Perception Basics
This type of processing uses raw sensory data to build perceptions.
What is bottom-up processing?
This memory type briefly retains visual stimuli after the stimulus disappears.
What is iconic memory?
This brain imaging technique measures changes in blood flow to assess neural activity.
What is functional magnetic resonance imaging or fMRI?
These basic units of spoken language include sounds like "a," "k," and "th."
What are phonemes?
This memory type briefly stores sensory information from the visual modality.
What is visual sensory memory?
The actual object in the environment, as opposed to its sensory representation.
What is the distal stimulus?
A cognitive phenomenon where letters are recognized more easily when in a meaningful word.
What is the word superiority effect?
A neurological condition where individuals struggle to recognize faces.
What is prosopagnosia?
The phenomenon where listeners can fill in missing sounds using context cues.
What is phonemic restoration?
This term refers to visual stimuli that are unclear whether they are figure or ground.
What is an ambiguous figure–ground relationship?
The specific arrangement of sensory stimuli that we identify as separate from its background.
What is pattern recognition?
The psychological approach that uses prior experience and expectations to influence perception.
What is top-down processing?
These simple 3D shapes are used to explain recognition-by-components theory.
What are geons?
A source of speech variability due to differences in speaker characteristics.
What is inter-speaker variability?
These brain structures process holistic perception and face recognition.
What are the fusiform face areas?
This psychological approach focuses on interpreting patterns and wholes.
What is gestalt psychology?
This idea describes how brain lesions contribute to our understanding of cognition.
What is cognitive neuroscience?
This effect demonstrates how visual cues influence speech perception.
What is the McGurk effect?
This visual phenomenon allows us to perceive a complete shape even when parts of it are missing or obscured.
What is illusory contours?
This approach explains object recognition using bottom-up processing of features.
What is feature-analysis theory?
This term describes the failure to notice a change in a scene.
What is change blindness?
The brain integrates past knowledge and sensory input through this approach.
What is the information-processing approach?
This area of the brain processes visual stimuli and is part of the occipital lobe.
What is the primary visual cortex?
Theoretical approaches to speech perception argue that this neural mechanism processes phonemes.
What is the phonetic module?
This concept explains how prior experiences and expectations influence perception.
What is top-down processing?