Chapter 2 Notes – Cognition

1.       Perception – uses previous knowledge to gether and interpret the stimuli registered by the senses.

2.       Oject or
Pattern Recognition – you identify a complex arrangement of sensory
stimuli.

3.       Distal
Stimulus – is the actual object that is “out there” in the environment - for example, the
telephone sitting on your desk.

4.       Proximal
Stimulus – is the information registered on your sensory receptors – for
example, the image on your retina created by the telephone.

5.       Iconic
Memory – visual sensory memory, allow an image of a visual stimulus to
persist for about 200 to 400 milliseconds after the stimulus has disappeared.

6.       Primary
Visual Cortex – located in the occipital lobe of the brain; the portion of
the cerebral cortex that is concerned with the basic processing of visual
stimuli.

7.       Illusory
contours – we see edges even though they are not physically present in
stimulus.

8.       Template
Matching Theory

a.       You compare a stimulus with a set of templates,
or specific patterns that you have stored in memory. This theory is too simplified and only
applicable in very few cases.

9.       Feature Analysis Theory

a.       Propose that a visual stimulus is composed of a
small number of characteristics or components.

10.   Recognition by Components Theory

a.       A given view of an object can be represented as
an arrangement of simple 3D shapes called geons.

11.   Viewer centered approach

a.       Proposes that we store a small number of views
of 3-D objects, rather than just one view.

12.   Difference Between Bottom-Up Processing and
Top-Down Processing

a.       Bottom up processing

                                                               i.      Emphasizes the importance of the stimulus in
object recognition. The image is “built up” from its components.

b.      Top Down Processing

                                                               i.      Emphasizes how a person’s concepts and
higher-level mental processes influence object recognition. Using all of our brains to come in from the
top, from the big picture to the actual object.