should not be remembered - Directed forgetting occurs when a stimulus (a forget cue) indicates that working memory will not be tested on that trial. Milmine, Wantanabe, & Colombo (2008): - Pigeons tested in operant conditioning chamber with three keys in a row (delayed matching to sample task). - Middle key displays sample stimulus (red or white light) - Side key used during memory test (must peck key that matches sample stimulus) - In R-cue trials, pigeons remembered the stimulus and matched correctly in the choice tas - In F-cue trials, pigeons performed poorly on the choice task (the F- cue disrupted memory). - Pigeons also did well with the F-r cue...the anticipation of reward seems to have facilitate memory. 3 - Retrieval: - Retrieval occurs when stored information is recovered so that it can be used to guide behaviour. - Two mechanisms by which items are retrieved: recognition and recall ○ Both recognition and recall are better if they occur in the same context in which the memory was encoded. - Retrieval processes are triggered by retrieval cues. These act as reminders… if you are discussing what you did during reading week last year with friends, what they say will trigger your memories from that time. Memory for Kicking Behaviour in Babies - Borovsky & Rovee-Collier (1990): - Babies with ribbon attaching their ankle to a mobile were trained to kick in order move mobile. - Tested for kicking response 24 hours later Forgetting and Sources of Memory Failure: ng y sk. ed e  - Babies with ribbon attaching their ankle to a mobile were trained to kick in order move mobile. - Tested for kicking response 24 hours later Forgetting and Sources of Memory Failure: - Failures of memory do not always reflect loss of previously learned info. - 'Forgetting' is often not the irreversible loss of info, but rather some other mechanism th interferes with retrieval. Proactive and Retroactive Interference: - The most common sources of memory disruption arise from exposure to prominent stimuli either before or after the event you are trying to remember. - Proactive interferences: occurs when memory is disrupted by exposure to stimuli before the event to be remembered. - Retroactive interference: occurs when memory is disrupted by exposure to stimuli following the event to be remembered. Proactive Interference (Lewis & Kamil, 2006): - Clark's nutcrackers were allowed to watch the experimenter hide a seed in one of 176 cups of sand in a plywood board. A total of 5 seed hidings were given each day during training. - Testing for proactive interference involved giving each bird one of two types of trials on alternate days. - On single list days, the birds watched the experimenter hide 5 single seeds. 5 minutes aft last seed was hidden, 5 recovery tests. Were given, one for each seed. - During each recovery test, 6 of the 176 holes were open to access. Within each cluster of open cups, one cup was correct. These remaining cups were the control trials used to tes spatial memory without proactive interference. - To assess proactive interference, birds were given this task twice a day...except in these trials the set of correct cups was different for each set. - For some of the recovery tests for the second list, the 6 cup cluster did not contain a cup where a seed had been hidden in list 1. These were control recovery tests to see how the bird performed when it had received a previous list, but that list did not conflict with the current recovery test. - For other recovery tests the 6 cup cluster included the correct cup for the current list, a correct cup from list 1, and 4 incorrect cups. - If proactive interference occurred, it was expected that there would be more errors on th recovery trials that included a correct cup from list 1, and those errors would be more likely to occur to the cup in the cluster that had been correct in list 1. Animals performed well on two list recovery trials that did not contain an interfering cup (red cup cluster), bu performance was worse on recovery trials with an interfering cup (green cup cluster) with the errors most often occurring to the wrong cup from list 1. Retroactive Interference: hat ter f6 st e he d ut h  likely to occur to the cup in the cluster that had been correct in list 1. Animals performed well on two list recovery trials that did not contain an interfering cup (red cup cluster), bu performance was worse on recovery trials with an interfering cup (green cup cluster) with the errors most often occurring to the wrong cup from list 1. Retroactive Interference: - Retroactive interference can be studied using delayed matching to sample (DMTS), by presenting a stimulus during the delay interval before the animal is given comparison tes stimuli. - Roberts & Grant, 1978: the delay interval between sample and comparison stimuli