Sensation and Perception - Week 3

Sensation and
Perception
Dr. Dina Joksimovic
Chapter 5
Object Perception
Learning Objectives
 Interpret the computational difficulties the visual system must
overcome in recognizing objects as themselves under a
multitude of situations and angles
 Assess the difference between top-down processing and
bottom-up processing and how they affect object perception
 Describe the gestalt laws of perceptual grouping
Schwartz, Sensation and Perception 2e

3
SAGE Publications, Inc., 2019
Learning Objectives
 Explain why the ventral pathway is critical for object
perception
 Discuss how we can distinguish human faces from doll and
mannequin faces and interpret how object perception research
can inform the airport screening process

4
Introduction to Object Perception
 Object agnosia
FIGURE 5.2 Two Perspectives of the Same Object

The same object looks very different from different angles and creates very
FIGURE 5.1 Roses different images on the retina. But those of us with normal visual perception
Convoluted red forms or roses? What do you see? have no difficulty deciding that these photographs depict the same object.
© iStockphoto.com/DNY59
5
Introduction to Object
Perception
A genuinely unfamiliar object A complex scene
FIGURE 5.3 A Genuinely Unfamiliar Object FIGURE 5.4 A Complex Scene

Can you tell what this object is? Can you judge its approximate Despite the presence of odd lighting, obstructions, and a clutter of
size? What function might this object have? What is it made of? other objects, we can still recognize the remote behind the glass
When you do not have knowledge about the object, these bowl. Our visual systems are tuned to identify objects across a
questions may be very tricky to answer. wide range of transformations.

© Shutterstock.com/Charles Curtis
6
Top-Down Processing and
Bottom- Up Processing
 Bottom-up processing
 Top-down processing
 Recognition
 Representation
FIGURE 5.5 A Self-Driving Car

This is a photo of Google’s prototype of a self-driving car. The computer
that navigates the car must make real-time computations on a dizzying
amount of data to negotiate the road and avoid obstacles. These
computations are done routinely in the human brain but are difficult to
program into a computer.
© Brooks Kraft/Corbis News/Getty
7
Perceptual Organization
• Grouping
• Segregation
FIGURE 5.7 Fancy Dinner

How many distinct candles are there on the table? You probably have no difficulty
determining the number of candles, despite the visual obstruction of some of the
candles. Moreover, it is trivial for you to determine where one object ends, such as
the chairs in the front, and where the table begins. Although easy in practice, this is a
complex process computationally and relies on stored representations of objects.
© iStockphoto.com/aloha_17

8
Gestalt Psychology and
Perceptual Organization
Eye or dots?
FIGURE 5.8 Eye or Dots?

All that is really present physically in this image is a series of dots on a background. However, the
arrangement of the dots creates the image of an eye. Gestalt psychologists argue that the process behind
seeing the eye instead of the dots is fundamental to perception. Our visual systems extract this higher
meaning from the array of stimuli in the world.
Schwartz, Sensation and Perception 2e © iStockphoto.com/jc_designe
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Figure-Ground Organization
FIGURE 5.9 Figure–Ground

If you are looking at the cat, other aspects of the stimulus become ground or background. However, if
you switch your focus from the cat to the oranges, the cat becomes background.
10
A Few Rules That Govern What
We See as Figure and What We
See as Ground
• Closer puffins are the figure
• Distant sea is the
background

In this figure, we tend to see the resting puffins as the figure,
because they are closer to us, and the distant sea as background.
© Roine Magnusson/Photodisc/Getty Images

11
See as Ground
• The top of the photograph
as the figure
• The bottom as the ground

In this photograph of an Everglades alligator hole, the construction of the
scene leads one to see the middle as foreground and the top, bottom, and sides
Schwartz, Sensation and Perception 2e as background.
12
See as Ground
Faces or vase?
FIGURE 5.12 More on Figure–Ground

Do you see two faces looking at each other in front of an orange background? Or do you see
an orange vase in front of a white background? You may see one or the other and switch
between the two, but you cannot see both at the same time.
13
See as Ground
Vase? Faces?
FIGURE 5.13 The Face–Vase Figure–Ground Illusion

(a) With the shifting down of the position of the orange area, we are more likely to
see the vase. (b) With the shifting down of the position of the white area, we are more
likely to see the faces.
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See as Ground
• Convex or concave bands affect figure-ground organization
FIGURE 5.14 Symmetry Affects Figure–Ground Organization

Images that are symmetrical are more likely to be seen as figure and therefore in the foreground, whereas less
Schwartz, Sensation and Perception symmetrical
2e images are more likely to be perceived as background.
15
See as Ground
FIGURE 5.15 Convexity Affects Figure–Ground Organization

Images with convex borders are more likely to be seen as figure, whereas those with concave borders are
Schwartz, Sensation and Perception 2e more likely to be seen as ground. Adapted from Stevens and Brookes (1988).
16
See as Ground
FIGURE 5.16 Figure–Ground Judgments

The participants’ task was to decide if the red square was on the figure or in the background. When the square landed on
a convex band, participants indicated that it was in the foreground, but when the square was on a concave band, they
indicated that it was in the background. Based on stimuli from Peterson and Salvagio’s (2008) experiment.

