WEEK 3 2 types of information used by the human perceptual system
1. Environmental energy stimulating the receptors
(Goldstein) CHAPTER 3
Perception
The Nature of Perception
Perception
- Experiences resulting from stimulation of the senses
Some Basic Characteristics of Perception
1. It can change based on added info (driftwood to
umbrella)
2. It can involve process similar to reasoning or problem
solving (remembering seeing the umbrella yesterday)
3. Arriving at a perception can involve a process
4. It occurs in conjunction with action (running &
perceiving at same time)
5. It is more than just “seeing” or “hearing”; it is central to
our ability to organize actions that occur as we
interact with environment
A Human Perceives Objects and a Scene
To determine what is “out there”, it is necessary to go beyond
the pattern of light and dark that a scene creates on the retina.
A Computer-Vision System Perceives Objects and a Scene
1987
- International Journal of Computer Vision (first journal
devoted solely to computer vision)
- ex. how to interpret line drawings of curved objects
March 13, 2004
- 13 robotic vehicles
- Best performance achieved by vehicle entered by
Carnegie-Mellon University, which traversed only 7.2
miles before getting stuck
Computer
- Does not have the huge storehouse of info about the
world that humans begin accumulating as soon as
they are born
Why Is It So Difficult to Design a Perceiving Machine?
The Stimulus on the Receptors is Ambiguous
Perceptual system
- NOT concerned with determining object’s image on
retina
- It starts with the image on retina, to determine what is
“out there”
Inverse projection problem
- Task of determining the object responsible for a
particular image on the retina
- Starts with retinal image and extending rays out from
the eye
Objects Can Be Hidden or Blurred
The problem with hidden objects occurs anytime one object
obscures part of another object
Objects Look Different from Different Viewpoints
Viewpoint invariance
- People’s ability to recognize an object even when it is
seen from diff viewpoints
- Ex. chair in diff angles
- Computer-visions systems can achieve this only by a
laborious process that involves complex calculations
2. Knowledge and expectations that the observer brings
to the situation
Information for Human Perception
Bottom-up processing
- Sequence of events from eye to brain
- It starts at “bottom” or beginning of system, when
environmental energy stimulates the receptors
Top-down processing
- Knowledge we have of the environment
- Originates in the brain, at the “top” of perceptual
system
- 2 examples
o Perceiving objects
o Hearing words in a sentence
Perceiving Objects
“the multiple personalities of a blob”
- Even though all blobs are identical, they are perceived
as diff objects depending on orientation & context
within which they are seen
The human advantage over computers is due, in part, to the
additional top-down knowledge available to humans.
Hearing Words in a Sentence
Speech segmentation
- Ability to tell when 1 word in a conversation ends and
the next one begins
- Ex. listener’s experience with language (either English
or Spanish) is influencing their perception
The continuous sound signal enters the ears and triggers
signals sent toward the speech areas of the brain (bottom-up);
if a listener understands the language, their knowledge of the
language creates perception of individual words (top-down).
Transitional probabilities
- Likelihood that 1 sound will follow another within a
word
- Ex. (pre-tty), but less likely that ty and ba will be the
same word (pretty baby)
Statistical learning
- The process of learning about transitional probabilities
and about other characteristics of language
- Infants as young as 8 months are capable of this
Jennifer Saffran & coworkers (1996)
- Experiment to demonstrate statistical learning in
young infants
- Every other word (bikadupadotigolabutupiro) is
printed in boldface but pronounced with the same
intonation
- Thery were presented with pairs of 3-syllable stimuli
(“whole-word” stimuli, “part-word” stimuli –created
from end of 1 word and beginning of another like
dupado)
- They listened longer to the part-word stimuli; thus the
ability to use transitional probabilities to segment
