In lesson three we learn about Gestalts Laws of Perception and just how they influence our lives on a daily basis. Although they are only rule of thumb ideas that help us best figure out a situation and are not official laws that psychologically we follow, we still look to laws of perception for guidance. Within in Gestalts Laws he had different topics areas which include; proximity, similarity, good continuation, connectedness, common fate, and the law of pragnanz. Perception is the ability to understand inner qualities or relationships, and Gestalts Laws help us define different aspects of how and why we perceive things either the same or different from each other. Sometimes we perceive things that are not as bad as we imagine. For example, fear of something, when that certain “thing” may not be as harmful as we perceive it to be.

Perception to me is everything. Not just on a daily basis but throughout my entire life. Thinking back of a time where perception was particularly important to me was when I was in an almost life or death situation. It was a fight or flight moment that happened so quick there was almost no time to perceive anything but danger. When learning about perception in a previous psychology class I learned about the perceptual process and how most times we do it automatically. Step one is observation, and in my case observation was immediate. Step two is perceptual selection in which we selection different aspects of the situation based on level of importance. In this stage we often filter out information that is not useful to us so our focus can be put on the “more important” stimuli. Again, in my situation there was not much time to filter information. It was almost an automatic understanding of the entire event in a matter of seconds. Lastly, step three of the perceptual process is known as perceptual organization. This is where in repeating events we would form the stimuli into a patterns that is understandable by our own standards.

In my opinion perception should be very important to everyone and everyone should learn how to properly perceive different scenarios in their lives. We have a tendency to have a negative perception about things, but in most situations it is not as bad as we think. Life would be a lot easier if we all thought in a more positive manner and realized no matter what situation we are in, it could always be worse.

As you can see, perception is a very complicated yet interesting topic. Although we have Gestalts Laws of Perception, a lot is still open for discussion because his “laws” only provide us with rule of thumb ideas. Perception depends on the situation, but based on how we think about the situation our perceptions can sway either to positive or negative.

In lesson two we discussed the functions of the hindbrain and midbrain. We learned how different parts of the brain are responsible for our basic functions. Today I would like to discuss some of the short and long term affects of a concussion in a temporal lobe and how different parts of the body may react to the trauma.

A few years ago my brother was involved in a bicycle accident. His immediate symptoms were a lack of memory of what had happened. Accompanied by a lump on the back of the head. Since the hippocampus (located in the temporal lobe) stores recent events in short term memory, I can conclude that the concussion must have affected that area.

As time went on my brother started to feel depressed and showed symptoms of anxiety. Some may argue that since these symptoms were not immediate that they are unrelated. However, after reading research of what parts of the brain are implicated in depression I found that the hippocampus is directly responsible for memory as well as emotion. So the fact that he had a lack of short term memory and later experienced depression are in fact linked together through the hippocampus.

In present day, my brother’s depression and anxiety are treated through medication which reduces the structural shrinkage processes in the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex. In past studies it was thought that damage to the hippocampus could not be repaired. But in 2017 an article published by Science Daily titled “New Functions of Hippocampus Unveiled” has claimed evidence showing proper medication and exercise can significantly improve memory skills and stop further shrinking of the hippocampus.

So in closing, we can determine there is a lot to consider about how a concussion can affect our daily lives. We have learned that there are treatments available for people struggling with it’s complications although most damage to the brain is still considered to be unrepairable. however, the future is looking positive for victims as scientists discover more about the brain and how to treat the many symptoms of concussions.

Goldstein, E. B. (2011). Cognitive psychology: Connecting mind, research and everyday experience (4th ed.). Wadsworth, Inc.

Science Daily (2017). New Functions of Hippocampus unveiled.

The Guardian, Melissa Davey (2015). Chronic depression shrinks brains memory and emotions

Perception is how we identify and comprehend people places and things in the world around us. When it comes to perception in psychology there are two main concepts that need to be acknowledged those of bottom-up processing and top-down processing. The combination of these two concepts is how we view or perceive the world that we live in.

Bottom-up processing is sensory driven and involves the ways in which our eyes, ears, nose, skin, and tongue take cues from the environment and convert them into thoughts and responses in our brain. For example, if a person hears a loud noise a signal, known as an action potential, is sent from the ears to the brain to alert the person that there is a loud noise. The conversion of environmental senses to brain activity is referred to as transduction. What we do with that information is top-down processing.

Top-down processing involves an examination of our surroundings and based on previous knowledge, as well as experience, determine what that means to us as individual. We have developed conclusions about the aspects and characteristics of components and attributes associated with the world around us and use these conclusions to determine how we perceive things. For example, if we run across an individual who is crying outside of a hospital, we presume that that individual is hurt or in distress, that would be a big picture analysis based on prior experience and knowledge. Top-down processing allows us to make a quick assessment of the environment based on what has happened in the past.

