LESSON 3; VISUAL PERCEPTION selective mechanisms (as attention) that influence

perception.
COGNITION IN THE BRAIN: THE ANATOMY AND
MECHANISMS OF THE BRAIN

Seeing Things That Aren’t There, or Are They?

1. The nervous system is the basis for our ability to FIRST

perceive, adapt to, and interact with the world around Sometimes we perceive what is not there. Other times,
we do not perceive what is there.
us.
SECOND
2. It is highly complex part of human that
coordinates its actions and sensory information The existence of visual perceptual illusions suggests that
by transmitting signals to and from different what we sense (in our sensory organs) is not necessarily
parts of the body. what we perceive (in our minds).
3. It detects environmental changes that impact
THIRD
the body, then works in tandem with the
endocrine system to respond to such events. Our minds must be taking available sensory information
and manipulating that information somehow to create
mental representations of objects, properties within our
01 Perception environments.

(“perceptio” – “identification and interpretation of

sensory information” How Does Our Visual System Work?

It is the set of processes by which we recognize, ELECTROMAGNETIC SPECTRUM

organize, and make sense of the sensations we receive
from environmental stimuli.
How Do We Make Sense of What We See?
An awareness of the elements of environment through
physical sensation (a way of regarding, or interpreting Views on how we perceive the world
something; a mental impression)
Bottom-up theories describe approaches where
Perception can be split in two processes perception starts with stimuli whose appearance you
take in through your eyes. (Stimulus-driven theory)
Processing the sensory input, which transforms these
low- level information to higher-level information Top-down theories a perception that is driven by high-
(extracts shapes for object recognition) level cognitive processes, existing knowledge, and the
prior expectations that influence perception.
Processing which is connected with a person’s concepts
and expectations (or knowledge), restorative and BOTTOM-UP THEORIES

(Form and Pattern Perception) Direct Perception – the

information in our sensory receptors, including the
sensory context to perceive anything

Template Theories – templates that are highly detailed

models for patterns we potentially might recognize.

Feature-Matching Theory – it is the attempt to match

features of a pattern to features stored in memory,
rather than to match a whole pattern to a template or a
prototype.
Recognition-by-Components (RBC) Theory – it explains Recognizing Patterns and Faces Two Different
the ability to perceive 3D objects with the help of
Pattern Recognition System
simple geometric shapes.
1.Feature Analysis System

2. Configurational System
TOP-DOWN THEORIES

The perceiver uses sensory information as the

foundation for the structure but also uses other sources THE ENVIRONMENT HELPS YOU SEE Perceptual
of information to build the perception. The percepts of Constancies
constructivists are based on three things:
Occurs when our perception of an objects remains the
What we sense (the sensory data) same even when our proximal sensation of the distal
object changes.
What we know (knowledge stored in memory)
The physical characteristics of the external distal object
What we can infer (using high-level cognitive processes)
are probably not changing.

Two main constancies:

• The viewpoint of constructive or intelligent
1.Size constancy
perception shows the central relation between
2.Shape constancy
perception and intelligence.
• We do not perceive simply in terms of what is
“out there in the world” rather, we perceive in Depth Perception
terms of the expectations and other cognitions
Depth is the distance from a surface, usually using your
we bring to our interaction with the world.
own body as a reference surface when speaking in
terms of depth perception.
Viewer- Centered Perception - the individual stores the 1. Monocular depth cues (“mon” – “one” “ocular”
way the object looks to him or her. “related to the eyes”

Object-Centered Perception – the individual stores a . It can be represented in just two dimensions and
representation of the object, independent of its observed with just one eye.
appearance to the viewer.
Binocular depth cues (“bin” – “both” “two”)

Based on the receipt of sensory information in three

dimensions from both eyes.