sounds into words begins at early age
Conceptions of Object Perception
An early idea about how people use information was proposed
by 19th-century physicist & physiologist Hermann von
Helmholtz.
Helmholtz’s Theory of Unconscious Inference
Helmholtz
- Made contributions to fields of thermodynamics, nerve
physiology, visual perception, and aesthetics
- Invented ophthalmoscope to enable physicians to
examine blood vessels inside the eye
- Contribution to perception: he realized that the image
on the retina is ambiguous
- How does the perceptual system “decide” that this
pattern on the retina was created by overlapping
rectangles?
Likelihood principle
- We perceive the object that is most likely to have
caused the pattern of stimuli we have received
Unconscious inference
- Our perceptions are the result of unconscious
assumptions, or inferences, that we make about the
environment
- Ex. we infer that it is a rectangle covering another
rectangle bc of past experiences
Problem solving process
- Helmholtz’s description of perception
- Ex. problem = to determine which object caused a
pattern of stimulation, solution = perceptual system
applies observer’s knowledge of environment to infer
what the object might be
These unconscious assumptions (based on likelihood principle)
result in perceptions that seem “instantaneous”
The Gestalt Principles of Organization
Gestalt psychologists
- 30 yrs after Helmholtz theory
- Goal of Gestalt approach was the same –to explain
how we perceive objects (but approached in diff way)
- They rejected the idea that perceptions were formed
by “adding up” sensations
- Bc of Max Wertheimer’s stroboscope that rapidly
alternates 2 slightly diff pictures
Gestalt approach to perception
- As a reaction to Wundt’s structuralism (sensations)
Apparent movement
- Principe behind the illusion of movement by
stroboscope
- Although movement is perceived, nothing is actually
moving
- 3 components to stimuli
o 1 light flashes on and off
o Period of darkness (a fraction of a second)
o 2nd light flashes on and off
Wertheimer’s 2 conclusions from apparent movement
phenomenon:
1. Apparent movement cannot be explained by
sensations bc there is nothing in the dark space
between the flashing lights
2. The whole is different than the sum of its parts
Principles of perceptual organization
- Explains the way elements are grouped together to
create larger objects
Few Gestalt principles:
Good Continuation
The principle of good continuation
- Points that, when connected, result in straight or
smoothly curving lines are seen as belonging
together, and the lines tend to be seen in such a way
as to follow the smoothest path. Also, objects that are
overlapped by other objects are perceived as
continuing behind the overlapping object.
- Ex. rope
Pragnanz
Pragnanz
- “good figure” in German
Law of pragnanz
- Principle of good figure or principle of simplicity
- Every stimulus pattern is seen in such a way that the
resulting structure is as simple as possible
Similarity
Principle of similarity
- Similar things appear to be grouped together
- Ex. perceiving vertical columns as circles when colors
are changed (can also be due to size, shape, or
orientation)
“intrinsic laws”
- How Wertheimer describes these principles
- Implies that they are built into the system
- Although a person’s experience can influence
perception, the role of experience is minor compared
to perceptual principles
Taking Regularities of the Environment into Account
Regularities in the environment
- Frequently occurring characteristics
- Ex. blue = sky, green = landscapes
- 2 types
o Physical regularities
o Semantic regularities
Physical Regularities
Physical regularities
- Regularly occurring physical properties of the
environment
- Ex. more vertical & horizontal than oblique, contour of
partially covered object “comes out the other side”,
indentions created by people walking in the sand
Oblique effect
- People can perceive horizontals and verticals more
easily than other orientations
Light-from-above assumption
- We usually assume that light is coming from above
- Our perception of illuminated shapes is influenced by
how they are shaded, combined with the brain’s
assumption that light is from above

