week 7: perception + attention

week 7: perception + attention

By Liza Kim

Multiple Select

How is the Hermann Grid an example of lateral inhibition? Select all that apply then submit your answer.

• It shows how on-center/off-surround receptive fields work.

• Gray spots appear at the intersections because light in the surround makes it look darker.

• Lateral inhibition increases sensitivity to dim light rather than contrast.

• Lateral inhibition enhances contrast by inhibiting neighboring neurons.

Multiple Choice

Why do the dark spots in the Hermann Grid illusion disappear when you look directly at them?

• Smaller receptive fields in the fovea reduce lateral inhibition.

• The brain ignores peripheral stimuli when focusing on a single point.

• Larger receptive fields in the fovea increase lateral inhibition at the intersections.

• The visual system adapts to the pattern over time, causing the dark spots to fade.

Multiple Choice

What is the key difference between simple and complex cells?

• Simple cells detect brightness, while complex cells detect corners.

• Simple cells detect edges regardless of location, while complex cells detect edges at specific locations.

• Simple cells detect edges at specific locations, while complex cells detect edges regardless of location.

• Simple cells detect patterns, while complex cells detect objects.

Multiple Choice

How does sustained attention depend on selective attention?

• Selective attention relies on sustained attention to filter stimuli.

• Sustained attention maintains focus on what selective attention has identified as important.

• Sustained attention and selective attention work independently.

• Selective attention always happens involuntarily, while sustained attention requires effort.

Multiple Choice

What hypothesis on selective attention would be supported if a dog shifts focus from a nearby squirrel to their owner's voice after hearing their name?

• Selective attention occurs at the earliest stages of sensory processing.

• Attention is driven mostly by environmental cues.

• The dog is relying on pre-attentive feature detection to isolate the sound of their name.

• Selective attention occurs in later stages of sensory processing.

Multiple Choice

What is the difference between integrated search and simple search?

• Integrated search happens automatically, while simple search uses focused attention to search item by item.

• Integrated search requires combining 2 or more features, while simple search requires detecting only 1 feature.

• Integrated search requires detecting only 1 feature, while simple search requires integrating 2 or more features.

• Both require combining 2 or more features, but simple search is faster.

Multiple Select

Which of the following are examples of integrated search? Select all that apply then submit your answer.

• Scanning through the lecture slides for information on a specific concept.

• Looking for a specific term in the textbook’s glossary.

• Finding text that is both bolded and underlined among other text that is either only bolded or underlined.

• Finding highlighted text in the textbook.

Multiple Choice

The image shows a spot of light covering more of the center than the surround portion of a contrast detector. How would the on-center/off-surround and off-center/on-surround cells respond?

• The on-center cell would increase firing, and the off-center cell would decrease firing.

• The on-center cell would decrease firing, and the off-center cell would increase firing.

• Both would increase firing.

• Both would show weak or no response.

Multiple Choice

As you move past a table, what would your hypercomplex cells detect?

• The color of the table.

• The corner of the table.

• The overall shape of the table.

• The texture of the table’s surface.

Multiple Choice

What was the main purpose of discussing the Hermann Grid, Waterfall Illusion, and Thatcher Effect in class?

• To demonstrate how the eyes detect color and brightness.

• To show that motion and contrast are processed independently.

• To explain why visual processing happens in the retina, not the brain.

• To show that the brain creates a model of the world that doesn’t always match reality.

Fill in the Blanks

In the visual system, smaller receptive fields are located in the

, allowing us to see more detail.