Perception: Dr Matt Mundy: Weeks 1-6

Cognition: Various
Unit coordinator: Dr Matt Mundy (Rm 532, Building 17, Clayton)
Assistant coordinator: Anne-Marie Ternes (AnneMarie.Ternes@monash.edu)
Tel: 03990 51035 (only for urgent enquiries)
Consultation times: By appointment
E-mail: matthew.mundy@monash.edu

Moodle
News and announcements important notices
Unit guide
Lecture and lab content
Discussion forums
Should be your primary way to ask general questions.
Look here for the answers to commonly asked questions before contacting your
Tutor/Anne Marie/Me!

Outline of perception lectures

Perception: first 6 teaching weeks of semester (2 hrs/wk.)
Lecture summaries available on the web at PSY3051 Moodle site.
Lecture recordings will be available on Wednesday afternoons via MULO.
Textbook: PSY3051/PSY4081 Perception and Cognition. Bruce Goldstein.
Compiled by Matthew Mundy.
Monitored discussion forum:
Access via Moodle use the forum most appropriate to your question
Twitter: Follow @DrMattMundy to post questions before, during and after the
lecture, or use #PSY305

Outline of perception lectures

Week 1: Introduction & visual processing
Week 2: Visual processing (higher centres)
Week 3: Perceiving objects, scenes & and colour
Week 4: Perceiving depth, size & illusions

 Week 5: Hearing: the auditory system, localisation & auditory scene analysis
Week 6: Speech perception

Introduction to perception, what is perception?

A largely unconscious, automatic process, based on unavailable neural
events, together with unconscious inferences from specific cues
But, at times conscious effort is needed to interpret sensory data (e.g., when
data are ambiguous and incomplete)
Effortlessness of perception disguises the complex nervous system
mechanisms operating (behind the scenes)

Two Interacting Aspects of Perception

Bottom-up processing
Processing based on incoming stimuli from the environment
Also called data-based processing
Top-down processing
Processing based on the perceivers previous knowledge (cognitive factors)
Also called knowledge-based processing

Approaches to the Study of Perception

Observing perceptual processes at different stages in the system:
>Psychophysical approach (PP) - the stimulus-perception relationship
>Physiological approach (PH1) - the stimulus-physiology relationship
>Physiological approach (PH2) - the physiology and perception relationship
These stages are interconnected and communicate with one another.

Psychophysics - Overview of Methods of Measurement

Qualitative Methods
Describing
Recognising
Quantitative Methods
Detecting
Perceiving Magnitude

 Searching

Qualitative Methods of Psychophysical Measurement

Description
Indicating characteristics of a stimulus
First step in studying perception
Called phenomenological method
Recognition
Placing a stimulus in a category by identifying it
Categorisation of stimuli
Used to test patients with brain damage

Quantitative Methods Classical Psychophysics

Absolute threshold - smallest amount of energy needed to detect a stimulus
Method of limits
>Stimuli of different intensities presented in ascending and descending order
>Observer responds to whether she perceived the stimulus
>Cross-over point is the threshold

Classical Psychophysics - continued

Absolute threshold (cont.)
Method of adjustment
>Stimulus intensity is adjusted continuously until observer detects it
>Repeated trials averaged for threshold

Classical Psychophysics - continued

Absolute threshold (cont.)
Method of constant stimuli
> Five to nine stimuli of different intensities are presented in random order
>Multiple trials are presented detection yes or no
>Threshold is the intensity that results in detection in 50% of trials.

Classical Psychophysics - continued

Difference Threshold or Limen (DL) -smallest difference between two stimuli a
person can detect
Same methods can be used as for absolute threshold
As magnitude of stimulus increases, so does
DL
Webers Law describes this relationship
DL / S = K
>Webers Law doesnt hold over whole range of sensation magnitudes

Quantitative Methods Modern Psychophysics

Magnitude estimation (scaling)
Stimuli are above threshold.
Observer is given a standard stimulus and a value for its intensity.
Observer compares the standard stimulus to test stimuli by assigning numbers
relative to the standard.

Modern Psychophysics - continued

Magnitude estimation (cont.)
Response compression
>As intensity increases, the perceived magnitude increases more slowly than the
intensity.
Response expansion
>As intensity increases, the perceived magnitude increases more quickly than
the intensity.

Quantitative Methods - continued

Magnitude estimation (cont.)
Relationship between intensity and perceived magnitude is a power function
Stevens Power Law
>P = kSn

Basic Brain Structure

 The brain has modular organization

The sensory modalities have primary receiving areas
>Vision - occipital lobe
>Audition - temporal lobe
>Tactile senses - parietal lobe
Frontal lobe coordinates information received from two or more senses

Neurons: Transduction & Transmissiona very brief recap!

