Perception Part 2

- we need perception to be rapid and effortless

- top-down and bottom-up processing
- top down processing is more cognitive, whereas bottom up is more
sensory
- bottom-up a lot of reflexes
- initial stages of perception is very bottom up
- recognition-by-components (RBC) theory/hypothesis- holds that much
of object perception is bottom-up- theres a small number of primitive
shapes (geons) that can be put together to make up all the objects in
the world

- size and depth perception

- was popular in art, artists played with it, been using depth cues for
centuries
- retinal image and size perception
- if we know how big something is we can figure out how far away it is
based on the size of its retinal image
- familiar size becomes a depth cue
- but familiar size can also fail as a depth cue
- Ames room- can play with depth cues
- Interposition/occlusion are depth cues- one of the most powerful
-something in front of something else will occlude what it is in front of
- Moon illusion- objects on the horizon in front of the moon make it look
larger because there are more depth cues on the horizon, when the
moon is occluded it looks much bigger
- Linear perspective- parallel lines look like they converge as they get
closer and closer to the horizon
- Ponzo illusion
- Texture gradient is a depth cue
- Shadowing is a depth cue- occurs because our brain has evolved to
assume that light comes from above
- Aerial perspective is a depth cue- things further away are blurries
- Motion parallax is a depth cue- birds use this, if the viewer is moving
and they are looking at something a little ways away, everything
between what they are looking at and where they are appears to be
moving in the opposite direction
- Ex. Sitting on a train going left, everything outside is moving to the
right (expect your fixation point)
- Stereopsis- seeing in 3D because we can see with both eyes- is a
binocular depth cue
- Some ppl are stereo blind though- 2% of pop has only monocular vision
- We have binocular overlap
- A lot of animals dont have overlap, they have eyes on the sides of
their head which means a lot less binocular overlap
- But the overlap allows for much better depth perception
- Stereoscopic viewers
- If we arent exposed to certain stimulation by a certain age we may not
ever be able to see those types of stimuli
- A neuroscientist who had astigmatism when she was young was told
she would never be able to see depth again, but she went for vision
therapy and became the first person to recover her depth perception-
an example of neuroplasticity

- Perceptual constancy- the brain still knows that something is the same
object even if something about it changes (ex. Someone walking away)
- Constancy mechanisms automate perceptual problem solving
- Provide an accurate percept of the world- but if they arent accurate
we get illusion
- muller-lyer illusion- horizontal lines have the same image size but
wings make them appear to be a different depth
- we may have perceptual constancy mechanism that makes inferences
about buildings
- parallel line illusions
- poggendorff illusion- parallel lines are disrupted
- our brains have evolved to maximize efficiency of complex processing
- constancy mechanisms allow us to process and make sense of our
sensory world in a fast and efficient way
- gestalt principles of perceptual organization- similarity, proximity,
continuity, and closure
- perception affected by restricted rearing- kittens who were raised in an
environment where they could only see vert lines, and after the critical
period when let out they were not sensitive to horz lines and couldnt
see horz lines

- object recognition is clearly more cognitive

- impossible drawings and objects that look weird when seen at one
angle
- drawings of bi-stable objects- you see more than one object, it flips
back and forth ex- a necker cube or the rotating dancer
- recognizing ambiguous drawings and objects requires top-down
processing
- context and priming also affects what we see an how accurately we
can recognize objects
- what and where visual pathways
- perceiving faces

- agnosias
- problems with recognizing objects
- often caused by issues with primary visual cortex (not always mind
you)
- prosopagnosia- problem recognizing faces
- due to damage (maybe stroke) of fusiform face area in temporal lobe

- time perception
- cognitive clock- time drags when you are constantly attending to it, but
time can fly when you are busy
- biological clock- time flies when we are cold, it drags when we are ill
- the faster the bio clock, the slower it seems that time passes
- time drags when staring at aversive stimuli ex an ugly face