Cognitive – Perception and Attention

Perception and Attention

1. VISUAL PERCEPTION
History of the eye

 Plato – 4th century BC

 Theory of extramission
 Light emerges from the eye & “collects” objects
 Galen – 2nd century AD
 Defined features of the eye (cornea, iris, lens, retina, etc.)
 Observed binocular vision
 Al-Haytham (10th century)
 Theory of intramission
 Application of the scientific method
 Kepler – 1604
 Theory of the retinal image
 Camera / Eye analogy

The image on the retina is

 2D
 Upside down
 Reversed left-to-right
 Neurons firing in response to light

Yet we experience

 A 3D world that is not upside down… etc.

Depth – the 3rd Dimension

 Visual cliff (Gibson & cliff, 1960)

 Inner (or early) ability?
 Cognitive – Perception and Attention
4
 Young children fearful of crossing on to the “fake” drop
 Maybe not innate, but learnt through interaction with 3D world (i.e. development of
crawling – children with greater crawling ability are less likely to cross)
 Images are 2D, yet we are able to perceive a 3D world (aka perceiving depth and the
distance of objects)
 Info regarding depth comes from movement (observer and/or objects)
 However, various cues to visual depth are available even if observer/environment is
static
Depth Cues

 MONOCULAR CUES – require the use of only 1 eye (but still used with both eyes opened);
aka pictorial cues.

 Linear Perspective:
 We are used to the tendency for parallel lines to
converge as they head towards the horizon

 Texture:
 Cognitive – Perception and Attention
4

 Aerial Perspective (Haze)

 Contrast of objects can provide cue to distance
 When scattering of light blurs the outline of objects,
the object is perceived as distant
 Due to scattering of blue light in the atmosphere,
distant objects appear bluer

 Elevation:

 Height in the scene – more distant

objects are imagined higher in the
scene
 Relative size is influential – larger
objects perceived as closer.

 Familiar/Relative Size
 Emmert’s Law: Big things far away can
look the same size as smaller things
nearby.
 Cognitive – Perception and Attention
4

 Interposition:
 A more distant
object is partially blocked by a
more proximal object
 Kanizsa’s Square
(1976) – a square is perceived
even though much of the
square’s edges are missing.

 Shading:

 Motion Parallax:
 Movement of an object’s image across the
retina: closer objects move more than
distant objects.
 The apparent motion of 2 stationery objects
at different distances due to a change in
observer position.
 If observer is moving or, if head is moving
from side to side, objects will move in
opposite directions relative to each other.
 Closer objects will appear to move more
quickly and in opposite direction to the
observer’s movement, while the one farther
way will appear to move slowly in the same
direction.
 Cognitive – Perception and Attention
4
 BINOCULAR & OCULOMOTOR CUES (oculomotor cues) – involve both eyes being used
together.
 Oculomotor cues – based upon contraction of the eye muscles: convergence &
accommodation
 Binocular cues – each eye receives a slightly different image the same object:
stereopsis (binocular disparity)

Perceptual Consistency

 Viewing conditions may change but perception is invariant (constant).

 Aka, although images change our perception of the object, the object doesn’t.
 Many forms:
 Size – constant regardless of distance
 Location – world does not shift when head moves
 Shape – remains constant, despite changes in view
 Lightness – paper still looks white in the dark; coal still looks
dark in bright light
 Hue – colour same in shadow or not
 Cognitive – Perception and Attention
4
 What you see is not necessarily what you perceive: your visual system is constantly
making interferences based on constraints derived from the regularities of your visual
environment.

  Ames room – size

consistency:
 The room is designed so
that the room is
“incorrectly” perceived
as normal – thus
interfering with
“perceived” distance and
size constancy.
 Cognitive – Perception and Attention
4
 Size perception and size constancy appear to be largely dependent upon
perceived distance (but there are other factors – familiarity).
 Cognitive – Perception and Attention
4
Object recognition

 It appears effortless, but is actually extremely complex.

 Perceptual segregation and organisation
 Earliest systematic approach: Gestalt Theory
 Nativist approach – innate abilities
 The whole is greater than the sum of its parts
 Recognising objects according to the organization of their elements
(e.g. pixelated images)
 It is not the individual elements but the relation of each with the
other that is important.
 Gestalt Principles:
 The organisation of perceptual information will be
the one which possesses the best, simplest and
most stable shape (Pragnanz)
 Laws (100+) that may help “organize” info more
efficiently:
 Proximity
 Similarity
 Good continuation
 Closure
 Cognitive – Perception and Attention
4
 Cognitive – Perception and Attention
4
Figure-ground segregation

 Figure has shape, whereas (back)ground lacks form

 Figure appears in the front
 Light goblet on dark background OR dark faces on a light background?

 BOTTOM-UP PROCESSING: Stimulus –> Attention –> Perception

 Direct processing of environmental stimuli
 Data driven
 Emphasized by Gestalt
 e.g.: figure-ground segregation should occur before object recognition (unlike
object recognition, figure-ground segregation does not require top-down
input).
 However, much evidence that top-down processing also influences basic
perceptual processing.
 Object detection and categorisation can occur equally quickly.

 TOP-DOWN PROCESSING: Stimulus –> Attention + Prior knowledge –> Perception

 Processing of environmental stimuli
that is influenced by expectations
(past experience).
 i.e. prior knowledge influences
processing of input.

 Most cognitive processes probably involve a combination of BU and TD processes.

 Criticism of Gestalt:
 Mainly based on 2D drawings
 Descriptions of processes rather than explanations
 Did not describe the issue of conflicting perceptual laws
 Did not identify all perceptual laws
 Focus on BU / stimulus driven processes in figure-ground separation when in
fact TD processes (prior knowledge + attention) play an important role.

2. THE ROLE OF VISUAL ATTENTION

 Our ability to attend visual information is limited.

 Cognitive – Perception and Attention
4
Inattentional blindness

 A failure to perceive an unexpected event when our attention is diverted.

 Conscious perception requires attention.

Change Blindness

 A failure to notice substantial changes to objects or scenes.

 We can be quite poor at keeping track of visual information.
 Examples: flicker method; masking method; mudsplash method.
 These examples impair local motion signals that usually accompany change – BU
properties that attract attention.
 Requires you to compare visual image with representation of earlier version stored in
visual memory
 Suggests we have a limited capacity visual short-term memory, with unstable
representations of the world.
 Cognitive – Perception and Attention
4