Cognition, 8e
Chapter 2
Perceptual Processes I:
Visual and Auditory
Recognition
Cognition, 8e by Margaret W. Matlin
Chapter 2
Background on Visual
Object Recognition
object recognition
pattern recognition
Cognition, 8e by Margaret W. Matlin
Chapter 2
Background on Visual
Object Recognition
The Visual System
distal stimulus
proximal stimulus
Retina
Functional stimulus
sensory memory
iconic memory, visual sensory memory
primary visual cortex
Cognition, 8e by Margaret W. Matlin
Chapter 2
Cognition, 8e by Margaret W. Matlin
Chapter 2
Background on Visual
Object Recognition
Organization in Visual Perception
Gestalt Psychology
figure
ground
ambiguous figure-ground relationship
Explanation for Figure-Ground Reversal
1. adaptation of neurons in visual cortex
2. people try to solve the visual paradox
Cognition, 8e by Margaret W. Matlin
Chapter 2
Background on Visual
Object Recognition
Organization in Visual Perception
Illusory Contours (subjective contours)
Human perception is more than the sum of the
information in the distal stimulus.
Cognition, 8e by Margaret W. Matlin
Chapter 2
Background on Visual
Object Recognition
Theories of Visual Object Recognition
templates
Feature-Analysis Theory
distinctive feature
compare new letter to stored list of distinctive
features
Cognition, 8e by Margaret W. Matlin
Chapter 2
Background on Visual
Object Recognition
Theories of Visual Object Recognition
Feature-Analysis Theory
Eleanor Gibson's research
• time required to decide if two letters are
different
• recognizing letters and numbers on
envelopes
Cognition, 8e by Margaret W. Matlin
Chapter 2
Background on Visual
Object Recognition
Theories of Visual Object Recognition
Feature-Analysis Theory
Hubel and Wiesel's research
• measure response of single neuron to
simple visual stimulus
• retinal region and orientation
• feature detectors
Cognition, 8e by Margaret W. Matlin
Chapter 2
Background on Visual
Object Recognition
Theories of Visual Object Recognition
Feature-Analysis Theory
Problems with feature-analysis approach
• complex shapes in nature
• relationship between features
• distortion of features with movement
Cognition, 8e by Margaret W. Matlin
Chapter 2
Top-Down Processing and
Visual Object Recognition
The Distinction Between Bottom-Up
Processing and Top-Down
Processing
bottom-up processing—emphasizes
stimulus characteristics
top-down processing—emphasizes
concepts, expectations, memory
Cognition, 8e by Margaret W. Matlin
Chapter 2
Top-Down Processing and
Visual Object Recognition
The Distinction Between Bottom-Up
Processing and Top-Down
Processing
• Top-down processing is strong when a
stimulus is registered for just a fraction of a
second.
• Top-down processing is also strong when
stimuli are incomplete or ambiguous.
• Object recognition combines bottom-up and
top-down processing.
Cognition, 8e by Margaret W. Matlin
Chapter 2
Top-Down Processing and
Visual Object Recognition
Top-Down Processing and Reading
Context helps us recognize letters of the
alphabet during reading.
We don't read letter-by-letter.
Analyzing all the individual features in the
letters of words would be too much work
for the perceptual processes.
Cognition, 8e by Margaret W. Matlin
Chapter 2
Top-Down Processing and
Visual Object Recognition
Top-Down Processing and Reading
We can still manage to read a sentence,
even if some of the middle letters in a word
have been rearranged.
word superiority effect
Cognition, 8e by Margaret W. Matlin
Chapter 2
Cognition, 8e by Margaret W. Matlin
Chapter 2
Top-Down Processing and
Visual Object Recognition
Top-Down Processing and Reading
The context of a sentence facilitates the
recognition of a word in a sentence.
• Rueckl and Oden's bears/beans
experiment
• Both bottom-up and top-down processing
operate in a coordinated fashion.
Cognition, 8e by Margaret W. Matlin
Chapter 2
Insert Figure 2.6 here
Cognition, 8e by Margaret W. Matlin
Chapter 2
Top-Down Processing and
Visual Object Recognition
In Depth: Overactive Top-Down
Processing and "Smart Mistakes" in
Object Recognition
Change Blindness
fail to detect a change in an object or a scene
Simons and Levin's stranger-and-the-door
study
Cognition, 8e by Margaret W. Matlin
Chapter 2
Top-Down Processing and
Visual Object Recognition
In Depth: Overactive Top-Down
Processing (continued)
Change Blindness
Detecting the difference between two scenes
• Top-down processing encourages us to
assume that the basic meaning of the
scene will remain stable.
• important changes identified more quickly
• do not store a detailed representation of a
scene
Cognition, 8e by Margaret W. Matlin
Chapter 2
Top-Down Processing and
Visual Object Recognition
In Depth: Overactive Top-Down
Processing (continued)
Inattentional Blindness
fail to notice when an unexpected but
completely visible object suddenly appears
Simons and Chabris's basketball study
awareness test
monkeybusiness
Cognition, 8e by Margaret W. Matlin
Chapter 2
Top-Down Processing and
Visual Object Recognition
In Depth: Overactive Top-Down
Processing (continued)
Reconciling "Smart Mistakes" in Object
Recognition
• ecological validity
• Perceptual representations change rapidly;
the visual system does not track each
detail.