normally occurred with no illumination in the chamber. For the interference manipulation the chamber was illuminated during the delay interval. - If the delay interval was short, there was very little retroactive interference. If the delay interval was long (longest studied was 12 sec) performance dropped to chance levels. Roberts & Grant (1978): - Presenting an auditory stimulus during the delay has a similar effect, although the retroactive interference effect is greater if the interfering stimulus is in the same modalit as the sample stimulus (ie: light, in this example). - Retroactive interference is thought to be due to disruption of rehearsal of target information by the subsequently presented interfering information. Reference Memory: - Long-term retention of information necessary for the successful use of incoming and recently acquired information. - Usually involves learning over repeated trials. - Ex: Remembering what ingredients go in a stew. Working Memory: - Is operative when information has to be retained only long enough to complete a particular task, after which the information is best discarded because it is no longer needed or because it may interfere with successful completion of the next task. - Ex: Remembering which ingredients you have already added in a recipe for stew. - All successful working memory requires appropriate reference memories. - Like RAM on a computer How Long can an Animal Remember? - Skinner (1950) trained pigeons to peck a spot on an illuminated key for reward. ○ The pigeons were tested 4 years later, and immediately began pecking the key for a extended period of time. - Rensch (1957) trained an elephant to choose between two wooden boxes containing different visual patterns, with food under the correct box. The elephant learned 20 different versions of this problem. ○ A year later, the elephant was tested on 13 of the problems, and was 70-100% d ut h st n, ty an  ○ The pigeons were tested 4 years later, and immediately began pecking the key for a extended period of time. - Rensch (1957) trained an elephant to choose between two wooden boxes containing different visual patterns, with food under the correct box. The elephant learned 20 different versions of this problem. ○ A year later, the elephant was tested on 13 of the problems, and was 70-100% accurate. Delayed Matching to Sample: - Initially developed to study working memory for visual cues in pigeons (Blough, 1959). - “delayed matching to sample is the most frequently used procedure in the study of nonhuman short-term remembering” (White, 2013) - Typically thought of as test of working memory, but in fact also requires reference memory. - Has since been adapted to study a number of different stimuli and species. - First, subject is presented with a sample stimulus. This sample stimulus will be the correc response at the end of the trial. - Stimulus is then removed for a retention period. - Subject is then given a memory test with two choices, one of which is the original sample stimulus. - Choice of the sample stimulus is reinforced with a reward. Roberts (1972b) - Pigeons presented with coloured sample keys and had to peck for fixed ratios (FR) of 1, 5 or 15 pecks - Sample stimulus then disappeared, and pigeon was in darkness for delay of 0, 1, 3, or 5 seconds. - Pigeons then given choice task. Delayed Matching to Sample: - Requires both working and reference memory for successful completion. - Working memory helps the subject retain information about the sample stimulus, until it can be compared to the test stimulus. - Reference memory allows the subject to remember the structure of the task from trial to trial. - Has been used to study how animals remember shapes, number of responses performed presence or absence of reward, the spatial location of stimuli, and the order of two an ct e 5, t o d,  - Working memory helps the subject retain information about the sample stimulus, until it can be compared to the test stimulus. - Reference memory allows the subject to remember the structure of the task from trial to trial. - Has been used to study how animals remember shapes, number of responses performed presence or absence of reward, the spatial location of stimuli, and the order of two successively presented events. - Not all procedures are equal! Several factors affect accuracy of recall: ○ The nature of the stimuli used ○ Amount of time subject is exposed to sample ○ Length of the delay after viewing the sample - Generally, memory is best the longer the sample stimuli is presented. - The longer the delay between the presentation of the sample stimuli and the choice task the more mistakes are made. Sargisson & White (2001) - If no delay before “test”, they can remember stimuli and match correctly. - The longer the delay, the less accurately they match. - BUT...the