Comparing Constructivist and Direct Theories of Visual Perception

Apart from the above, there are a few more differences between Gibson’s and Gregory’s theories of perception. Gregory believes that additional processing is required for perception which some forms of background knowledge is needed to make sense of the environment than just the sensory input while Gibson believes that perception is part of an inbuilt adaptive mechanism for survival which does not rely on stored knowledge or past experience.

Constructivism is the learning theory that focuses on observation by acquiring data and thereafter reexamining, altering, and updating information to be useful in the present time. Humans process experiences, knowledge, and conception of life based on their impressions of their past. As individuals experience an unfamiliar event, they will attempt to integrate it with their knowledge and past, therefore replacing old outdated or incorrect data with new more pertinent information (Kerka, 1997). This learning theory states that learning is an ongoing process and not about merely comprehending available data without questioning, processing, and updating previously learned information (Allen, 2005).

Perceived view can be seen as the opposite of received view. In perceived view, also known as interpretive views, phenomenology and constructivism are two major characteristics. Phenomenology can be described as “emphasis of the appearance of things and not things themselves, each individual experience is unique, and can have multiple interpretations of reality” (Bargagliotti, n.d.). Overall, this means that people can have different interpretations of a same experience.

The first thing that I learned about perception was earlier discovered by a psychologist by the name of Max Wertheimer. He discovered that our body clearly separates images into figures

Change blindness is a phenomenon in attention where drastic changes to a scene can go unnoticed. This is important to the field of Human Sensation and Perception because it helps illustrate how a visual scene is processed. Specifically it shows how even if there is direct attention to a scene, there are times when drastic changes can occur without perception of the change occurring. With extensive research already conducted illustrating this effect, new research has recently been conducted studying different types of scene changes in the hopes of understanding which changes are easier or harder to notice. The results of these studies were quantified by the measurement of change detection time (usually reported in seconds). This subset of change blindness research has far-reaching practical applications, especially in the field of security and law enforcement. By applying the knowledge of which type of stimuli lead to longer change detection times training programs could be developed that allow this population to improve their observation skills.

Carr does not present his theory on cognition with only his own opinion and reason; he adds many different resources from which he compiled information in support of his argument, including that from many prominent scientists in the field of neuroscience. However, Carr only seems to focus on the fact that technology

The main assumption of the biological approach is behaviour and experiences can be explained by biological changes in the body. This approach focusses on the investigation of the brain, nervous system and other biological factors such as hormones; whereas the main assumption of the cognitive approach is that information received from our senses is processed by the brain and that this processing influences how we behave or at least justifies how we behave the way we do. Cognitive processes are examples of hypothetical constructs – researchers cannot directly observe processes such as thinking but we can infer what a person is thinking based on how they act (behavioural patterns). Some key researchers in the biological approach are Maguire et. Al (2000) - Navigation-related structural changes in the hippocampi of taxi drivers, and Sperry (1968) - Hemisphere disconnection and unity in consciousness. Some key researchers in the cognitive approach are Loftus and Palmer (1974) - eyewitness testimony and Baron-Cohen (1997) – Autism.

After investigating spatial cognition and the construction of cognitive maps in my previous paper, "Where Am I Going? Where Have I Been: Spatial Cognition and Navigation", and growing in my comprehension of the more complex elements of the nervous system, the development of an informed discussion of human perception has become possible. The formation of cognitive maps, which serve as internal representations of the world, are dependent upon the human capacities for vision and visual perception (1). The objects introduced into the field of vision are translated into electrical messages, which activate the neurons of the retina. The resultant retinal message is organized into several forms of sensation and is

• that perceiving and experiencing are active processes that involve both experiencing the world as it is (sensory input, essentially) and interpreting the world (meaning-making);

The main division in learning theories is between behavioural theorists and cognitive theorists. Behaviourists claim that people learn by trial and error through associating stimuli with responses whereas cognitive theorists believe people learn through associating memories and ideas as part of a problem-solving process (Jones 2006:411).

They went on to conduct a second experiment. They hypothesized that the probability of picking the absent prototype versus the new prototype would be altered if the configural prototypes were inverted. In this experiment they modified their previous work and wanted to test if inverting the faces would have any effect on determining if facial recognition is based on the configural or featural processing. In this experiment they had 44 undergraduate Japanese students participate in their study. Out of the 44 students, they were divided into four different groups. Each group was given three sets (twelve faces) for four seconds each. After the participants studied each set they were then tested on them. The participants were shown two faces, six times, and were told to answer as quickly as possible which of the two faces they had studied or seen before. The results confirmed their hypothesis that featural and configural processing are separate methods and that configural processing control configural prototypes and featural processing control featural prototypes. Both of these results contribute to this whole debate. Despite the fact that some researchers have found different results there are more researchers who have concluded that these truly are two different processes. Cabeza and Kato were extremely thorough in their research and experiments, which makes their validity very high. Having such exceptional research provides much-needed support to the idea that configural and featural processes are each their

Deutsch and Deutsch (1963) offer a model in which all stimuli are fully analysed, with the most significant message determining the response (Eyesnck, 2010). This theory proposes a bottleneck, as the filter is placed closer to the response end of the processing system. This model is recognized as a late-selection model (Deutsch & Deutsch, 1963). The Deutsch and Deutsch model was later modified by Norman (1968) who alleges that sensory inputs are processed routinely and instinctively before we consciously know about them. Norman suggests that no signal is filtered out but all are processed to the point of activating the stored

Compare and contrast Marr and Nishihara’s and Biederman’s theories of object recognition. How well do they explain how we are able to recognize three dimensional objects despite changes in viewing angle?

Wilson describes the first claim; “While a cognitive process is being carried out, perceptual information continues to come in that affects processing, and motor activity is executed