constructive perception

people construct perception by

actively selecting stimuli and

merging sensations with memory

direct perception

perception consists of the direct acquisition of information from the environment

unconscious interference

constructivist viewpoint

we spontaneously integrate information from several sources to construct a perception

Gestalt Theory

Pattern recognition is based on the perception of the whole pattern of stimuli

parts derive meaning from their membership to the whole

Bottom-up and top-down processing

theory

pattern recognition is initiated by the parts of the pattern (bottom-up) that, when summed, lead to the recognition of the whole pattern

alternatively, recognition of the whole leads to recognition of the components (top-down)

template matching theory

pattern recognition occurs when a match is made between sensory stimuli and a corresponding mental form

feature analysis

pattern recognition occurs after incoming stimuli have been analyzed according to their simple features (similar to bottom-up)

prototype theory

pattern recognition occurs when a match is made between a perceived pattern and an abstracted or idealized mental pattern

form perception

pattern perception is examined from various theoretical positions

fovea

in the eye, there are cones and rods.

cones are concentrated in the fovea

cones detect well-illumiated stimuli

canonic perspectives

spawned out of gestalt psychology

we think about things in terms of an icon in our head...this is kind of related to prototypic theories

usually our image in memory is one that gives the most information about the object or event or whatever

pseudomemory

we tend to learn features quicker than we learn relations between features

the more we see similar faces, the more we think they're the same face

central-tendency model

type of prototype formation

prototype is conceptualized as representing the average or mean of a set of exemplars

attribute-frequency model

another prototype formation model

prototype represents the most frequently experienced combination of attributes