longer they get to see sample key (“training time”), the better they are at matching. How Many Stimuli Should We Use? - If only a few simple stimuli are used, animals don’t need to “match to sample” to solve th problem—rather, they could learn a few simple S-R rules to solve the problem. - To make sure that animals are not making an associative response, we need to see if thei performance transfers when tested with new stimuli. - Oden, Thompson & Premack (1988): Matching to sample with measuring cup and bolt lock. 80% accuracy observed when subjects (infant chimps) were transferred to novel stimuli. Conclusions: - Memory involves three stages: encoding, consolidation, and retrieval. What we have talked about today really only scratches the surface of these areas of study! - Memory is an active process, involving continual updates and modifications. - Difficulties in any of the three phases of memory can result in forgetting. - Experimental paradigms like delayed matching to sample have helped us greatly in understanding memory capacity in non-human animals. t o d, k, he ir Declarative vs. Non-Declarative Memory: - Non-Declarative memory is an umbrella term to describe types of memory that do not depend on awareness on explicit knowledge to be expressed. - Includes Sensitization/Habituation, Perceptual priming, Classical conditioning, Procedural Memory. - Declarative memory is a knowledge based system that is expressed through explicit statements “ex: I remember when..., I know that...” - Includes Semantic memory, Episodic memory. Non-Declarative Memory - Sensitization/Habituation: - Most simple type of non-declarative memory. - Habituation develops to stimuli with low motivational significance...allows organisms to filter out irrelevant information so they do not waste time or energy responding to a benign stimulus each time it is encountered. - Sensitization, in contrast, develops to motivationally significant events (ex: a loud noise, which may be paired with a shock). Typically studied in animals through startle responses - Both occur in many situations, but always require repeated exposure to a stimulus. Habituation: - A decrease in response to a stimulus after repeated presentations. - Very useful as an experimental paradigm in both human developmental psychology as we as animal cognition studies. - Typically compares amount of time subject spends staring at a familiar versus a novel stimuli. l s. ell  - A decrease in response to a stimulus after repeated presentations. - Very useful as an experimental paradigm in both human developmental psychology as we as animal cognition studies. - Typically compares amount of time subject spends staring at a familiar versus a novel stimuli. Turati, Bulf & Simon (2008) - Adapted visual attention task to study face perception. - Newborn infants were familiarized with photos of faces either full-faced or slightly angled Non-Declarative Memory - Perceptual Priming: - The facilitated identification of a stimulus as a consequence of prior exposure to the stimulus. - Functions primarily at the unconscious level. - Birds are better at detecting prey in a visual search task if item appeared in previous trial (Pietrewicz & Kamil, 1981). Non-Declarative Memory - Classical Conditioning: - One of the principal categories of associative processes. - Process by which a previously neutral stimulus, through pairing with a motivationally significant event, acquires the ability to elicit a response. - Ex: Bell paired with food comes to elicit salivation in Pavlov’s dogs. Non-Declarative Memory - Procedural Memory: - A gradual change in behaviour based on feedback. - We use this when we tie our shoes, comb our hair, or play a musical instrument. - Assessed in animals most frequently using operant conditioning tasks. - In most cases, performance improves with training (ex: rats running through mazes or lever pressing). Declarative Memory - Semantic Memory: - Tulving (1972) was the first to suggest that declarative memory should be divided into knowledge of facts and knowledge of episodes. - Knowledge of facts is known as semantic memory. It describes general knowledge of the world that is not tagged to a particular event. - Includes knowledge of words and their meanings as well as concepts (ex: gravity) Declarative Memory - Episodic Memory: - Knowledge of episodes is known as Episodic Memory. It involves knowledge for events in personal past. - This autobiographical information is unique to each individual as it is associated with a particular time, place, and event. - Has been a highly contentious topic in animal cognition! Recall - Prospection & Retrospection: ell d. ls na  personal past. - This autobiographical information is unique to each individual as it is associated with a particular time, place, and event. - Has been a