Cognition, 8e by Margaret W. Matlin
Chapter 2
Top-Down Processing and
Visual Object Recognition
In Depth: Overactive Top-Down
Processing (continued)
Reconciling "Smart Mistakes" in Object
Recognition
• The visual system is fairly accurate in
creating the "gist" or general interpretation
of a scene.
• focus on what is important
Cognition, 8e by Margaret W. Matlin
Chapter 2
Top-Down Processing and
Visual Object Recognition
In Depth: Overactive Top-Down
Processing (continued)
Reconciling "Smart Mistakes" in Object
Recognition
• Theme 2: Our cognitive errors can often be
traced to the use of a rational strategy
Cognition, 8e by Margaret W. Matlin
Chapter 2
Face Perception
should be a challenging task
need to recognize faces from different
angles, in different settings, with different
expressions
Cognition, 8e by Margaret W. Matlin
Chapter 2
Face Perception
Recognizing Faces Versus
Recognizing Other Objects
face perception as "special"
Tanaka and Farah—facial features in
context vs. isolation
feature identification vs. holistic approach
gestalt
Cognition, 8e by Margaret W. Matlin
Chapter 2
Face Perception
Neuroscience Research on Face
Recognition
prosopagnosia
inferotemporal cortex
face recognition cells in monkeys
fMRI studies
• brain's response to faces in upright and
upside-down positions
• face-inversion effect Thatcher illusion
Cognition, 8e by Margaret W. Matlin
Chapter 2
Face Perception
Applied Research on Face
Recognition
cashiers' judgments about ID photos
security surveillance systems
• video clips of professors
• later recognize from photos
• familiarity and expertise
Cognition, 8e by Margaret W. Matlin
Chapter 2
Cognition, 8e by Margaret W. Matlin
Chapter 2
Speech Perception
Speech perception requires the auditory
system to:
• record sound vibrations of someone talking
• translate vibrations into a sequence of
sounds that you perceive to be speech
• distinguish the sound pattern of one word
from all other irrelevant words
• separate voice of speaker from background
noise, including other conversations
Cognition, 8e by Margaret W. Matlin
Chapter 2
Speech Perception
Characteristics of Speech Perception
phoneme
Four Characteristics of Speech Perception
1. Listeners can impose boundaries
between words, even when these
words are not separated by silence.
2. Phoneme pronunciation varies
tremendously.
Cognition, 8e by Margaret W. Matlin
Chapter 2
Speech Perception
Characteristics of Speech Perception
Four Characteristics of Speech Perception
3. Context allows listeners to fill in some
missing sounds.
4. Visual cues from the speaker’s mouth
help us interpret ambiguous sounds.
Cognition, 8e by Margaret W. Matlin
Chapter 2
Speech Perception
Characteristics of Speech Perception
Word Boundaries
The actual acoustical stimulus of spoken
language rarely shows clear-cut pauses to
mark the boundaries between words.
Listeners use knowledge about language in
order to determine the boundaries between
words.
Cognition, 8e by Margaret W. Matlin
Chapter 2
Speech Perception
Characteristics of Speech Perception
Variability in Phoneme Pronunciation
Phoneme pronunciation varies tremendously.
• pitch, tone, and rate
• lack of precision, sloppy pronunciation
• coarticulation
Cognition, 8e by Margaret W. Matlin
Chapter 2
Speech Perception
Characteristics of Speech Perception
Context and Speech Perception
Top-down factors influence speech perception.
We use our knowledge of language to help us
perceive ambiguous words.
Phonemic restoration
• Warren & Warren's wheel/heel/peel study
Role of top-down processing
Cognition, 8e by Margaret W. Matlin
Chapter 2
Speech Perception
Characteristics of Speech Perception
Visual Cues as an Aid to Speech
Perception
Visual cues from the speaker’s mouth help us
interpret ambiguous sounds.
McGurk effect McGurk effect
• compromise between discrepant sources of
information
• superior temporal sulcus
Cognition, 8e by Margaret W. Matlin
Chapter 2
Speech Perception
Theories of Speech Perception
The Special Mechanism Approach
• Humans are born with a specialized device
that allows us to decode speech stimuli.
• Speech sounds are processed more
quickly and accurately than other auditory
stimuli.
• phonetic module/speech module
• categorical perception
Cognition, 8e by Margaret W. Matlin
Chapter 2
Speech Perception
Theories of Speech Perception
The General Mechanism Approach
• Humans use the same neural mechanisms
to process both speech sounds and
nonspeech sounds.
• event-related potentials (ERPs) research
• phoneme judgment and visual cues
Cognition, 8e by Margaret W. Matlin
Chapter 2
video The Mind's Eye
Cognition, 8e by Margaret W. Matlin
Chapter 2