17
Gestalt Laws of Perceptual Grouping
 Law of good continuation
FIGURE 5.17 Good Continuation

(a) We see one bar on top of another bar. The good continuation of the bar in the back suggests its presence. (b)
We see two separate bars behind the front bar because the break in the figure does not suggest continuity.
18
Gestalt Laws of Perceptual
Grouping
 Law of proximity
FIGURE 5.18 Proximity

When we see these letters, we see five groups of three letters because of the proximity of the three
letters together. That is, elements that are close together tend to be grouped together.

19
Grouping
• Law of similarity
FIGURE 5.19 The Law ofSimilarity

We tend to group together obje cts that look similar. Thus, we see objects grouped together by
color (c) and objects grouped together by size (d).

20
Grouping
 Law of symmetry
 Law of common fate
FIGURE 5.20 The Law of Symmetry

In this figure, the figures that are symmetrical are grouped together.

21
Perceptual Interpolation
 Edge completion
FIGURE 5.21 Perceptual Interpolation

We infer the continuation of objects even when they are partially occluded by other objects. In Figure
5.21a, for example, the leaves of the tree do not impede our perception of a single koala, even though
parts of the koala are not visible. It could be that the koala is terribly disfigured and the leaves are
arranged so that we cannot notice it. But it is more likely that this is a normal super-cute koala. In
Figure 5.21b, the iron gate breaks up our view of the grass field beyond, but we see a continuous field
of grass rather than a series of smaller ones divided by some unseen fence that coincides exactly with
Schwartz, Sensation and Perception 2e the grates of the gate.
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Perceptual Interpolation
 Illusory contours
Kanisza triangles An illusory Necker cube
FIGURE 5.22 Kanizsa Triangle FIGURE 5.23 An Illusory Necker Cube

These illusory contours illustrate the principle of edge Perceptual interpretation here creates the appearance of a white-barred
completion. The arrangement of the circles with the bites cube resting on top of a number of blue circles. The bars that appear to
taken out of them suggest that a white triangle overlaps three define the cube seem brighter than the surrounding background. This is
blue circles. Because we unconsciously infer this, we see the due to the nonconscious inference of the cube. Moreover, the cube
triangle as slightly brighter in color than the white created is ambiguous and can be seen in one of two orientations.
Schwartz, Sensation and Perception
background,2e even though it is not.
23
The Neuroanatomy and
Physiology of Object Perception
• Representation of shapes in area V4
• Object recognition in the inferotemporal area
FIGURE 5.25 Objects From Geons

When we put various geons together, we can create various recognizable objects.
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Neuroanatomy: The Fusiform
Face Area and Face Recognition
 The fusiform face area (FFA)
and the occipital face area
(OFA)
 Prosopagnosia
FIGURE 5.27 The Fusiform Face Area (FFA) and the Occipital Face
Area (OFA)
The FFA is an area within the inferotemporal cortex that is associated with the
recognition of familiar faces in humans. The OFA is located within the occipital
lobe and is associated with recognizing any face as a face.
25
Neuroanatomy: The Grill-
Spector Experiment
FIGURE 5.28 The Grill-Spector et al. (2004) Experiment

Participants briefly saw Harrison Ford’s face followed by a mask, or a control stimulus followed by a mask (a). In (b), we can
see the activity in the FFA when the participant recognized the photo as Harrison Ford and when the participant did not. Note
that the highest response in the FFA is for correct recognition
© iStockphoto.com/bloodstone 26
Neuroanatomy: Other IT Cortex
Areas With Specific Object
Recognition Functions
 Parahippocampal place area (PPA)
 Topographic agnosia
 Extrastriate body area
FIGURE 5.29 The Parahippocampal Place Area

(PPA) and the Extrastriate Body Area
The PPA is an area within the inferotemporal cortex involved
in scene recognition. The extrastriate body area is associated
with recognizing parts of the body other than the face.
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Neuroanatomy: Grandmother Cells
and Specific Coding in the IT Cortex
FIGURE 5.30 Grandma and Her Cat

