PSYCH 120A Chapter Notes - Chapter 3: Parietal Lobe, Temporal Lobe, Counterexample
Week 2 Readings
Chapter 3: Visual Perception
❖ Perception occurs when the informational medium carries information about a distal
object to a person (see page 88)
❖ Eventually, light focuses on the retina where electromagnetic light energy is converted
into neural electrochemical impulses
❖ Vision most acute in the fovea
❖ Dorsal pathway = “where” / “how” pathway
➢ Responsible for processing location and motion information
➢ Ascends toward the parietal lobe
❖ Ventral pathway = “what” pathway
➢ Responsible for processing color, shape, and identity of visual information
➢ Ascends toward the temporal lobe
→ Monkeys with lesions in the parietal lobe were able to identify what something was, but not
where it was
→Lesions in the temporal lobe caused the monkeys to recognize where an object was, but not
what the object actually was
❖ what/how hypothesis: spatial information about where something is located in space is
always present in visual information processing
➢ What differs in the two pathways is whether the emphasis is on identifying what
an object is or, instead, on how we can situate ourselves so as to grasp the
object
❖ Bottom-Up theories: describe visual approaches in which perception starts with the
stimuli whose appearance you take in through your eye
➢ i.e. you look at a city and perception happens when the light information is
transported to your brain
➢ Four Theories:
■ Direct Perception
■ Template Theories
■ Feature Theories
■ Recognition-by-Components Theories
❖ Gibson + Direct Perception
➢ Questioned perception as a task of mere association
➢ Theory of Direct Perception: information in our sensory receptors, including
sensory context, is all we need to perceive anything
■ No need for higher-level thinking; aka bottom-up theory
■ Counterexample: “THE CAT” example exhibits top-down processing
❖ Feature-Matching Theory
➢ Pandemonium Model: “image demons” receive a retinal image and pass it on to
“feature demons”
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Chapter 3: visual perception object to a person (see page 88) into neural electrochemical impulses. Perception occurs when the informational medium carries information about a distal. Eventually, light focuses on the retina where electromagnetic light energy is converted. Dorsal pathway = where / how pathway. Responsible for processing location and motion information. Responsible for processing color, shape, and identity of visual information. Monkeys with lesions in the parietal lobe were able to identify what something was, but not where it was. Lesions in the temporal lobe caused the monkeys to recognize where an object was, but not what the object actually was. What/how hypothesis: spatial information about where something is located in space is. What differs in the two pathways is whether the emphasis is on identifying what always present in visual information processing an object is or, instead, on how we can situate ourselves so as to grasp the object.
