Depth Perception
Foundations Of Cognitive Psychology Depth perception This essay will describe the contribution made to a general understanding of depth perception by an analysis of visual illusions. Firstly it is important to discuss how important depth perception is. Depth perception is the visual ability to perceive the world in three dimensions. It is a trait common to many higher animals. Depth perception allows the beholder to accurately measure the distance to an object. Depth perception is important to people in everyday life because when you drive, depth is used in order to measure the distance of an approaching car. Another reason for the importance of depth perception is when one calls out to a friend walking down the street, one will determine how loudly to call depending on how far away the friend is perceived to be. If we as humans and animals did not have the ability of depth perception the world would not be as it is today, it would be much more dysfunctional, for instance car crashes would be frequent and talking louder than necessary.1 There is no depth in the eye, therefore it must construct in the brain. The brain is capable of distinguishing between eye movements, which do signal movement of objects (real movement), and those (head movements) which don't. As will be discussed in further detail later in this essay, it is important to distinguish which cues the brain
Evaluate the view that recognition is the only goal of visual perception.
Evaluate the view that recognition is the only goal of visual perception. This piece of writing will firstly draw upon two computational theories of visual perception and a number of neuropsychological studies in an attempt to evaluate the view that recognition is the only goal of visual perception. It will go on to outline Gibson's ecological approach to perception and evaluate the degree to which this perspective opposes the idea that perception is for recognition. Finally, evidence from the field of cognitive neuroscience will be presented and the wealth of information it provides on the topic will be discussed. According to Epstein and Rogers, (1995) perception is the set of processes by which individuals recognise, organise, and make sense of the sensations they receive from the external world. It is the modality of visual perception, that is, perception by means of the eyes, and more specifically visual recognition which is of particular interest within the context of this work. Visual recognition has fascinated psychologists for decades, and can be described as the matching of the retinal image of an object to a description or representation of the object which is stored in the memory (Farah & Ratcliff, 1994). In order to make sense of the way animals perceive their world, cognitive psychologists adopt a computational perspective, suggesting visual perception is
What evidence is there for cognitive dysfunction in Parkinson's disease? What brain systems might be affected in these patients to cause these deficits?
What evidence is there for cognitive dysfunction in Parkinson's disease? What brain systems might be affected in these patients to cause these deficits? Parkinson's disease is a neurodegenerative disease, characterised by resting tremors, rigidity, slowing of physical movements (bradykinesia) and reduced or nonexistent voluntary movement (hypokinesia) (Ramírez-Ruiz). Although depletion of dopaminergic neurons within the substantia nigra are predominantly the cause of these symptoms, the damage is not isolated as the peripheral, central, and enteric nervous systems are also affected (Braak and Braak 2000). The disease affects the neuronal cytoskeleton and as only selective cells can form this cytoskeleton abnormality, the damage caused by Parkinson's disease creates a particular pattern of lesions, making the symptoms and cognitive deficits roughly consistent between patients (Braak and Braak 2000). The dopamine depletion is continual, but for the symptoms to be sunstantial enough to be noticed the levels must have been reduced by around 90% (Gazziniga, Ivry and Mangun, 2002). Although Parkinson's disease has been linked to drug abuse and genetic factors, in most cases it is idiopathic (Gazzaniga et al, 2002). When Parkinson's disease was first described it was not appreciated that it had any affect on the mental state of the individual, with the original statement regarding
Describe the impairments typically observed in children with autism and compare the different cognitive theories proposed to explain them?
Describe the impairments typically observed in children with autism and compare the different cognitive theories proposed to explain them? Autism is a pervasive developmental disorder characterised by a range of impairments which vary enormously. Autistic spectrum disorder is a commonly used term to reflect the complex combination of symptoms that often arise before the age of three and continue through life. However there are three core features of the autistic spectrum that are fundamental in the diagnosis of autism set out by the DSM-IV (American Psychiatric Association 1994). The first of the features implicated is a deficit in reciprocal social interaction; at first glance the child may just seem aloof and uninterested in the social world, they may find it difficult to make eye contact and struggle to form relationships with their peers, which can make the life of an autistic child very lonely. This unsociability can be misinterpreted by others as wilful behaviour when in fact they have a neurological lack of ability in this area. The second impairment is communication, children with autism often struggle with early speech; however this only touches on the deficit with communication a child may encounter. Communication involves recognising another's intention to communicate and offering an appropriate response. Children on the autistic spectrum may have difficulty
How Helpful has the Stroop Method Been in Exploring the Relations Between Emotional and Cognitive Processes?