Where in the brain is the representation of the memory of your grandmother and her
favorite cat?
© iStockphoto.com/michellegibson
28
Neuroanatomy: The Results of
Quiroga et al. (2005)
FIGURE 5.31 Results of the Quiroga et al. (2005) Study

These data are from single cells within the human temporal cortex. One cell
responded to the image of Kobe Bryant but not to images of other people. Similarly,
one cell responded to the image of the Golden Gate Bridge but not to images of other
Schwartz, Sensation and Perception 2e landmarks.
29
Vision and Animacy: How Do We Tell a
Who from a What?
NOT a human face!
FIGURE 5.32 Dolls Have Faces FIGURE 5.33 A Smiley Face?

A doll has human features but is decidedly not human. We are tuned to see faces and often see them in objects that do not really
© iStockphoto.com/mitza
have eyes, noses, and mouths. We often see faces in clouds, on the sides
of mountains, and in tortillas. This is likely due to an evolutionary
disposition to detect human faces.
Schwartz, Sensation and Perception 2e © wanderworldimages/Alamy
30
Who from a What?
Results of Looser and Wheatley’s (2010) study of animacy
FIGURE 5.34 Transformation From Real Baby to Doll

Consider the middle two faces. Are they of a doll or a person?

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Who from a What?
FIGURE 5.35 Results of Looser and Wheatley’s (2010) Study of Animacy

These data show participants’ perceptions of whether the figures were animate or not. The colored lines indicate the ratings
for attributes of animacy, such as animacy itself, having a mind, the ability to plan, and the ability to feel pain. From Looser
Schwartz, Sensation and Perception
& Wheatley 2e (2010), Figure 2, p. 1856.
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Who from a What?
Is this creepy or what?
FIGURE 5.36 The Perception of Creepiness

Is this creepy or what?
Schwartz, Sensation and Perception 2e © iStockphoto.com/sqback
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The Science of Airport Screening
 Dual-target cost: as the number of objects searched for
increases, the likelihood of detecting one of those objects
decreases (Godwin et al, 2010; Smith et al, 2005)
 Dual-target costs: shows up in both accuracy of detecting
objects and the time it takes to recognize a to-be-rejected item
 Research suggests that each TSA agent should train to screen
for one class of object only, e.g., knife, liquid explosives

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Sensation and

Schwartz, Sensation and Perception 2e

Schwartz, Sensation and Perception 2e

FIGURE 5.2 Two Perspectives of the Same Object

FIGURE 5.3 A Genuinely Unfamiliar Object FIGURE 5.4 A Complex Scene

Schwartz, Sensation and Perception 2e

FIGURE 5.5 A Self-Driving Car

FIGURE 5.7 Fancy Dinner

Schwartz, Sensation and Perception 2e

FIGURE 5.8 Eye or Dots?

FIGURE 5.9 Figure–Ground

FIGURE 5.10 Figure–Ground

© Roine Magnusson/Photodisc/Getty Images

FIGURE 5.11 Figure–Ground

FIGURE 5.12 More on Figure–Ground

FIGURE 5.13 The Face–Vase Figure–Ground Illusion

FIGURE 5.14 Symmetry Affects Figure–Ground Organization

FIGURE 5.15 Convexity Affects Figure–Ground Organization

FIGURE 5.16 Figure–Ground Judgments

Schwartz, Sensation and Perception 2e

FIGURE 5.17 Good Continuation

FIGURE 5.18 Proximity

Schwartz, Sensation and Perception 2e

FIGURE 5.19 The Law ofSimilarity

Schwartz, Sensation and Perception 2e

FIGURE 5.20 The Law of Symmetry

Schwartz, Sensation and Perception 2e

FIGURE 5.21 Perceptual Interpolation

FIGURE 5.22 Kanizsa Triangle FIGURE 5.23 An Illusory Necker Cube

FIGURE 5.25 Objects From Geons

FIGURE 5.28 The Grill-Spector et al. (2004) Experiment

FIGURE 5.29 The Parahippocampal Place Area

FIGURE 5.30 Grandma and Her Cat

FIGURE 5.31 Results of the Quiroga et al. (2005) Study

FIGURE 5.32 Dolls Have Faces FIGURE 5.33 A Smiley Face?

FIGURE 5.34 Transformation From Real Baby to Doll

Schwartz, Sensation and Perception 2e

FIGURE 5.35 Results of Looser and Wheatley’s (2010) Study of Animacy

FIGURE 5.36 The Perception of Creepiness

Schwartz, Sensation and Perception 2e

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