Showing papers on "Perceptual psychology published in 2015"

Conceptual Foundations of Evolutionary Psychology

Abstract: T HE THEORY OF evolution by natural selection has revolutionary implications for understanding the design of the human mind and brain, as Darwin himself was the first to recognize (Darwin, 1859). Indeed, a principled understanding of the network of causation that built the functional architecture of the human species offers the possibility of transforming the study of humanity into a natural science capable of precision and rapid progress. Yet, nearly a century and a half after The Origin of Species was published, the psychological, social, and behavioral sciences remain largely untouched by these implications, and many of these disciplines continue to be founded on assumptions evolutionarily informed researchers know to be false (Pinker, 2002; Tooby & Cosmides, 1992). Evolutionary psychology is the long-forestalled scientific attempt to assemble out of the disjointed, fragmentary , and mutually contradictory human disciplines a single, logically integrated research framework for the psychological, social, and behavioral sciences—a framework that not only incorporates the evolutionary sciences on a full and equal basis, but that systematically works out all of the revisions in existing belief and research practice that such a synthesis requires (Tooby & Cosmides, 1992). The long-term scientific goal toward which evolutionary psychologists are working is the mapping of our universal human nature. By this, we mean the construction of a set of empirically validated, high-resolution models of the evolved mechanisms that collectively constitute universal human nature. Because the evolved function of a psychological mechanism is computational—to regulate behavior and the body adaptively in response to informational inputs—such a model consists of a description of the functional circuit logic or information

Gibson's theory of perceptual learning

Abstract: This article describes the key ideas of the influential psychologist Eleanor J. Gibson, developed over 70 years of research with infants, children, adults, and a wide range of nonhuman species. Gibson's ecological approach to perceptual learning and development describes how perception – extracting meaningful information from the environment to guide actions adaptively – improves with experience, the acquisition of new means of exploration, and the development of new perception–action systems.

Applied Cognitive Psychology: An Information-Processing Framework

Abstract: "Applied Cognitive Psychology" draws on the psychology of perception, attention, and cognition to give an understanding of everyday activities and skills Discussions range from mental overload in airtraffic controllers to cooker hob design

Trompe l’oeil and the Dorsal/Ventral Account of Picture Perception

Abstract: While there has been a lot of discussion of picture perception both in perceptual psychology and in philosophy, these discussions are driven by very different background assumptions. Nonetheless, it would be mutually beneficial to arrive at an understanding of picture perception that is informed by both the philosophers’ and the psychologists’ story. The aim of this paper is exactly this: to give an account of picture perception that is valid both as a philosophical and as a psychological account. I argue that seeing trompe l’oeil paintings is, just as some philosophers suggested, different from other cases of picture perception. Further, the way our perceptual system functions when seeing trompe l’oeil paintings could be an important piece of the psychological explanation of perceiving pictures.

Cognitive Archaeology and the Cognitive Sciences

Abstract: Cognitive archaeology uses cognitive and psychological models to interpret the archaeological record. This chapter outlines several components that may be essential in building effective cognitive archaeological arguments. It also presents a two-stage perspective for the development of modern cognition, primarily based upon the work of Coolidge and Wynn. The first describes the transition from arboreal to terrestrial life in later Homo and the possible cognitive repercussions of terrestrial sleep. The second stage proposes that a genetic event may have enhanced working memory in Homo sapiens (specifically in terms of Baddeley’s multicomponent working memory model). The present chapter also reviews the archaeological and neurological bases for modern thinking, and the latter arguments are primarily grounded in the significance of the morphometric rescaling of the parietal lobes, which appears to have distinguished Homo sapiens from Neandertals.

An introduction to the philosophy of psychology

Abstract: Psychology aims to give us a scientific account of how the mind works. But what does it mean to have a science of the mental, and what sort of picture of the mind emerges from our best psychological theories? This book addresses these philosophical puzzles in a way that is accessible to readers with little or no background in psychology or neuroscience. Using clear and detailed case studies and drawing on up-to-date empirical research, it examines perception and action, the link between attention and consciousness, the modularity of mind, how we understand other minds, and the influence of language on thought, as well as the relationship between mind, brain, body, and world. The result is an integrated and comprehensive overview of much of the architecture of the mind, which will be valuable for both students and specialists in philosophy, psychology, and cognitive science.

