Perception

-Form perception -Context

-Theories -Group work
-Word recognition -Face recognition
-Face recognition -Group discussion
 Perception:
 Conscious experience that results from
stimulation of the senses (Goldstein, 2019)
 It combines aspects of the outside world (e.g.
visual stimuli) and the inner world (e.g. prior
knowledge)
 Aspects of perception: pattern recognition and
attention
 Example: You use your perception to interpret
the letters presented on the board. You must
combine the information recorded by your eyes
with your previous knowledge of the shapes of
the letters of the alphabet as well as your
knowledge of the combinations of letters
  Identify a stimulus, an arrangement of sensory stimuli
 Sensory processes transform and organize the
information provided by sensory receptors and the
Form/shape stimuli can be compared with other information in
memory
Perception
 Bottom-up processing (data driven)
 Emphasizes the importance of the stimulus during pattern
recognition
 Information from the stimulus reaches sensory receptors
 The arrival of this information triggers the pattern recognition
process
Understanding  Combination of simple features allows global recognition
Perception Top-down processing (concept-driven)
 Emphasizes the influence of higher level conceptual processes
on pattern recognition
 Our knowledge of how the world is organized helps identify
forms
 We have expectations that make it possible to recognize
shapes more quickly (e.g. expecting to find a certain shape in a
certain place due to our experiences)
  Five principles (Solso, 1998)
1. Recognize quickly and accurately
Principles of 2. Recognize and classify unfamiliar objects Ccccc

pattern 3. Recognise shapes from different angles

recognition 4. Accurately identify shapes when partly hidden
5. Recognise with ease and automaticity
 Template matching
 We compare a stimulus to a series of templates and we
choose the one that best matches
 Templates: specific shapes that are stored in memory
 Good match = perception

Theories

 Rigid model
 Prototype
 Match stimulus with a prototype (abstract shape) stored in
LTM
 Match doesn’t have to be perfect and doesn’t include
Theories specific details
 You can identify a face whether it is happy or sad
 Less rigid than the template theories
 Identify letters faster but doesn’t take into account
context
 Recognition by components
(Biederman, 1987)
 Perception of an object can be
represented as an arrangement
of simple 3D shapes (geons)
 Combining theses geons give
Theories new significant objects
 An object could be broken down
into components (geons); some
are more complex (needing (Bierderman, 1990)
more geons) than others
 With this theory we are able to
still recognize objects presented
in different angles
  If we remove the information about the relationships between the
components we should have more difficulty identifying the shapes

Nonrecoverable version

Theories

 Participants correctly identify 70% of the images when the middle of

the segments (where they could be replaced) was eliminated but only
50% when segments of the contour was eliminated at regions of
concavity (nonrecoverable version)
 Feature detection
 We discriminate on the basis of characteristics
 The characteristics that make it possible to distinguish
the stimuli are the distinguishing features
Theories  Letter A = / - \
 Example: Gibson (1969) see next slide
 The speed of decision (whether the letters are different
or the same) depends on the number of distinctive
features they have in common
Features A E F B I K J S

Right
horizontal + + +
vertical + + + + +
diagonal / + +
diagonal \ + +
Curb
closed +
open V +
open H + +
Intersection + + + + +
Redundance
Cyclic change + + +
symmetry + + + + +
Discontinuity
vertical + + + +
horizontal + +
 Word superiority effect
 We identify a single letter more precisely and quickly when it
is part of a word than when it appears in a series of letters
Word  E.g. Reicher (1969)
recognition
K
Word condition
WORK XXXX D

Non word
condition OW R K

Letter condition
K
Context of a sentence
 Several experiments have rediscovered the importance of the context of a
sentence (ex: Anthony drinks his apple ____
 Make word recognition easier
Rueckl & Oden (1986)
 Presentation of sentences
 Stimuli composed of letters and characters that had similarities (r and n)
 These letters were either perfectly formed, or replaced by a symbol
resembling the letters:

Example: The zookeeper (or lion tamer) raised bears to supplement his
income.
The botanist (or dairy farmer) raised beans to supplement his
income
 The participant must say which word (Bears/ Beans) was presented
 Rueckl & Oden (1986)
• Résultats:
100
90
80
70

