OUTLINE OF TEXT FOR NOTES, GLEITMAN CH. 5&6:

Here's where to find text readings to correspond with your notes. Following is another outline, in the order topics appear in the chapters.

Psychophysics
173: psychophysics
174: difference threshold
- just noticeable difference
- Weber's Law
175: Weber fraction

Doctrine Of Specific Nerve Energies 180-181

Light & electromagnetic radiation
194: light intensity/brightness, wavelength/color
- visible spectrum
- note figure 5.9 (p. 187) and 5.10 (p. 189) on [sound] waves - applies to electromagnetic (light) waves too
- note figure 5.25 on the visible spectrum

Structure of the Eye
195: rods, cones, fovea, ganglion cells, optic nerve, blind spot
- duplex theory
- note figure 5.16 & 5.17 on the eye
196: spectral sensitivity (rods vs. cones)
- visual pigment

How do we see colors?: trichromatic (Young-Helmholtz) theory and opponent-process theory
205: trichromatic theory of color vision (Young-Helmholtz theory)
- note figure 5.34 on cone types
206: problems with trichromatic theory
207: color afterimages
- opponent process theory
- note figure 5.38 & 5.39 on opponent processes in color vision
208: opponent process cells in the visual system
209: color blindness


Lateral Inhibition and Brightness Contrast
198: brightness contrast
199: accentuating edges
200: lateral inhibition
- note figure 5.24 on lateral inhibition

Feature Detectors
197: adaptation, stabilized retinal image
209: feature detectors
210: examples of feature detectors
211: kinds of feature detectors
- movement detectors
212: opponent processes in movement detectors produce aftereffect of movement
- feature detectors are inadequate for complex perception

Problem of Perception: poverty of the stimulus (inadequacy of the retinal image)
170: empiricism
- distal and proximal stimulus
171: size/distance ambiguity and lack of third dimension in retinal image
- sensations as building blocks of knowledge
173: nativism
217: problem of getting to perceptions (knowledge) from sensations in inadequate retinal image (unorganized experience)


empiricism and nativism: (see 170-173)

Helmholtzian view of Depth Perception: an Empiricist view
218: problem of depth perception starting from two- dimensional retinal image
- binocular disparity
219: monocular depth cues: interposition, linear perspective, relative size
227: information processing (modern version): Helmholtz's "unconscious inference"
232: Helmholtz's maximum likelihood principle
233: (maximum likelihood principle applied to proximity, similarity)
234: (maximum likelihood principle applied to good continuation)
249: unconscious inference in size constancy
250: unconscious inference in shape constancy


The Gestalt Psychologists' view of Form Perception: a Nativist view
225: problem of form perception
226: Gestalt psychology
230: figure and ground organization
- reversible figures
231: Gestalt laws of perceptual organization: proximity, similarity
232-4: Gestalt laws of perceptual organization: good continuation, closure
- subjective contours (closure/continuation overcome lack of relevant sensation)


Apparent Movement
223: apparent movement ("phi phenomenon")
240: problem-solving in apparent movement perception (using logical constraints)

There are no pure Empiricists and Nativists
252: perceptual processes depend on both biology (nativism) and experience (empiricism)

Gibsonian / Ecological Approach to Perception: Direct Perception
247: problem of perceptual constancy
248: size constancy, shape constancy
- Gibson: properties of objects are directly signaled by higher-order patterns of stimulation (relational stimuli)
- example: size constancy from texture elements
- (note texture gradients p. 219)
219: texture gradients
221: motion cues: motion parallax, optic flow
249: higher-order information is invariant over changes in retinal image size and shape
- Gleitman's commentary is an example of a conventional theorist referring to very unnatural (i.e., "non-ecological") circumstances to argue that perception must be an indirect "figuring out" of the world: "...if one of these [viewer- dependent] cues [for distance, such as binocular disparity or motion parallax] is altered, indicating that the target object has moved further away, the perception of size changes, even though the relationship between the target and the background [of texture elements] remains constant". Think about it: those kinds of cue alterations can only happen in a laboratory setting. When vision was actually evolving in primitive organisms, there WAS no situation "when the visual scene provides no basis for comparison" for determining size and shape constancy! Should our explanations of perception be based on how the system works in real life, or based on what weird things we can get the system to do by providing weird stimuli?
251: lightness constancy is relational

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same stuff again, in the order in which it occurs in the text...