Is Seeing-In a Transparency Effect?

Abstract: Philosophers of art use the term ‘seeing-in’ to describe an important part of our experience of pictures: we often ‘see’ a picture’s subject matter ‘in’ its surface. This paper proposes that seeing-in is illuminated by a perceptual phenomenon that has received extensive attention in perceptual psychology: the perception of transparency. It is generally accepted that transparency perception is governed by laws of ‘scission’. I argue that some instances of seeing-in can be straightforwardly understood as a kind of transparency effect, and that all seeing-in is illuminated by these laws.

Perceptual Experience and Seeing-as

Abstract: Fil: Kalpokas, Daniel Enrique. Universidad Nacional de Cordoba. Facultad de Filosofia y Humanidades. Centro de Investigaciones Maria Saleme Burnichon; Argentina

Cognitive Penetrability and Ethical Perception

Abstract: In recent years there has been renewed philosophical interest in the thesis that perceptual experience is cognitively penetrable, i.e., roughly, the view that the contents and/or character of a subject’s perceptual experience can be modified by what a subject believes and desires. As has been widely noted, it is plausible that cognitive penetration has implications for perception’s epistemic role. On the one hand, penetration could make agents insensitive to the world in a way which epistemically ‘downgrades’ their experience. On the other hand, cognitive penetration may sometimes be epistemically beneficial by making agents more sensitive to the way the world is, i.e., by enabling them to see things that others cannot. For example, penetration could ground a ‘high-level’ view of perceptual content, according to which agents can have experiences as of ‘complex’ properties, e.g., natural kind and aesthetic properties. Relatedly, it could elucidate the view that agents can gain perceptual expertise by learning. A type of sophisticated perception (and associated ‘perceptual expertise’) which has hitherto received little attention in relation to cognitive penetration is ethical perception. In this paper I examine the significance of cognitive penetration for ‘Perceptualist’ views in ethics which appeal to a notion of ‘ethical perception’. Although cognitive penetration could ground a literalist model of Ethical Perception according to which agents can have perceptual experiences of the instantiation of ethical properties, the results are otherwise somewhat mixed: cognitive penetrability does not support Perceptual Intuitionism, although it may provide some limited support for Virtue Ethics and Cornell Realism. However, as I stress, the significance of cognitive penetration for Perceptualism should not be overstated.

The Effects of Perspective-Taking on Perceptual Learning

Abstract: Research in perceptual psychology and anthropology has demonstrated that experts will literally see objects and events in their domain differently than non-experts. Experts can make distinctions and notice subtleties that a novice does not perceive. Experts also have strategies for looking at data and artifacts in a domain; they know where to look so that they can answer the important questions. An expert perspective can be described as the ways of seeing and experiencing phenomena that are influenced by the specialized knowledge that an expert has. The present paper will survey the existing literature on perspective-taking and learning, with a short discussion at the end of some of the ways that existing technologies have been used to support the sharing of perspectives. Of particular interest in this paper is the potential to use new media technologies to convey the perspective of someone with specialized knowledge or insider information on an important event—a viewpoint that could be termed an "expert perspective." Keyword: Perspective-taking; Perceptual Learning; Media Technology; Expert perspective; Psychology

Auckland face simulator

Abstract: The Auckland Face Simulator has been developed to create realistic, autonomously interactive, highly expressive human faces for use in applications from perceptual psychology research to new human-computer-interface technologies. The face models can represent the full range of facial muscle actions and can be precisely controlled to allow creation of novel static and dynamic stimuli for perceptual experiments. The models can also be driven by cognitive architectures in an interactive integrated system to create synthetic muscle activations. Or they can be driven by motion capture or by animation controls or any combination to achieve a high degree of realism and a full range of expression in real time.

Bringing the environment in: early Central European contributions to an ecologically oriented psychology of perception.

Abstract: This article explores the Central European philosophical roots of perceptual psychology from a historical perspective. It will be shown that Alexius Meinong’s notion of a forum of perception is the point of departure for a beginning inclusion of external factors in explaining perception. This conclusion is mainly because of Fritz Heider’s early contributions on perception and its influence on Egon Brunswik. In addition, the impact of Meinong and Edmund Husserl— both students of Franz Brentano— on Brunswik’s teacher, Karl Buhler, is highlighted.

