Chapter 3 – VISUAL PERCEPTION

Perception is the set of processes by which we recognize, organize, and make sense of the
sensations we receive from environmental stimuli

FROM SENSATION TO PERCEPTION

Some Basic Concepts of Perception

– James Gibson: introduced the concepts of distal (external) object, informational
medium, proximal stimulation, and perceptual object:

a. distal (far) object: the object in the external world

b. informational medium: e.g. sound waves, reflected light, chemical molecules, tactile
information
c. proximal (near) stimulation: information comes into contact with the appropriate
sensory receptors
d. perceptual object (i.e., what you see): is created in you; reflects the properties of the
external world

– sensory adaptation: receptor cells adapt to constant stimulation by not firing

until there is a change in stimulation → we may stop detecting the presence of a stimulus
→ constant stimulation of the cells of the retina gives the impression that the image
disappears = Ganzfield-Effect

– eyes constantly make tiny rapid movements → creates constant changes in the location of
the projected image inside the eye
 Seeing Things That Aren’t There, or Are They?

– mental percept = a mental representation of a stimulus that is perceived

– minds must take available sensory information and manipulate that

information to create mental representations of objects, properties, and spatial
relationships within our environments

– → sensory information and mental perception may differ e.g. optical

illusions

How Does Our Visual System Work?

– visible electromagnetic wavelengths are from 380 to 750 nanometers

1. Vision begins when light passes through the protective covering

(cornea = clear, protective dome) of the eye

2. light passes through the pupil, the opening in the center of the iris

3. It continues through the crystalline lens and the vitreous

humor (= a gel-like substance that makes up the majority of
the eye)

4. the light focuses on the retina where electromagnetic energy is

transduced (converted) into neural electrochemical impulses

– Vision is most acute in the fovea (a small, thin region of the retina)

– Although the retina is only about as thick as a single page, it consists of

three main layers of neuronal tissue (Figure 3.8).
– The first layer of neuronal tissue—closest to the front, outward-facing surface
of the eye—is the layer of ganglion cells, whose axons constitute the optic
nerve.

– The second layer consists of three kinds of interneuron cells. Amacrine

cells and horizontal cells make single lateral (i.e., horizontal) connections
among adjacent areas of the retina in the middle layer of cells. Bipolar cells
make dual connections forward and outward to the ganglion cells, as well as
backward and inward to the third layer of retinal cells.

– The third layer of the retina contains the photoreceptors, which convert light
energy into electrochemical energy that is transmitted by neurons to the brain
The photoreceptors: convert light energy into electrochemical energy that is
transmitted by neurons to the brain

– two kinds of photoreceptors:

a. rods (120 million/eye) = long and thin photoreceptors; more highly
concentrated in the periphery of the retina than in the foveal region;
responsible for night vision and sensitive to light and dark stimuli

b. cones (8 million/eye) = short and thick photoreceptors; allow for the

perception of color; more highly concentrated in the foveal region than in
the periphery of the retina

→both contain photo pigments, chemical substances that react to light and
transform physical electromagnetic energy into an electrochemical neural
impulse

– neurochemical messages travel via the bipolar cells to the ganglion cells →
axons of the ganglion collectively form the optic nerve; optic nerves of the
eyes join at the base of the brain to form the optic chiasma
 – ganglion cells from the inward part of the retina cross through the optic
chiasma and extend to the opposite hemisphere of the brain; ganglion cells
from the outward area of the retina go to the hemisphere on the same side; the
lens of each eye inverts the image of the world → the message sent to the brain
is upside-down and backward

– 90% of the ganglion cells go to the lateral geniculate nucleus of the

thalamus and then to the primary visual cortex (V1 or striate cortex) in the
occipital lobe.

– visual cortex contains several processing areas relating to intensity and

quality e.g. color, location, depth, pattern, and form

Pathways to Perceive the What and the Where

– PATHWAY = the path the visual information takes right from when it
enters the human perceptual system through the eyes to it being completely
processed.

– two pathways via two fasciculi (fiber bundles):

what–where hypothesis:
a. dorsal pathway (where pathway): ascends toward the parietal lobe;
for processing location and motion information

b. ventral pathway (what pathway): descends to the temporal lobe, for

processing the color, shape, and identity of visual stimuli

what-how hypothesis:
two pathways refer not to what things are and to where they are, but rather to
what they are and to how they function
→ What differs between the two pathways is whether the emphasis is on
identifying what an object is or, instead, on how we can situate ourselves so as
to grasp the object
a. what pathway (ventral stream): identification of objects
b. how pathway (dorsal stream): controls movements in relation to the
objects that have been identified through the what pathway

APPROACHES TO PERCEPTION:
HOW DO WE MAKE SENSE OF WHAT WE SEE?