% of response
60

bears
50 Lion tamer/
40 Zookeeper
30 Botanist/ Dairy
20 farmer
10
0
n n r r r
Stimulus Feature
 Our knowledge of the world makes us expect lion tamers and
zookeepers to be more likely to raise bears than beans.
Context
 Context can help identify ambiguous shapes
 Palmer (1975)
 Different scenes were shown (related or unrelated
or no context)
 We have a better chance at identifying an
ambiguous figure when it is situated in an
appropriate context
 E.g. loaf of bread in a Kitchen is easily
identified vs. a mailbox
 1. Select a theory from textbook (one not found in your
slides)
2. Explain the theory and answer the following
questions:
a. How does it explain perception/ recognition?
Group work b. Does it follow a bottom-up, top-down process or
both? Explain
3. Compare this theory to one presented in-class.
a. Which one do you favor? Why?
4. Post your group work on Moodle in the discussion
board: Theories
  Our experiences can help us recognize a shape
 Schacter et al. (1991)
 Presentation of 3-D shapes (real and impossible)
 Participants are asked to estimate whether the figure was
oriented more to the right or to the left
 Then the figures are represented and accompanied by new
Experience figures
 This time the task is to estimate if each figure could really
exist in 3 dimensions or if it is impossible
 Results:
 Participants made their judgments much faster for items
they had seen before
 Judgments were relatively slow for the new impossible
figures
  Many types of facial recognition tasks
 People differ widely when it comes to recognizing and
remembering faces
Face  Check out your ability: Cambridge Face memory Test

Recognition Tanaka and Farah (1993)

 Phase 1: Presentation of the drawings of the faces with name
and houses with the name of the owner
 Phase 2: Presentation of 2 parts of the faces / houses and asks
to choose which of the 2 elements they had already seen
  Tanaka and Farah (1993)

Percentage of correctly identified items

80

Percent correct
Face 60
Recognition Isolated items
Whole Items
40

20

0
Faces Houses
 How to interpret these results?
 Are we focusing on isolated elements or on the face as a
whole?
 Composite effect: 2 faces split horizontally make a new
face
Face
Recognition
(Murphy, Gray & Cook, 2017)
 Participants would need to identify the top half of the face but
had a harder time to do so unless the halves weren’t aligned
 Features are still important, relation between them and not the
individual features
  Are human faces treated differently from other visual
stimuli?

Face
Recognition
  Constant coordination occurs in the brain as we perceive
stimuli while also taking action toward them

Action
Figure 3.29 Picking up a cup of coffee: (a) perceiving and recognizing the cup; (b) reaching
for it; (c) grasping and picking it up. This action involves coordination between perceiving
and action that is carried out by two separate streams in the brain, as described in the text.

 Perception pathway:  Action pathway:

From visual cortex-> temporal
lobe
Corresponds to the what
pathway
(Goldstein, 2019)
From visual cortex-> parietal
lobe
Corresponds to the where
pathway
Also called the how pathway
Group discussions

 Form groups of 5-6

 Read the discussion question that will be posted
 Work as a team to answer the questions
 Write down your answers
 A group member will post once completed
 Discuss everyday examples of how illusions are used to alter
perceptions.
Examples:
 Fashion designers making people look thinner or taller, or hiding
undesirable parts.
 Using illusions to make a room more comfortable or more pleasing.
 What theory can help explain this perception?

Discussion #1
Your textbook discusses what is involved in designing a perceiving
machine and the human “perceiving machine.”
 How is human perception superior?
 What advantages do humans have?
Discuss the uniqueness of human cognition.
 To you, what is the most remarkable aspect of human perception?
 Which factors could impact how well or unwell we perceive and detect
visual information?

Discussion #2
  For more on the Gestalt Principles of Perception:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWucNQawpWY
 Top-down and bottom-up processing:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLHlfPTRekA
Additional  Face blindness
videos  Factors influencing recognition:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySwnUqzvx78
 Object recognition and the brain: https://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=Cgxsv1riJhI
  Face blindness
 Syndrome in which plp lose the ability to recognize
faces
Face  They can identify if it is a male or female, young or old
recognition  They can’t identify even a family member’s face either
in photo or if the person is standing in front of them
 If interested check: Gauthier 2020; Kanwisher & Yovel,
2006; Wieiner & Grill-Spector, 2013,
  Goldstein, E.B. (2019). Cognitive Psychology : Connecting
Mind, Research and Everyday Experience, 5th Edition.
Cengage
 Lund, N. (2001). Attention and pattern recognition .
Routledge
References  Matlin, M.W. (2001). La Cognition, 4e edition. De Broeck
 Murphy, J., Gray, K.L.H. & Cook, R. (2017) The composite
face illusion. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 24, 245–261.
https://doi.org/10.3758/s13423-016-1131-5
 Reed, S. (2011). Cognition Théories et applications 3e édition.
De Broeck