Key components of neurons:
Cell body
Dendrites
Axon or nerve fibre
Receptors - specialized neurons that respond to specific kinds of energy

Neural Signals
Electrical signals or action potentials occur when:
Permeability of the membrane changes
Na+ flows into the fibre making the neuron more positive, then,
K+ flows out of the fibre making the neuron more negative
Finally Na+ pumped out of axon, to restore normal cell level.
This process travels down the axon in a propagated response

Properties of Action Potentials

Action potentials:
Show propagated response.
Remain the same size regardless of stimulus intensity.
Increase in rate to increase in stimulus intensity.
Have a refractory period of 1 Ms - upper firing rate is 500 to 800 impulses per
second.
show spontaneous activity that occurs without stimulation.

Synaptic Transmission of Neural Impulses

 Neurotransmitters are:
released by the presynaptic neuron from vesicles.
received by the postsynaptic neuron on receptor sites.
matched like a key to a lock into specific receptor sites.
used as triggers for voltage change in the postsynaptic neuron.

Types of Neurotransmitters
Excitatory transmitters - cause depolarization
Neuron becomes more positive
Increases the likelihood of an action potential
Inhibitory transmitters - cause hyperpolarization
Neuron becomes more negative
Decreases the likelihood of an action potential

Neural Circuits - in the eye

Groups of neurons connected by excitatory and inhibitory synapses
A simple circuit has no convergence and only excitatory inputs.
Input into each receptor has no effect on the output of neighbouring circuits.
Each circuit can only indicate single spot of stimulation.

Neural Circuits - continued

Convergent circuit (excitatory connections)
Input from each receptor summates into the next neuron in the circuit.
Output from convergent system varies based on input.
Output of circuit can indicate single input and increases output as length of
stimulus increases.

Neural Circuits - continued

Convergent circuit with excitatory and inhibitory connections
Inputs from receptors summate to determine output of circuit.
Summation of inputs result in:
>weak response for single inputs and long stimuli.

>maximum firing rate for medium length stimulus.

Receptive Fields
Area of receptors that affects firing rate of a given neuron in the circuit
Receptive fields are determined by monitoring single cell responses.
Research example for vision
Stimulus is presented to retina and response of cell is measured by an
electrode.

Center-Surround Receptive Fields

Excitatory and inhibitory effects are found in receptive fields.
Center and surround areas of receptive fields result in:
Excitatory-centre-inhibitory surround
Inhibitory-centre-excitatory surround

Center-Surround Antagonism
Output of centre-surround receptive fields changes depending on area
stimulated:
Highest response when only the excitatory area is stimulated
Lowest response when only the inhibitory area is stimulated
Intermediate responses when both areas are
Stimulated

Convergence in the Retina - continued

126 million rods and cones converge to 1million ganglion cells.
Higher convergence of rods than cones
Average of 120 rods to one ganglion cell
Average of six cones to one ganglion cell
Cones in fovea have one to one relation to ganglion cells

Convergence and Sensitivity

Rods are more sensitive to light than cones.
Rods take less light to respond

 Rods have greater convergence which results in summation of the inputs of

many rods into ganglion cells increasing the likelihood of response.
Trade-off is that rods cannot distinguish detail

Convergence and Detail

All-cone foveal vision results in high visual acuity
One-to-one wiring leads to ability to discriminate details
Trade-off is that cones need more light to respond than rods

Lateral Inhibition of Neurons

Experiments with eye of Limulus (Horseshoe Crab)
Ommatidia allow recordings from a single receptor.
Light shown into a single receptor leads to rapid firing rate of nerve fibre.
Adding light into neighbouring receptors leads to reduced firing rate of initial
nerve fibre

Lateral Inhibition and Lightness Perception

Three lightness perception phenomena explained by lateral inhibition
The Hermann Grid: Seeing spots at an intersection
Mach Bands: Seeing borders more sharply
Simultaneous Contrast: Seeing areas of different brightness due to adjacent
areas

Hermann Grid
People see an illusion of Gray images in intersections of white areas.
Signals from bipolar cells cause effect
Receptors responding to white corridors send inhibiting signals to receptor at
the intersection
The lateral inhibition causes a reduced response which leads to the perception
of Gray.

Mach Bands
People see an illusion of enhanced lightness and darkness at borders of light
and dark areas.

 Actual physical intensities indicate that this is not in the stimulus itself.
Receptors responding to low intensity (dark) area have smallest output.
Receptors responding to high intensity (light) area have largest output.

Mach Bands - continued

All receptors are receiving lateral inhibition from neighbours
In low and high intensity areas amount of inhibition is equal for all receptors
Receptors on the border receive differential
Inhibition

Mach Bands - continued

On the low intensity side, there is additional inhibition resulting in an enhanced
dark band.
On the high intensity side, there is less inhibition resulting in an enhanced light
band.
The resulting perception gives a boost for detecting contours of objects.

Sensory Code: Representation of Environment

Sensory code - representation of perceived objects through neural firing
Specificity coding - specific neurons responding to specific stimuli
>Leads to the grandmother cell hypothesis
>Recent research shows cells in the hippocampus that respond to concepts such
as individual celebrities.

Sensory Code: Representation of Environment -continued

Problems with specificity coding:
>Too many different stimuli to assign specific neurons
>Most neurons respond to a number of different stimuli.
Distributed coding - pattern of firing across many neurons codes specific
objects
Large number of stimuli can be coded by a few neurons.