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INDEX OF TEXT READINGS, GLEITMAN CH. 5&6:

5. SENSORY PROCESSES: EXPERIENCING THE WORLD (Ch. 5)

170: empiricism
- distal and proximal stimulus
171: size/distance ambiguity and lack of third dimension in retinal image
- sensations as building blocks of knowledge
173: nativism
- psychophysics
174: difference threshold
- just noticeable difference
- Weber's Law
175: Weber fraction
180: doctrine of specific nerve energies
194: light intensity/brightness, wavelength/color
- visible spectrum
- note figure 5.9 (p. 187) and 5.10 (p. 189) on [sound] waves - applies to electromagnetic (light) waves too
- note figure 5.25 on the visible spectrum
195: rods, cones, fovea, ganglion cells, optic nerve, blind spot
- duplex theory
- note figure 5.16 & 5.17 on the eye
196: spectral sensitivity (rods vs. cones)
- visual pigment
197: adaptation, stabilized retinal image
198: brightness contrast
199: accentuating edges
200: lateral inhibition
- note figure 5.24 on lateral inhibition
205: trichromatic theory of color vision (Young-Helmholtz theory)
- note figure 5.34 on cone types
206: problems with trichromatic theory
207: color afterimages
- opponent process theory
- note figure 5.38 & 5.39 on opponent processes in color vision
208: opponent process cells in the visual system
209: color blindness
- feature detectors
210: examples of feature detectors
211: kinds of feature detectors
- movement detectors
212: opponent processes in movement detectors produce aftereffect of movement
- feature detectors are inadequate for complex perception



6. PERCEPTION: KNOWING THE WORLD (Ch. 6)

217: problem of getting to perceptions (knowledge) from sensations in inadequate retinal image (unorganized experience)
218: problem of depth perception starting from two- dimensional retinal image
- binocular disparity
219: monocular depth cues: interposition, linear perspective, relative size
- texture gradients
221: motion cues: motion parallax, optic flow
223: apparent movement ("phi phenomenon")
225: problem of form perception
226: Gestalt psychology
227: information processing (modern version): Helmholtz's "unconscious inference"
230: figure and ground organization
- reversible figures
231: Gestalt laws of perceptual organization: proximity, similarity
232: Gestalt laws of perceptual organization: good continuation, closure
- subjective contours (closure/continuation overcome lack of relevant sensation)
- Helmholtz's maximum likelihood principle
233: maximum likelihood principle applied to proximity, similarity
234: maximum likelihood principle applied to good continuation
- pattern recognition
235: pattern recognition using feature detectors
- bottom-up (data driven) processing
- top-down (knowledge driven) processing
236: top-down processing: priming effects, context effects
- bidirectional activation: bottom-up and top-down at the same time
239: perceptual processing as problem-solving
240: problem-solving in apparent movement perception (using logical constraints)
241: logical constraints on perception have limits
247: problem of perceptual constancy
248: size constancy, shape constancy
- Gibson: properties of objects are directly signaled by higher-order patterns of stimulation (relational stimuli)
- example: size constancy from texture elements
- (note texture gradients p. 219)
249: higher-order information is invariant over changes in retinal image size and shape
- "...if one of these [viewer-dependent] cues [for distance, such as binocular disparity or motion parallax] is altered, indicating that the target object has moved further away, the perception of size changes, even though the relationship between the target and the background [of texture elements] remains constant"
- but this just means that the changed information specified size, not distance (or at least, specified both)
- unconscious inference in size constancy
250: unconscious inference in shape constancy
251: lightness constancy is relational
252: perceptual processes depend on both biology (nativism) and experience (empiricism)