Lecture 1: Introduction - Perception as Gateway to the World
Course co-ordinator: Johannes M. Zanker, j.zanker@rhul.ac.uk, (Room W 214)
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psychology = the study of human behaviour and thinking
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sensation and perception is studied in the context of a variety of disciplines, it is about the 'window' between the outside (physical) world and inside world (mental states); information about the environment is collected and interpreted in 'sensory channels' (usually referred to as 'senses') |
perception : conscious
sensory experience, high-level processing, usually related to activity in cortex
sensation : automatic
and unaware collection of low-level information: coding through the sensory
organs
Because these two processes are difficult to separate, in the prsent context they are used exchangably, as the basic entry process of collecting information about the external world.
cognition : acquiring, handling, storing and using knowledge
cognitive sciences : a multidisciplinary group of scientific approaches (psychology, linguistics, artificial intelligence, neuroscience, philosophy) with the common goal of understanding the human mind
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behaviour & thinking is based on a chain (or perhaps better: network) of information processing: bottom-up processes transmit information into higher areas of the human nervous system, lower areas are moderated through top-down processes
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The central scientific approach to understand the working of the brain is focused on infromation processing: acquisition, processing, storage, recall of data in the human brain
the analogy to a computer is obvious ! if you can build a machine that does exaclty the same as the brain, then you were succesful to understand the underlying processes |
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... note that the understanding of brain function is related to the key technology of the period
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historical development
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Difference Engine |
a straight forward and simple approach is to divide processing in functional units (components): isolate brain regions that are responsible for distinct operations
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understanding the brain in terms of compartments has a long tradition (Albertus Magnus, 1260: 3 ventricles were believed to host imagination, cognition, memory, resp.) modern imaging techniques
allow to advance from speculation to hard scientific evidence
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in imaging studies it can be demonstrated that different brain areas are active when a participant is communicating with others by means of language |
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neuroscience is a key approach to understand the fundamental processes to all mental events
Franz Gall, 1812 (Phrenology) this map of brain areas responsible for human behavioural attributes and activities is a historical image which has been generated by 'phrenologists' on the basis of data collected by methods which today are recognised as seriously flawed - so it is much closer to fiction than to science! however, what survives is the idea of functional components
in the brain |
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---> see Lewin (1992) (the 4 sketches above are based on this paper from New Scientist)
you meet your friend in the café to work on your statistics exercise - what are the necessary processing steps in your brain ?
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you enter the café and look around |
perception |
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you ignore almost everything and find your friend |
attention |
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you approach the table without knocking over chairs |
planning action |
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you find the problem sheet in your bag |
learning & memory |
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you start a conversation |
language |
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you try to memorize the contents of the lectures |
knowledge |
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you select the right equation and compute the result |
reasoning |
the full program of sensation & perception
1. 29/09/2011 Introduction: Perception as a Gateway to the World
JMZ
2. 06/10/2011 Visual Perception 1: Learning to read the neural code
SD
3. 13/10/2011 Visual Perception 2: Illusions as key to reality JMZ
4. 20/10/2011 Visual perception 3: Travelling through space and
time
JMZ
5. 27/10/2011 Auditory perception: From noise to sound JMZ
03/11/2011 -- reading week --
6. 10/11/2011 Touch, Taste and Smell: Basic but hidden senses?
JMZ
7. 17/11/2011 Multi-Sensory Integration SD
8. 24/11/2011 Eye movements and perception
SD
9. 01/12/2011 Attentional modulation of perception GK
10. 08/12/2010 Integration and Conceptual frameworks: Making sense of the
world JMZ/SD
why is reliable information vital ?
sensory information processing is incessant and effortless: Data Mining
!!! no computational work (thinking, behaviour) without
input !!!
computer :
information input through keyboard, camera, microphone, modem, ...
brain :
information input through separate senses = channels << note that Aristotle
distinguished only five senses ! >>
vision - touch - hearing - taste -
smell
however:
there are additional senses in humans, such as temperature, pain, balance;
and further senses in other animals, such as infrared vision, ultrasound, magneto/electro-ception
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a bottleneck limits the amount of information that can be processed at the same time - intelligent coding strategies are used to minimise information loss ! |
a filter selects the type of information that is to be processed in a given channel - it helps to optimise processing performance |
Sensory modalities : Channels & filters of the brain
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main textbook : Zanker, J.M. (2010) Sensation, Perception, Action - an evolutionary perspective. Palgrave (152.1 ZAN) : chapter1
additional textbook : Goldstein, E.B. (2007) Sensation and Perception (7th ed.) Wadsworth-Thompson (152.1 GOL), (in particular first pages of chapter1)
to download a pdf copy of lecture summary, click here
to download a pdf copy of lecture slides, click here
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outline
last update
6-10-2011
Johannes
M. Zanker