DEFICITS IN PERCEPTION

(Agnosias and Ataxias)

1.Agnosia is a loss or diminution of the ability to

recognize familiar objects or stimuli usually as a result
of brain damage. Difficulties perceiving the “WHAT”

2.Agnosias often are caused by damage to the border of

the temporal and occipital loss or restricted oxygen
flows to areas of the brain, sometimes as a result of
traumatic brain injury.
 Conscious attention serves three purposes in playing a
causal role for cognition.
Types of Agnosia
1.It helps monitoring our interactions with the
• Simultagnosia – an individual is unable to pay
environment.
attention to more than one object at a time.
• Prosopagnosia – results in severely impaired 2. It assists us in linking our past (memories) and our
ability to recognize human faces. present (sensations) to give us a sense of continuity of
experience.
Optic Ataxia is the impairment in the ability to use the
visual system to guide movement. People with this 3. It helps us in controlling and planning for our future
deficit have trouble reaching for things. actions.

Difficulties in Knowing the “HOW”

• Ataxia results from a processing failure in the Four Main Functions of Attention
posterior practical cortex, where sensorimotor
1.Signal detection and vigilance – detecting the
information is processed.
appearance of a particular stimulus.

2. Search – finding a signal amidst distracter.

Anomalies in Color Perception
3. Selective attention – choosing to attend some stimuli
Color deficiency are sometimes referred to “color and ignore others.
blindedness”
4. Divided attention – prudently allocating available
KINDS OF COLOR DEFICIENCY attentional resources to coordinate our performance of
more than one task at a time.
Rod Monochromacy (achromacy) – a condition where a
person have no color vision at all. It is the true form of
color blindedness.

Dichromacy – only two of the mechanisms for color

perception work and one is malfunctioning

Protanopia (red-green color blindedness)

Deuteranopia (trouble seeing green)

Tritanopia (blue and green can be confused)

Lesson 4; ATTENTION AND CONSCIOUSNESS

SIGNAL DETECTION:

Consciousness includes both the feeling of awareness Finding Important Stimuli in a Crowd
and the content of awareness, some of which may be Signal Detection Theory (SDT) – is a framework to
under the focus of attention. explain how people pick out the few important stimuli
Attention is the means by which we actively process a when they are embedded in a wealth of irrelevant,
limited amount of information from the enormous distracting stimuli.
amount of information available through our senses, It is often used to measure sensitivity to a target’s
our stored memories, and our other cognitive presence.
processes.
It can be discussed in the context of “attention, Feature-Integration Theory
perception, memory”
Explains the relative ease of conducting feature
Possible outcomes in detecting a target stimulus (true searches and the relative difficulty of conducting
positives, false positives, false negatives, true negatives) conjunction searches.

Similarity Theory

• The data are result of the fact that as similarity

between target and distractor stimuli increases.
• Targets are that are highly similar to distractors
are relatively hard to detect.

GUIDED SEARCH THEORY

suggests that all searches, whether feature searches or

conjunction searches, involve two consecutive stages.

The parallel stage – the individual simultaneously

activates a mental representation of all the potential
targets.

VIGILANCE: Waiting to Detect a Signal The serial stage – the individual sequentially evaluates
each of the activated elements, according to the degree
Vigilance - refers to a person’s ability to attend to a field of activation.
of stimulation over a prolonged period, during which
the person seeks to detect the appearance of a
particular target stimulus of interest.
THEORIES OF SELECTIVE SELECTION
When being vigilant, the individual watchfully waits to
Broadbent’s Model – filtering of information right after
detect a signal stimulus that may appear at unknown
noticing at the sensory level.
time.
Selective Filter Model – recognizing names in an
SEARCH: Actively Looking
unattended ear (even when the participant ignore most
Search - refers to a scan of the environment for other high-level aspects of an unattended message)
particular features – actively looking for something
Attenuation Model (Treisman) – involves a later
when you are not sure where it will appear (i.e., picked
filtering mechanism, instead of blocking stimuli out, the
up your parents or friends at a crowded airport)
filter merely weakens the strength of stimuli other than
Search is made more difficult by distracters, nontarget the target stimulus.
stimuli that divert our attention away from the target
stimulus. (i.e., Grocery items)
Late-Filter Model
Distractors cause more trouble under some conditions
under others (distinct feature like color or shape) • the location of the filter is even later. The
stimuli are filtered out only after
Feature search simply scan the environment for a
• they have been analyzed both their physical
specific feature of a particular stimulus (featural
properties and their meaning.
singletons)
This later filtering would allow people to recognize
Conjunction search looks for a particular combination
information entering the unattended ear.
(conjunction – joining together) of features.
Factors that influence our ability to pay attention Children with the inattentive type of ADHD show several
distinctive symptoms:

• They are easily distracted by irrelevant sights

1. Anxiety – being anxious, either by nature or by
and sounds.
situation places constraints on attention.
• They often fail to pay attention to details.
2. Arousal – your overall state of arousal affects • They are susceptible to making careless
attention as well. mistakes in their work.
• They often fail to read instructions completely
3. Task difficulty – if you are working on a task that is
or carefully.
very difficult or novel for you, you’ll need more
• They tend to jump from one incomplete task to
attentional resources than when you work on an easy or
another.
highly familiar task. Task difficulty particularly influences
performance during divided attention. 2. Change Blindness – an inability to detect changes in
objects or scenes that are being viewed.
4. Skills – the more practiced and skilled you are in
performing a task, the more your attention is enhanced. Inattentional Blindness – a person is not able to see
things that are actually there.

2. Spatial Neglect – an intentional dysfunction in

Neuroscience and Attention: A Network Model
which participants ignore the half of their visual
Alerting – is defined as being prepared to attend to field that is contralateral to the hemisphere of
some incoming event, maintaining this attention. It also the brain that has a lesion.
includes the process of getting to this state of
HABITUATION AND ADAPTATION
preparedness.
Habituation involves our becoming accustomed to a
Orienting – is defined as the selection of stimuli to
stimulus so that we gradually pay less and less attention
attend to. This kind of attention is needed when we
to it.
perform a visual search.
Dishabituation is a change in a familiar stimulus
Executive Attention– includes processes for monitoring
prompts us to start noticing the stimulus again.
and resolving conflicts that arise among internal
processes. These processes include thoughts, feelings Sensory adaptation is a lessening of attention to a
and responses. stimulus that is not subject to conscious control.

Arousal is a degree of physiological excitation,

responsivity, and readiness for action, relative to a
When Our Attention Fails Us
baseline. Arousal is often measured in terms of heart
1.Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) – the rate, blood pressure, electroencephalogram patterns,
condition that makes it difficult for a person to pay and other physiological signs.
attention and control impulsive behaviors.
Automatic and Controlled Processes in Attention
Three main types of ADHD
Automatic Processes – doing an activity involve no
1.Hyperactive – impulsive conscious control. They are performed without
conscious awareness.
2. Inattentive
Controlled Processes – accessible to conscious control
3. A combination of hyperactive-impulsive and
and even require it.
inattentive behavior
 Studying the Preconscious-Priming

Priming is a technique in which the introduction of one

stimulus influences how people respond to a
subsequent stimulus.

Priming works by activating an association or

representation in memory just before another stimulus
or task is introduced. This phenomenon occurs without
our conscious awareness, yet it can have a major impact
on numerous aspects of our everyday lives.

The Tip-of-the-Tongue Phenomenon

The “tip of the tongue” (TOT) phenomenon is a state in

which one cannot quite recall a familiar word but can
recall words of similar form and meaning. ... These more
easily retrieved features of low-frequency words may
be the features to which we chiefly attend in word-

perception.
Mistakes in Automatic Processes

Mistakes are errors in choosing an objective or

specifying a means of achieving it;.

Slips are errors in carrying out an intended means for

reaching an objective.

Type of Error

1. Capture errors

2. Omissions

3. Perseverations

4. Description errors

5. Data-driven errors

6. Associative-activation errors

7. Loss of activation errors

CONSCIOUSNESS

• The Consciousness of Mental Processes

• Preconscious Processing Studying the
Preconscious Priming
• The Tip-of-the-Tongue Phenomenon
• When Blind People Can See