The geography of consciousness in Ibsen's theatrical practice

Abstract: When a director stands in the cockpit of a rehearsal he or she sees a different object than a person reading the text of a play. This article attempts to outline a style of criticism that may be useful to persons preparing to produce Ibsen’s plays. Several critical principles are presented: first, that Ibsen’s plays have a systematic pattern of imagery; second, that Ibsen’s characters have a certain way of seeing the world, and that this way of seeing amounts to a psychology, what could now be termed a perceptual psychology; third, that the plays have a double action, one action motivated in the mature plays by the conventions of the well-made play, and the other action motivated by a mythic logic, in which the Ibsen character desires to see the world in a certain way. This desire can have potentially disastrous consequences if pursued too insistently, because of the disparity between a character’s mythic vision and the facts of life as it is actually lived.

Teaching Spatial Thinking: Perspectives from Cognitive Psychology.

Abstract: Cognitive psychology primarily focuses on understanding of how humans represent and process spatial information. Cognitive psychology approaches to spatial thinking consider how we think about space (i.e., thinking in space, and thinking about space) and how we use space to think (i.e., thinking with space). This paper outlines topics to be covered on each of these topics in a course on spatial thinking, with recommended readings for each topic. Depending on the audience, it might be appropriate to put more emphasis on fundamental understanding or to also address applications of spatial cognition research, for example in education or to the development of spatial technologies. An important goal of any course in spatial thinking is to give students an appreciation of research methods in spatial cognition, including the types of inferences that can and cannot be made from different types of evidence to enable students to be critical readers of the literature.

Foreign Language Learning and Teaching Based on Cognitive Psychology

Abstract: Cognitive psychology refers to the process that people process the information symbol by brain and its main theoretical goal is to explain the information processing method during human activity. In English teaching, cognitive psychology pays more attention to the driving role of concept and situational role of textbook, which is the further development of students' intelligence for the purpose of improving students' competence for language use. Based on this, the foreign language learning and teaching based on cognitive psychology is discussed in this paper.

Examining the Influence of Music Training on Cognitive and Perceptual Transference: A Quantitative Meta-Analysis

Abstract: Two meta-analyses were conducted in order to delineate whether musicians and non-musicians differ on specific cognitive and music processing domains, and determine the magnitude of any differences. Moreover, potential covariates outlined by the literature were included as moderator variables. As predicted, musicians significantly differed from non-musicians on all music processing tasks (melody perception: d=1.18; pitch perception: d=1.00; temporal perception: d=.834). Furthermore, as predicted, musicians significantly differed on the cognitive domains related to musical ability (Motor: d=1.08, and Audition: d=.837). Significant differences were also obtained in General Intelligence (d=.348), Memory (d=.421), Orientation and Attention (d=.283), Perception (d=.190), and Verbal Functions and Language Skills (d=.423). Meta-regression and sub-group analyses of moderating variables indicated that years of music training, age group, and categories (breakdown of groups within domains) had an effect on summary effects, however this impact was not consistent across all domains. The effects of other potential moderating variables are discussed in the context of existing

Political Psychology and International Conflict

Abstract: Political psychology takes an individual level of analysis approach to the study of international conflict. This study has traditionally investigated the psychological foundations of decision making among elite leaders in the area of war and peace. Psychological models that have been applied to the examination of this area include those taken from cognitive psychology and evolutionary models. Such approaches include the application of prospect theory to cases of decision making under conditions of risk. Similar work in this area further explores the nature of psychological biases in decision making, particularly in the area of risk assessment. More recent work has explored the biological underpinnings of aggression, and their contribution to the emergence of violent behavior. Past work has tended to neglect the role of emotion, but more recent work has investigated these forces more fully. Future work that seeks to incorporate both biological and environmental forces in precipitating violence appears challenging but worthwhile. In addition, experimental methods drawn from psychology have been applied to the study of international conflict. The use of field experiments to explore the psychological forces that both motivate and sustain conflict appears promising. Keywords: political psychology; conflict; cognitive psychology; evolutionary psychology; prospect theory; risk; decision making