To examine the combination of these two processes I would like to pose the example of a blind date from my male perspective. As I approach my date from a distance, my top-down processing begins, and my first impressions begin to take shape. I notice that she is dressed well, nothing too flashy or over the top, with a nice touch of fashionable accessories to compliment her clean cut out fit. My top-down processing tells me that she is confident, responsible, and organized. As I continue to approach her my bottom-up processing surges as she acknowledges my presence with an outreaching hand and smile inquisitive yet inviting smile. More bottom-up processing occurs and action potentials fire as we make eye contact and I notice that the subtle aroma of her perfume. As our conversation continues so continues the processing. Her voice (bottom-up processing) is assertive but not loud, confidant but not aggressive (top-down processing). The combination of the two processes has led me to the perception that this is the kind of person I like and that this is going to be a good date.

We use perception to guide our lives every day and perception differs between individuals based on the combination of bottom-up and top-down processing. Some people view a glass of water as being half full and others as half empty. My blind date is but one example of an encounter involving perception. Was she a nice girl? In my perception the answer is yes. We are continually bombarded with bottom-up stimuli. We take sensory cues from the environment (bottom-up processing) and based on our top-down processing have learned to convert them into perceptions based on our knowledge and experiences. The Bottom-up processing is the sensory input, and the top-down processing is how we interpret the input. The interplay between the two processes forms our perception.

References

Goldstein, E. B. (2011). Cognitive psychology: Connecting mind, research and everyday experience (4th ed.). Wadsworth, Inc.

Getting into the mundane routine of life is normal, it can and will happen to anyone at some point in time. For years, I had the same nightly routine as I headed home from work. Once I’d get home, I’d park my car underneath a big oak tree on the side of the house that was near our large lawn covered in more oak trees and get the mail before going inside. I knew as I pulled up to the house, my spot would be open as none of my roommates liked parking there, and I knew there was always mail waiting for me in the mailbox.

One night, just like the other nights, I pulled into my parking spot under the large oak tree and started walking towards the mailbox. There were shadows of trees in my vision, but my main focus was getting to the mail and getting inside as soon as I could. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, in fact, it was just like any other night. Although, as I got closer to the mailbox, I heard a leaf crunch and my attention was automatically taken to my surroundings. My surroundings, which before were just a mix of shadows were now possible prowlers. When I looked to my left, I saw a deer standing so still it looked like a piece of taxidermy. I matched its body language, shocked that as I walked through the lawn I completely overlooked a large animal standing just a few feet away.

It was as if I had tunnel vision, I did the same thing every night and never noticed the things right next to me. I questioned how many possible deer’s I had walked past unknowingly before. The only reason I noticed the deer was because it got scared of my coming closer. I turned my attention when the stimuli around me changed. My past experiences of the seemingly unchanging nightly routine had clouded my perception of changes around me. The Bayesian inference may be partly to blame for my expected results of how my nightly routine would go. The Bayesian inference is defined as, “the idea that our estimate of the probability of an outcome is determined by the prior probability (our initial belief) and the likelihood (the extent to which the available evidence is consistent with the outcome). (Goldstein, 2015).

While my prior experience may have impacted how the expectation of my routine would go, the distorted view of the night, shadows, and perception similarities is what made me not see the deer standing close by. I was not actively seeking a deer and I was focused fully on my way to the mailbox making my surroundings blur into nondescript shapes. My situation with the deer is a great example of how our perception changes due to our stimulus, distance, and environment. My vision blurred around the mailbox making the deer look just like another oak tree, blending into the background. We can’t always be on high alert, taking in every inch of our surroundings, but it makes me try to be more vigilant knowing that I missed a large animal standing a few feet away.

Work Cited

Goldstein, B. E. (2015). Cognitive Psychology (4th ed.). Cengage Learning.

In lesson 3 we learned about perception and Gestalt’s Laws of Perception. Some examples were provided to us which helped illustrate the way our brain aims to group similar things together. It is interesting how certain animals use their knowledge of perception to stay safe and practice deception on predators. Certain aquatic wildlife can change colors to blend in with the sand and ocean to remain unseen. In a secondary example, some bugs and birds use their natural colors to blend in with the leaves and trees surrounding them. Even humans wear camouflage while hunting, so we too can blend in with nature and get close to the animals.

The examples above are all ways that different animals use their knowledge of perception to achieve safety or be successful predators.  Gestalt helps us break down the structure of perception as best he can with his grouping laws. The book tells us that while these are very well thought out and provide great insight, these are not a set-in-stone way of understanding perception. Our textbook gave us several examples of the Grouping Laws. My favorite was the Common Fate example that used Michael Bach’s Bird Illusion to show how we group things according to movement.

A real-life example from my personal life is the coyotes in my neighborhood. Unfortunately, they hunt our cats and small dogs and rely on Gestalt’s perception principle of common fate to not be seen while they try and sneak up on their prey. Since we tend to group things together and separate things according to movement, they remain very still for various periods of time to avoid triggering their prey’s brain which would alert them of the movement in their peripherals.