Bottom-Up Theories
= approaches in which perception starts with the stimuli whose appearance you
take in through your eye → data-driven (i.e., stimulus-driven) theories

– four main theories: direct perception, template theories, feature theories, and
recognition-by-components theory
 Gibson’s Theory of Direct Perception
→ the information in our sensory receptors, including the sensory context, is all
we need to perceive anything = ecological perception

→ no need for higher cognitive processes, existing beliefs or higher-level

inferential thought processes to mediate between sensory experiences and
perceptions

– use of texture gradients as cues for depth and distance → aid to perceive
directly the relative proximity or distance of objects and of parts of
objects

– Ecological constraints apply not only to initial perceptions but also to

the ultimate internal representations (such as concepts) that are formed
from those perceptions

– Neuroscientific evidence: mirror neurons start firing directly after perceiving

stimulus, with no time to form a hypothesis; separate neural pathways (what
pathways) in the lateral occipital area process form, color, and texture in objects

Template Theories
– suggest that our minds store myriad sets of templates

– Templates = highly detailed models for patterns we might recognize

– We recognize a pattern by comparing it with our set of templates, then

choose the exact template that perfectly matches what we observe

– = chunk-based theory i.e. theories that suggest that expertise is attained by

acquiring chunks of knowledge in long-term memory that can later be accessed for fast
recognition

– fails to explain some aspects of the perception of letters

Feature-Matching Theories
= we 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

Pandemonium Model: metaphorical “demons” with specific duties receive and

analyze the features of a stimulus
– four kinds of demons:
1. image demons: receive a retinal image and pass it on
2. feature demons: calls out when matches are made between the stimulus
and the given feature
3. cognitive demons: shout out possible patterns stored in memory that
conform to one or more of the features noticed by the feature demons
4. decision demons: decide on what has been seen, based on which
cognitive demon is shouting the most frequently
– other feature mathing theories: distinguish global (features that give a
form its overall shape) versus local (constitute the small-scale or detailed
aspects of a given pattern) features

→ global precedence effect: participants in a study were slowed down if they

had to identify local (small) S’s combining to form a global (big) H instead of
identifying local (small) H’s combining to form a global (big) H

→ local precedence effect: letters are more widely spaced; participants more
quickly identify the local features of the individual letters than the global ones,
local features interfere with global recognition in cases of contradictory stimuli
– neuroscientific evidence for feature-matching: research showed that the
visual cortex contains specific neurons that respond only to a particular kind
of stimulus (e.g., a horizontal line), and only if that stimulus fell onto a specific
region of the retina → individual cortical neuron can be mapped to a specific
receptive field on the retina; show a hierarchical structure in the degree of
complexity of the stimuli; neurons that can recognize a complex object are
called gnostic units or “grandmother cells”

Recognition-by-Components (RBC) Theory

= we recognize 3-D objects by manipulating simple geometric shapes called
geons (for geometrical ions) (Irving Biederman) such as bricks, cylinders,
wedges, cones, … → observing the edges and then decomposing the objects
into geons

– geons are viewpoint invariant

– explains how we may recognize general

instances of chairs, lamps, and faces, but it does
not adequately explain how we recognize
particular chairs or particular faces

– studies have found neurons in the inferior

temporal cortex that are sensitive to
viewpoint-invariant properties; other neurons
respond primarily to one view of an object and
decrease their response gradually the more the
object is rotated → unclear if theory is correct

Top-Down Theories (Theory-driven)

= perception is driven by high-level cognitive processes, existing knowledge, and

the prior expectations that influence perception → constructive approach

– constructive perception: the perceiver builds (constructs) a cognitive

understanding (perception) of a stimulus;

– the perceiver uses sensory information as the foundation for the structure but
also uses other sources of information to build the perception → intelligent
perception (higher-order thinking plays an important role)
– color constancy: we perceive that the color of an object remains the same
despite changes in lighting that alter the hue. (the colour of a blue car in broad
daylight versus under the yellow streetlight)

– during perception, we quickly form and test various hypotheses regarding

percepts, based on:
• what we sense (the sensory data)
• what we know (knowledge stored in memory)
• what we can infer (using high-level cognitive processes)

– Context effects:
the influences of the surrounding environment on perception

– configural-superiority effect: objects presented in certain configurations are

easier to recognize than the objects presented in isolation, even if the objects
in the configurations are more complex than those in isolation

– object-superiority effect: target line that forms a part of a drawing of a 3-D

object is identified more accurately than a target that forms a part of a
disconnected 2-D pattern

– word-superiority effect: when presented with strings of letters, it is easier to

identify a single letter if the string makes sense and forms a word instead of
being just a nonsense sequel of letters

(hypothesiscarviolethairbandtoyotawolfgangkohler

Mangoapplecherrystrawberrygrapeslitchi)

– central relation between perception and intelligence

How Do Bottom-Up Theories and Top-Down Theories Go Together?