highly contentious topic in animal cognition! Recall - Prospection & Retrospection: - Prospection = Imagining the future - Retrospection = Thinking about the past - The cognitive processes involved in thinking about the past vs. imagining the future seem to be very similar, which has generated a great deal of interest amongst cognitive researchers. - Mentally moving back and forth in time is referred to as mental time travel. Feeney, Roberts & Sherry (2011) - Future planning in chickadees. - Experimental Chickadees were given sunflower seeds for 5 minutes, then mealworms (a preferred food) after a delay. - Control Chickadees receive sunflower seeds, but no mealworms. - Question—will the experimental chickadees “save room for dessert”? Food Caching: - Numerous species store food when it is abundant, and visit these caches later to recover the stored food. - Ex: Scrub Jays, Black-capped Chickadees, Clark’s Nutcrackers. - Clark’s Nutcrackers, for example, hide seeds in underground caches and recover them in winter and spring. They hide as many as 33, 000 seeds in caches of 4-5 seeds each, and recover several thousand. - Strongly related to ecological factors - Varies among species and within different populations of same species (ex: Alaskan black capped chickadees vs. Colorado black-capped chickadees). - Caching behaviour has become a rich source of information about comparative cognition - Caching animal must deal with several issues: ○ What foods to cache (perishable vs. non-perishable) ○ Where to cache food (must be recoverable) ○ Social situation (will competitors steal the cache) How Do Birds Cache/Retrieve Food? - Many studies have focused on spatial memory as a means through which animals retrieve their caches. - BUT...experiments must rule out alternate possibilities, such as: ○ Randomly searching for caches ○ Only hiding food in specific types of caches ○ Marking storage sites ○ Locating storage locations by smell or sight. m k- n e  their caches. - BUT...experiments must rule out alternate possibilities, such as: ○ Randomly searching for caches ○ Only hiding food in specific types of caches ○ Marking storage sites ○ Locating storage locations by smell or sight. - Many studies have been conducted to rule out these nonmemory explanations of caching behaviour. Episodic Memory in Animals? - The food caching/recovery paradigm has also become very popular in asking questions about episodic memory in animals. - Episodic memories are very rich in detail...they tell us what, where, and when something happened. - Also involves a phenomenological component...the conscious awareness (or autonoetic consciousness) that an event was in the past and that you are now remembering it (Tulving, 1983). Episodic-Like Memory in Animals: - Episodic memory was originally described by Endel Tulving (1983) and was considered to be a uniquely human trait (because of the component of awareness). - Unlikely to be able to determine whether or not non-human animals have the conscious awareness component of episodic memory...but we CAN study the what, when and wher components of episodic memory. - We refer to this “episodic-like” memory. Food caching/recovery is an ideal way to study episodic-like memory, as we can easily manipulate the what/where/when components o memory. Clayton & Dickenson (1999) - Varied palatability of food in Western Scrub Jays (peanuts vs. meal worms) - Question: Will birds care/remember what is stored where, based on when they are allowed to retrieve it? - Birds were allowed to cache both peanuts and meal worms in ice cube trays. - This is followed by a retention interval of 4 or 124 hours. - After 4 hours, both foods are still good...but after 124 hours worms are decayed! - Birds learned to recover meal worms after a 4 hour retention interval, but peanuts after the 124 hour retention interval. - As a control, a replenish group was used. In this group, fresh worms were always provide after the 124 retention interval. These birds always searched for worms as a result! (Experimental Condition) (Control Condition) Summary: - Memory progresses through three phases: encoding, consolidation, and retrieval. - In most cases, memory facilitates other cognitive processes.  g g o re of ed  after the 124 retention interval. These birds always searched for worms as a result! (Experimental Condition) (Control Condition) Summary: - Memory progresses through three phases: encoding, consolidation, and retrieval. - In most cases, memory facilitates other cognitive processes. - Working Memory is the active process of maintaining and updating information in short- term store. - Reference memory can be conceptualized within a multiple memory model, containing both declarative and non-declarative forms of memory. - Episodic-like memory contentious issue in comparative cognition.