While they generally show themselves more at nighttime, it is amazing how they can hide during the day, just by remaining still and waiting for the proper moment to move. Many times, while walking the trails in my neighborhood, I have noticed a coyote standing very still and gazing at me and my dog, Mufassa. They are curious about us and use their skills to help them observe the neighborhood while remaining unseen by most people. They are masters of using perception to their advantage!

-Clayton Munoz

Double dissociation is a phenomenon that occurs when damage is done to the brain that results in one functions absence while another function remains present. Double dissociation has been demonstrated through examples of facial or object recognition. For example, an individual may be able to recognize objects but not the face of a loved one. This comes as a result of damage to specific regions of the brain (Goldstein 2015, p. 40). Double dissociation is typically discovered through the use of neuroimaging or the use of neuropsychology testing (Double Dissociation).

This kind of neuropsychological research came from studying patients who had suffered from strokes that resulted in brain damage. Paul Broca’s breakthrough study theorized that the left frontal lobe is the area of the brain controlling speech. His proposal came after working with a patient who suffered a stroke that damaged that area of the brain, and was subsequently unable to say the word “tan.” Carl Wernicke later worked with patients who sustained damage to the temporal lobe and discovered that while their speech had fluency and grammatical correctness, it lacked coherence. Based off these two findings, they concluded that one area of the brain was responsible for producing speech and the other was for comprehending (Goldstein 2015, p. 39). Further studies were conducted to find similar connections between visual stimuli as well.

Prosopagnosia is an inability to recognize faces that results from brain damage to the  temporal lobe in the lower right side of the brain. In this instance, individuals can see and recognize a face but they cannot associate that face with the person it may belong to. This also is applied to their own perception of themselves. They can see their face in a reflection,  but lack the ability to recognize themselves. They appear to be a stranger looking back at them (Goldstein 2015 p. 40.)

I saw this demonstrated firsthand while volunteering at a nursing home. The majority of the residents there were dementia patients. There were many residents I worked with who lacked the ability to recognize the faces of their family members who would visit. Some would recognize the feeling of love they were meant to have directed towards a loved one, but if shown an image of that person they would be unable to identify them. Other residents would struggle to speak coherently. They would be able to understand what was said to them, but lack the ability to form a sentence to respond.

I experienced the frustration that this kind of brain damage can have on an individual. There was a strong sense of isolation with this community as they could not recognize loved ones or be able to formulate a sentence when they still had an understanding of language itself.

References:

Goldstein, E. B. (2015).  Cognitive psychology: Connecting mind, research, and everyday experience (4th ; student ed.).  Cengage Learning.

“Double Dissociation.” Psychology Wiki, psychology.wikia.org/wiki/Double_dissociation.

Dranchak_Chelsy_Blog_Post1

Blog post1

The Ponzo Illusion and Perception 

Have you ever wondered how optical illusions work? Well, how we perceive things is the main explanation. Perception can be defined as the recognition, organization, and interpretation of information from our sensory experiences. And it has been the focus since the start of class. Illusions help to show that we do not always perceive things the real way they are. In this blog, I will discuss the Ponzo Illusion, how it works, and how it relates to perception.  

The Ponzo Illusion is a famous optical illusion that was discovered by Mario Ponzo, an Italian psychologist. Ponzo first demonstrated the Ponzo Illusion in 1913. This Illusion is a prime example of showing why and how the experience of the illusion still exists even though we know we are experiencing an illusion (Donaldson & Macpherson, 2017). The effect of this illusion is that the top yellow line appears longer than the bottom yellow line, but they are the same size. I provided a picture at the end of the text for reference.  

There are many different explanations to how the Ponzo Illusion works. One reason is because of linear perspective. The upper line looks longer because we perceive the lines as parallel lines receding into the distance rather than converging lines. So, we interpret the upper line as it was farther away, so we see it as longer (2019). The framing effect also explains this illusion. The framing effect is when objects that fill an enclosing border appear larger than the same object that is surrounded by a larger frame.  

The Ponzo Illusion relates to perception in many ways, but I want to discuss one thing specifically, the Gestalt Laws of Perception. There are six Laws of Perception: Proximity, Similarity, Good Continuation, Connectedness, Common Fate, and Pragnanz. The Ponzo Illusion would fall under the Pragnanz Law. The Pragnanz Law states that we tend to see the pattern in the simplest way. It is easier to assume that the top line is longer than the bottom line because that is how it appears.  

So, as you can see, optical illusions only exist due to our perception. Perception is our interpretation of information from our sensory experiences. If what we perceive was exactly how it was, then optical illusion would now exist. So, if you have ever wondered how optical illusions work, this is how! 

http://hernanigil.blogspot.co.uk/

Work Cited 

Donaldson, J. and Macpherson, F. (July 2017), “Ponzo Illusion” in F. Macpherson (ed.), The Illusions Index. Retrieved from https://www.illusionsindex.org/i/ponzo-illusion. 

Ponzo illusion. (2019, March 31). New World Encyclopedia, . Retrieved 21:38, September 12, 2021 from https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/p/index.php?title=Ponzo_illusion&oldid=1019365.