– Extreme versions of both approaches are not entirely plausible

– In general we perceive objects holistically; if we plan to act on them, we

perceive them more analytically so that we can act in an effective way
(Ganel and Goodale)
 PERCEPTION OF OBJECTS AND FORMS

Viewer-Centered versus Object-Centered Perception

a. viewer-centered: the individual stores the way the object looks to him or
her → what matters is the appearance of the object to the viewer

b. object-centered: the individual stores a representation of the object,

independent of its appearance to the viewer

– Recent research suggests that it is more likely we engage in viewer-centered

representation than object-centered representation - it has been found that
neurons react to changes in view

c. landmark-centered: information is characterized by its relation to a

well-known or prominent item

The Perception of Groups—Gestalt Laws

– Gestalt approach to form perception: particularly useful for

understanding how we perceive groups of objects or even parts of
objects to form integral wholes

– Kurt Koffka, Wolfgang Köhler and Max Wertheimer

– law of Prägnanz: tendency to perceive any given visual array in a way

that most simply organizes the different elements into a stable and
coherent form
– other Gestalt principles: figure-ground perception, proximity, similarity, continuity,
closure, and symmetry

figure-ground: what stands out from, versus what recedes into, the background
Symmetry: features appear to have balanced proportions around a central axis
or a central point

– even children use Gestalt principles, but the principles appear to apply only to
humans and not to other primates → only humans misjudge the middle circle in
the Ebbinghaus Illusion
 Recognizing Patterns and Faces

– two systems for recognizing patterns (Martha Farah):

a. feature analysis system: specializes in recognizing parts of objects and
in assembling those parts into distinctive wholes
 b. configurational system: specializes in recognizing larger
configurations, not analyzing parts of objects or the construction of the
objects

– second system is most relevant to recognizing faces

– both configurational and feature analysis may help in making difficult
recognitions and discriminations

– Face recognition occurs, at least in part, in the fusiform gyrus of the

temporal lobe → responds intensely when we look at faces but not when
we look at other objects
– Face recognition differs from recognition of other complex objects → more
difficulty in recognizing parts of faces than recognizing whole faces, but
recognition of parts of houses works just as well as whole houses

– age-related “face positivity” effect: older adults preferred looking at

happy faces and looking away from sad or angry faces

Neuroscientific findings:
– Highly anxious people’s amygdalas always process fear automatically,
but less anxious people’s do not
– emotion increases activation within the fusiform gyrus when people are processing
faces
– Patients with autism have impaired emotional recognition → fusiform gyrus
is less active than in non-autistic populations.
– expert-individuation hypothesis: the fusiform gyrus is activated when one
examines items with which one has visual expertise
– Prosopagnosia (inability to recognize faces): damage to the configurational system

The Environment Helps You See

Perceptual Constancies
– Perceptual constancy = perception of an object remains the same even when
our proximal sensation of the distal object changes

– Size constancy = perception that an object maintains the same size despite
changes in the size of the proximal stimulus → Something that we largely
have to learn, not completely inborn
– Muller-Lyer Illusion

– Shape constancy = perception that an object maintains the same shape despite
changes in the shape of the proximal stimulus; easier with symmetrical objects

Depth Perception
– Depth = the distance from a surface, usually using your own body as a
reference surface when speaking in terms of depth perception
– Monocular depth cues: can be represented in just two dimensions and
observed with just one eye; include
a. texture gradients,
b. relative size,
c. interposition,
d. linear perspective,
e. aerial perspective,
f. location in the picture plane, and
g. motion parallax

– Binocular depth cues: based on the receipt of sensory information in

three dimensions from both eyes
a. binocular disparity: eyes send increasingly disparate (differing) images to
brain as objects approach → brain interprets the degree of disparity as an
indication of distance
b. binocular convergence: eyes increasingly turn inward as objects
approach → brain interprets these muscular movements as indications of
distance

– binocular neurons: integrate incoming information from both eyes to form

information about depth; are found in the visual cortex

DEFICITS IN PERCEPTION

Agnosias and Ataxias

agnosia: trouble perceiving sensory information, often caused by damage to the

border of the temporal and occipital lobes
→ cannot recognize what the objects are; trouble with the what pathway.
– visual-object agnosia: can see all parts of the visual field, but the objects
do not mean anything

– simultagnosia: unable to pay attention to more than one object at a time

– Prosopagnosia = severely impaired ability to recognize human faces

(optic) ataxia: impaired ability to use the visual system to guide movement
(impaired how pathway)
– processing failure in the posterior parietal cortex

Anomalies in Color Perception

– much more common in men than in women; genetically linked

– rod monochromacy/achromacy (least common): no color vision at all

– dichromacy: only two of the mechanisms for color perception work,

and one is malfunctioning → one of three types of color blindness
(color-perception deficits)
a. red-green, protanopia
b. deuteranopia (trouble seeing greens)
c. tritanopia (blue-green confusion, yellows disappear)
 SUMMARY

1. How can we perceive an object, such as a chair, as having a proper form given
that the image of the chair on our retina changes as we look at it from
different directions?

