Visual Perception
Perception is the set of processes by which we recognize, organize, and make sense of the sensations we
receive from environmental stimuli.
Basic Concepts
Distal object
o (far) the object in the external world (e.g. falling tree)
Informational medium
o Where the event of the tree falling creates a pattern on
o Could be sound waves, as in the sound of the falling tree
Proximal stimulation
o Photon absorption in the rod and cone cells of the retina
Perceptual object
o Perception occurs
Perceptual Basics
Percept—that is, a mental representation of a stimulus that is perceived.
Sensory adaptation
o Occurs when sensory receptors change their sensitivity to the stimulus–Constant stimulation
leads to lower sensitivity
Our senses respond to change
o Ganzfeld effect
Perceptual Illusions
o Sometimes we cannot perceive what does exist
o Sometimes we perceive things that do not exist
o Sometimes we perceive what cannot be there
Our Visual System
Light travels through the eye and focuses on the retina
Electromagnetic light energy is converted into neural electrochemical impulses
Three main layers of neural tissue in retina
o Ganglion cells
o Amacrine cells, horizontal cells, bipolar cells
o Photoreceptors
Rods and cones
Visual Pathways in the Brain
What/where hypothesis
One path for identifying
o Temporal lobe lesions in monkeys
Can indicate where but not what
Another for spatially locating
o Parietal lobe lesions in monkeys
Can indicate what but not where
Visual Pathways: Alternative
What/how hypothesis
Where something is located in space
How do we reach for it?
Theories of Perception
Bottom-up theories
o Parts are identified, put together, and then recognition occurs
o Direct perception
o Template theories
o Feature-matching theories
o Recognition-by-components theory
Top-down theories
o People actively construct perceptions using information based on expectations
Gibson’s Theory of Direct Perception
The information in our sensory receptors is all we need to perceive anything – Do not need the aid of
complex thought processes to explain perception
Use texture gradients as cues for depth and distance – Allows us to perceive directly the relative
proximity or distance of objects
Mirror neurons start firing 30-100 ms after a visual stimulus\
Template Theories
Basics of template theories
o Multiple templates are held in memory
o To recognize the incoming stimuli, you compare to templates in memory until a match is found
Weakness of theory
o Problem of imperfect matches
o Cannot account for the flexibility of pattern recognition system
Feature-Matching Theories
Recognize objects on the basis of a small number of characteristics (features)
o Detect specific elements and assemble them into more complex forms
o Brain cells that respond to specific features such as lines and angles are referred to as “feature
detectors”
Pandemonium Model
Four kinds of demons
o Image demons
o Feature demons
o Cognitive demons
o Decision demons
Navon (1977)
Participants asked what they saw on the
o Global level
o Local level
Results depended on whether letters are more widely spaced
o Participants were faster at identifying local features of the letters
Physiological Evidence for Features
Hubel & Wiesel (1979)
o Simple cells detect bars or edges of particular orientation in particular location
o Complex cells detect bars or edges of particular orientation, exact location abstracted
o Hypercomplex cells detect particular colors (simple and complex cells), bars, or edges of
particular length or moving in a particular direction
Recognition-by-Components (RBC) Theory
Biederman (1987)
o Describes how 3D images are identified
o Breaks objects down into geons
o Objects are identified by geons, relationship between them
Evidence for Geons
Biederman & Cooper (1991)
o Used visual priming to demonstrate the existence of geons in a picture naming task
o Subjects were shown a series of fragmented pictures and were asked to identify the objects
o BUT there are neurons sensitive to viewpoint-invariant properties
Top-Down Processing (Constructive Approach)
Perception is not automatic from raw stimuli
Processing is needed to build perception
Top-down processing occurs quickly and involves making inferences, guessing from experience, and
basing one perception on another
Configural-Superiority Effect
Objects presented in context are easier to recognize than objects presented alone
Object Perception
Viewer-centered representation
o Object is stored in the perspective seen
o Store multiple views of object as seen under various conditions
o Viewpoint dependent process
Object-centered representation
o Object is stored in a way that best represents the object
o Viewpoint invariant process
Evidence supports both
How to reconcile?
Maybe both contribute to object recognition
Two ends of a continuum that contribute to object recognition
Burgund & Tarr researched this issue
Landmark-Centered Orientation
Information is coded by its relation to a well-known or prominent item
Gestalt’s View of Perception
Basic tenet
o “The whole is more than a sum of its parts”
Law of Prägnanz
o Individuals organize their experience in as simple, concise, symmetrical, and complete manner
as possible
Gestalt’s Principles of Visual Perception
Figure-ground – Organize perceptions by distinguishing between a figure and a background
Proximity – Elements tend to be grouped together according to their nearness
Similarity – Items similar in some respect tend to be grouped together
Continuity – Based on smooth continuity, which is preferred to abrupt changes of direction
Closure – Items are grouped together if they tend to complete a figure
Symmetry – Prefer to perceive objects as mirror images
Pattern Recognition Systems
Feature analysis system
o Recognize parts of objects
o Assemble parts into wholes
Configurational system
o Recognize larger configurations
Evidence for Separate Systems
Tanaka & Farah (1993)
o Participants studied
o Faces and names
o Pictures of homes and home owner’s names–At test, given only a piece of face (e.g., nose),
whole face, whole home, or a piece of the home (e.g., window)
o Asked to recall names
o Results: People have more difficulty recognizing parts of faces than parts of houses
Fusiform Gyrus in Temporal Lobe
Implicated in pattern recognition
Studies illustrate it is active in facial recognition
However, also active if high expertise in any item (birds, cars) recognition
Expert individuation hypothesis
Evidence for Separate Systems
Prosopagnosia
o Inability to recognize faces after brain damage
o Ability to recognize objects is intact
Associative agnosia
o Difficulty with recognizing objects
o Can recognize faces
Perceptual Constancy
Object remains the same even though our sensation of the object changes
Size constancyvs. shape constancy
Depth Perception
The ability to see the world in three dimensions and detect distance
o Vision only has a two-dimensional view
o We must interpret the information given to perceive depth
o We take flat images and create a three-dimensional view
o Optical illusions demonstrate that this interpretation does not always have to be correct
Monocular Depth Cues
Texture gradients – Grain of item
Relative size – Bigger is closer
Interposition – Closer are in front of other objects
Linear perspective–Parallel lines converge in distance
Aerial perspective–Images seem blurry farther away
Motion parallax–Objects get smaller at decreasing speed in distance
Binocular Depth Cue
Binocular convergence – Eyes turn inward as object moves toward you; brain uses this information to
judge distance
Binocular disparity – Each eye views a slightly different angle of an object; brain uses this to create a 3D
image
Agnosias, Ataxias, & Cognition
Demonstrate the modularity of cognition
Help us to understand what brain locations are associated with different types of higher-level processing
Provide us with a model of how normal processing must work
Deficits in Perception
Disruption of the “what” pathway
o Agnosia
Inability to recognize and identify objects or people, despite having knowledge of the
characteristics of the objects or people
Shows the specialization of our perceptual systems
o Simultagnosic
Normal visual fields, yet act blind
Perceives only one stimulus at a time—single word or object
o Prosopagnosia
Inability to recognize faces, including one's own
Cannot recognize person from face
Knows a face is a face
Can recognize individuals from voice
Can recognize objects
Can discriminate whether two faces are same or different
Disruption of the “how” pathway
o Optic ataxia
Cannot use vision to guide movement
Unable to reach for items
