Chapter 4 - Studies

Question 1

What theory was invented by Muller?

Answer 1

Indiviual nerves form pathways that lead directly from sensation to behaviour. Each sensory nerve determines the type of sensation we experience.

Question 2

What theory is often accredited to Gibson?

Answer 2

rejects the idea that the brain constructs an intermediate mental model of the world that is used to guide behaviour.

Instead suggests that sensory information is used to guide behaviour in an action/perception loop

(Behaviour is directly based on sensory input from the envrionment WITHOUT the construction of a mental model)

Question 3

What theory was invented by Helmholtz?

Answer 3

Theory called Constructive Perception/Unconscious Inference:

Sensory information from different nerves is combined into a symbolic representation, something like a mental model

The brain attempts to construct a model of the external world based on sensory input:

Sensory Perception: signals from envrio.
Mental Model: brain creates model based on sensory input
Action: behaviour based on model NOT stimuli

Question 4

What were the results from Barenholtz (2014) study measuring how much resolution people needed to identify a photographed object/how much context was needed?

Answer 4

Context facilitates recognition, allowing people to recognize objects with less resolution while a familiar context decreases the necessary resolution more.

Suggests that real-world recognition, which often takes please in a familiar setting, depends heavily on context

(the amount of resolution needed to accurately identify an object is much less when shown with context and even less with a familiar context)

Question 5

What did the work of Carl Plaffman contribute to?

Answer 5

Each nerve fiber carries a mix of signals which the brain must somehow sort out to generate our percieved tastes

Question 6

What were the results of Miskin and Ungerleider’s (1982) experiment oberving monkeys with dorsal or ventral lesions?

Answer 6

Dorsal Stream projects upward and stops at the parietal lobe. Damage causes difficulty in determining the location of an object. (What)

Ventral stream projects downward and stops in the temporal lobe. Damage causes difficulty in visual matching tasks. (Where)

Conclusion: Ventral stream is involved in the “what” aspects of visual input and the Doral stream is involved in the “where” aspects

Question 7

What were the results of the Gauthier + Tarr (1997) where they showed participants greebles?

Answer 7

The FFA is not necessarily concerned with faces, but rather with the ability to discriminate between visual and similar stimuli (visual expertise)

Participants initially had difficulty distinguishing one Greeble from another, but they got better after training.

Question 8

What were the results of Goodale and Milner’s 1991 study into patient DF?

Answer 8

They observed differences in patients with ventral and dorsal stream damage

DF - ventral damage, but intact dorsal stream, NO spatial abilities, as if they were blind. Couldn’t draw the lines, but could post a letter through the slot.

Question 9

What were the results of Goodale and Milner’s 1991 study into patient X?

Answer 9

They observed differences in patients with ventral and dorsal stream damage

X - Dorsal Damage, but intact ventral stream; accurate on matching tasks, but degraded performance on visually guided actions - couldn’t pick up objects.

Question 10

What were the results of Goodale and Milner’s 1991 study in patients with ventral and dorsal stream damage?

Answer 10

Dorsal - Perception
Ventral - Action

Question 11

What are the Dorsal and Ventral Streams connections to sound?

Answer 11

Dorsal - localization
Ventral - Identification

Question 12

What were the results of the experiement conducted by Biederman (1972) when they asses whether context facilitates object recognition?

Answer 12

(pen presented with writing tools OR unrelated things) - Other things took longer to identify.

Congruent Context led to faster accuracy in object recognition.