Perceptual experience involves four elements: distal object, informational medium, proximal
stimulation, and perceptual object. Proximal stimulation is constantly changing because of the
variable nature of the environment and physiological processes designed to overcome sensory adaptation.

Perception therefore must address the fundamental question of constancy. Perceptual constancies
(e.g., size and shape constancy) result when our perceptions of objects tend to remain constant.
That is, we see constancies even as the stimuli registered by our senses change. Some perceptual
constancies may be governed by what we know about the world. For example, we have
expectations regarding how rectilinear structures usually appear. But constancies also are
influenced by invariant relationships among objects in their environmental context.

One reason we can perceive 3-D space is the use of binocular depth cues.
Two such cues are binocular disparity and binocular convergence. Binocular disparity is based
on the fact that each of two eyes receives a slightly different image of the same object as it is
being viewed. Binocular convergence is based on the degree to which our two eyes must turn
inward toward each other as objects get closer to us. We also are aided in perceiving depth by
monocular depth cues.

These cues include texture gradients, relative size, interposition, linear perspective, aerial
perspective, height in the picture plane, and motion parallax. One of the earliest approaches to
form and pattern perception is the Gestalt approach to form perception. The Gestalt law of
Prägnanz has led to the explication of several principles of form perception. These principles
include figure-ground, proximity, similarity, closure, continuity, and symmetry. they
characterize how we perceptually group together various objects and parts of objects.

2. What are two fundamental approaches to explaining perception?

Perception is the set of processes by which we recognize, organize, and make sense of stimuli in
our environment. It may be viewed from either of two basic theoretical approaches: constructive
or direct perception. The viewpoint of constructive (or intelligent) perception asserts that the
perceiver essentially constructs or builds up the stimulus that is perceived. He or she does so by
using prior knowledge, contextual information, and sensory information. In contrast, the
viewpoint of direct perception asserts that all the information we need to perceive is in the
sensory input (such as from the retina) that we receive.

An alternative to both of these approaches integrates features of each. It suggests that perception
may be more complex than direct-perception theorists have suggested, yet perception also may
involve more efficient use of sensory data than constructive-perception theorists have suggested.
Specifically, a computational approach to perception suggests that our brains compute 3-D
perceptual models of the environment based on information from the 2-D sensory receptors in
our retinas.

The main bottom-up theoretical approaches to pattern perception include template-matching

 theories and feature-matching theories. Some support for feature-matching theories comes from
neurophysiological studies identifying what are called feature detectors in the brain. It appears
that various cortical neurons can be mapped to specifc receptive fields on the retina. Differing
cortical neurons respond to different features. Examples of such features are line segments or
edges in various spatial orientations.

Visual perception seems to depend on three levels of complexity in the cortical neurons. Each
level of complexity seems to be further removed from the incoming information from the
sensory receptors. Another bottom-up approach, the recognition-by-components (RBC) theory,
more specifcally delineates a set of features involved in form and pattern perception.

Bottom-up approaches explain some aspects of form and pattern perception. Other aspects
require approaches that suggest at least some degree of top-down processing of perceptual
information. For example, top-down approaches better but incompletely explain such
phenomena as context effects, including the object-superiority effect and the word-superiority
effect.

3. What happens when people with normal visual sensations cannot perceive visual stimuli?

Agnosias, which are usually associated with brain lesions, are deficits of form and pattern
perception. they cause affected people to be insufficiently able to recognize objects that are in their visual
fields, despite normal sensory abilities. People who suffer from visual-object agnosia can sense all parts
of the visual field. But the objects they see do not mean anything to them.

Individuals with simultagnosia are unable to pay attention to more than one object at a time.
People with spatial agnosia have severe difficulty in comprehending and handling the
relationship between their bodies and the spatial configurations of the world around them. People
with prosopagnosia have severe impairment in their ability to recognize human faces, including
their own. These deficits lead to the question of whether specific perceptual processes are
modular—specialized for particular tasks. Color blindness is another type of perceptual deficit.