Cognitive Processes PSY 334 Chapter 4 Perception Based

Cognitive Processes PSY 334 Chapter 4 – Perception. Based Knowledge Representation April 23, 2003

Two Types of Imagery o Images involving visual properties. o Images involving spatial properties. o Bilateral temporal lobe damage: Difficulty judging color, size, shape. n No deficit in mental rotation, image or letter scanning, judgment of relative positions. n

Are Images Like Perception? o A series of experiments to compare perception and imagery: Imagining transformations of mental images vs perceived stimuli. n Ponzo illusions occurs with imagery. n Difficulty with reversible figures – depends on instructions, harder. n o MRI plots show same brain activity.

Hierarchical Structure o Images have structure and are decomposed into chunks based on that structure. Reed’s forms. n Grouping of items in room. n

Cognitive Maps o Two kinds of maps: n Route map – indicates places and turns, but not all landmarks. n Survey map – shows all relevant portions of space, not just route. o Adults produce survey maps, kids produce route maps. o Survey maps more versatile.

Map Distortions o Which is farther east: San Diego or Reno? o People map wrong guesses because they reason from the positions of the states, not cities. o Relative positions of larger areas are compared, not details.

Translating Verbal Descriptions o Subjects were asked to read passages, rotate themselves and make judgments: n Fastest when making above-below judgments, slower with right-left. o Verbal directions (survey or route) are as good as using actual maps.

Remembering Serial Position o Serial position – what comes first and what comes later in a list. o Anchoring – first items are better remembered in sequences. o Hierarchical encoding helps serial recall: n Alphabet song