Humans perceive & recognize objects & scenes better than
computer bc our system is adapted to respond to the physical
characteristics of our environment (ex. orientation, light).
Semantic Regularities
Semantic regularities
- Characteristics associated with the functions carried
out in diff types of scenes
Scene schema
- Knowledge of what a given scene typically contains
- The expectations created by scene schemas
contribute to out ability to perceive objects & scenes
Bayesian Inference
2 ideas that became the starting point for Bayesian inference:
1. Helmholtz’s idea that we resolve ambiguity of retinal
image by inferring what is most likely
2. The idea that regularities in the environment provide
info we can use to resolve ambiguities
Bayesian inference
- Thomas Bayes
- The probability of an outcome is determined by 2
factors
o Prior probability / prior – initial belief about
the probability of an outcome
o Likelihood – extent to which available
evidence is consistent with the outcome
- Involves mathematical procedure where prior is x by
the likelihood to determine the probability of the
outcome
- Ex. prior = books are rectangular, likelihood =
provided by additional evidence like the book’s retinal
image
Comparing the Four Approaches
4 conceptions of object perception
1. Helmholtz’s unconscious inference
2. Gestalt laws of organization
3. Regularities in the environment
4. Bayesian inference
Helmholtz, regularities, Bayes
- All have in common the idea that we use data about
the environment, gathered through past experiences,
to determine what is out there
- Ex. top-down processing
Gestalt psychologists
- Emphasized that the principles of organization are
built in
- Gestalt principles describe the operating
characteristics of the human perceptual system, which
happen to be determined partially by experience
Neurons and Knowledge About the Environment
Neurons That Respond to Horizontals and Verticals
Theory of natural selection
- 1 possible answer why neurons respond to
horizontals & verticals
- Characteristics that enhance an animal’s ability to
survive (& reproduce) will be passed on to future
generations
Experience-Dependent Plasticity
Fusiform face area (FFA)
- Area in temporal lobe containing many neurons that
respond best to faces
Isabel Gauthier
- Experience-dependent plasticity may play a role in
determining the response to faces by measuring the
level of activity in response to faces and objects called
Greebles
o Greebles are families of computer-generated
“beings” that have same basic configuration
but differ in shapes of parts
- Training humans to recognize Greebles, cars, or birds
causes the FFA to respond more strongly
- Thus neurons in FFA respond strongly to faces bc we
have a lifetime of experience perceiving faces
The purpose of perception is to enable us to interact with the
environment, bc this interaction implies taking action (ex.
picking something up)
Perception and Action: Behavior
Movement Facilitates Perception
Movement
- Reveals aspects of objects that are not apparent from
a single viewpoint
- Thus it provides added info that results in more
accurate perception
The Interaction of Perception and Action
Movement is also important because of the coordination that is
occurring between perceiving stimuli and taking action (ex.
Crystal identifying the coffee cup among other objects on the
table and reaches out to pick it up)
Perception and Action: Physiology
2 processing streams in the brain
1. Involved with perceiving objects
2. Involved with locating and taking action towards the
objects
2 research methods of physiological research
1. Brain ablation – the study of the effect of removing
parts of the brain in animals
2. Neuropsychology – the study of behavior of people
with brain damage
What and Where Streams
Ungerleider and Mishkin
- Presented monkeys with 2 tasks
o Object discrimination problem
o Landmark discrimination problem
What pathway
- Ventral pathway bc lower
- Pathway leading from striate cortex to temporal lobe

Where pathway
- Dorsal pathway bc upper
- Pathway leading from striate cortex to parietal lobe

Perception and Action Streams

Perception pathway
- Pathway from visual cortex to temporal lobe
- Corresponds to what pathway

Action pathway
- Pathway from visual cortex to parietal lobe
- Corresponds to where pathway

Mirror Neurons

Mirror neurons
- Responded both when monkey observes someone
else grasping object and when monkey itself grasps
food
- They are called this bc the neuron’s response to
watching the experimenter is similar to what would
occur if it performed the same action
- They are involved in determining the goal or intention
behind an action

Mirror neuron system

- Network where mirror neurons are distributed
throughout the brain

Size-weight illusion
- When a person is presented with 2 similar objects
(cubes in same weight but diff sizes), the larger one
seems lighter when lifted together