How Helpful has the Stroop Method Been in Exploring the Relations Between Emotional and Cognitive Processes? The Stroop task has been widely employed for almost 70 years to aid the study of human cognitive processes. More specifically it focuses on attentional bias. Attentional bias refers to performance on a dependant variable suffering as a result of allocation of attention to alternative, more salient aspects of the stimulus array (Williams et al, 1997). In the original design of the 'Stroop Task' (Stroop, 1935) participants were presented with stimuli printed in coloured ink, and were required to name the colour of the ink while ignoring the stimuli itself. The stimuli would either be meaningless (such as a row of Xs) or be the name of a colour (not that of the ink used to display it). It is a common result that the latter stimuli take longer for ink colour naming by the participant than the meaningless stimuli due to the cognitively antagonistic nature of the colour-name stimuli. Subsequent research found that most words with semantic content produce some interference (Klein, 1964), especially if the word has a generally strong association with a colour (e.g. Sky- blue, grass- green). It was also discovered that more interference was produced if the word had some personal relevance to the participant, or were self-referent and the participant was in a condition of
The Concept of False Memory Syndrome and its Relevance
The Concept of False Memory Syndrome and its Relevance Memory is the mental faculty of retaining and recalling past experiences. A repressed memory is one that is retained in the subconscious mind, where one is not aware of it but where it can still affect both conscious thoughts and behavior. When memory is distorted or confabulated, the result can be what has been called the False Memory Syndrome: a condition in which a person's identity and interpersonal relationships are entered around a memory of traumatic experience which is objectively false but in which the person strongly believes. Note that the syndrome is not characterized by false memories as such. We all have memories that are inaccurate. Rather, the syndrome may be diagnosed when the memory is so deeply ingrained that it orients the individual's entire personality and lifestyle, in turn disrupting all sorts of other adaptive behaviors. The analogy to personality disorder is intentional. False memory syndrome is especially destructive because the person assiduously avoids confrontation with any evidence that might challenge the memory. Thus, it takes on a life of its own, encapsulated and resistant to correction. The person may become so focused on the memory that he or she may be effectively distracted from coping with real problems in his or her life. There are many models that try to explain how
Critically review the research and theories in one area of everyday memory
Critically review the research and theories in one area of everyday memory The study of flashbulb memories is a prime example of the problems faced in everyday memory investigations. These memories are not experienced everyday of our lives, but are without doubt a phenomenon that each of has experienced in our lifetime. As shall be discussed later, problems arise due to the fact that flashbulb memories are characterised by extreme emotional, personal and surprise situations (Brown & Kulik,1977). By their nature these memories refer to specific contextual conditions that would be hard to replicate in a laboratory. Therefore flashbulb memory researchers have had to find techniques beyond the laboratory, due to the desire not to sacrifice essential "ecological validity" (Neisser, 1978) to gain more empirical control. One of the main questions concerning flashbulb memories is their relationship to other types of memory. There are many proposed divisions and sub-divisions of human memory, such as working memory, procedural memory, semantic memory or episodic memory. Each of these systems are functionally related to the maintenance of what is essentially human life. One of the many functions is what Tulving (1983) called "Mental time travel", the ability to experience past events. Such autobiographical memories are thought to be structured at different levels of temporal and
Are Flashbulb memories special?
Are Flashbulb memories special? Roger Brown and James Kulik were two researchers who became interested in the reports that people had astonishingly detailed and vivid memories for learning news of some shocking event. These memories were so clear and unrelenting that Brown and Kulik called them Flashbulb memories (FMs). The quintessential example of flashbulb memory is the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963. What caught Brown and Kulik's interest was not that people could remember JFK's assassination but that people could recall the event with accurate detail even 30 years after as well as their personal circumstances when they first heard the news (features which are not seen in autobiographical memory formation.) Brown and Kulik (1977) introduced the FM concept to express the idea that this type of memory preserves knowledge of an event in an almost unalterable way - that there is a special flashbulb memory mechanism which creates a "snapshot" or permanent record of surprising or unexpected events much like a photograph. Despite this analogy Brown and Kulik went on to suggest that these memories can in fact be incomplete and went on to suggest they have a "live" quality which allows only some perceptual and other details of events to come to mind. Using data from many studies Brown and Kulik proposed the flashbulb memory hypothesis (FMH).
No model of human cognition can be complete, unless it incorporates both mental representations and information processing. Discuss
TMA07/08 - Option 3: Representation and Processing No model of human cognition can be complete, unless it incorporates both mental representations and information processing. Discuss Cognitive Psychologists have developed models in cognitive terms, to help explain and understand how the human mind functions and what attributes are important. Their aim is to evaluate cognitive architectures by investigating the mental activities taking place inside the mind. Our knowledge and experiences of the external world are stored as internal representations which require mental interactions or processes to assist with gaining access to the relevant stored material. An important aspect of Cognitive Psychology is the investigation of internal processes which can produce the appropriate actions for problem solving through knowledge of the environment and through past experience. Mental operations are the processes helping to make use of existing knowledge which in turn lead to greater understanding and greater scope. Let us look at what is meant by representation. Information enters into the cognitive system via the sensory organs and internal processing is then necessary to make sense of it and attempt to fit into existing knowledge and structures. Representations relate to the manner by which a human retains information about the world, and much of what we see and hear is retained. Any
Debate the reliability of eyewitness testimony in court from the perspective of what cognitive psychology tells us about the human memory system.
Debate the reliability of eyewitness testimony in court from the perspective of what cognitive psychology tells us about the human memory system Eyewitness testimony is an area of cognitive psychology into which considerable research has been conducted, much of which suggests it is unreliable. The main concerns in relation to reliability relate to what is known about the human memory system. Specifically, research indicates that memory is selective, and that stress and high levels of arousal may impair the ability to encode and retrieve information (Clifford & Hollin, 1981; E. F. Loftus & Burns, 1982). There is also evidence to suggest that memory is constructive, and therefore our memory of specific events may be affected by prior knowledge and expectations (List, 1986; Brewer & Treyens, 1981). In addition to prior information, research indicates that memory can also be distorted by information we receive after an incident has taken place (Loftus, 1979). This essay debates the reliability of eyewitness testimony in court from the perspective of what cognitive psychology tells us about the human memory system. The essay begins by discussing the impact of stress and high levels of arousal on recall of eyewitnesses. It then reviews evidence suggesting that memory is constructive and that schemas and scripts may lead us to make inferences about situations. Finally, the