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Related Concept Videos

Perception01:28

Perception

Perception is a fundamental psychological process that enables individuals to organize, interpret, and consciously experience sensory information. This process is crucial for understanding and interacting with the world around us. It includes both bottom-up and top-down processing, each playing a distinct role in how we perceive our environment.
Bottom-up processing begins at the sensory level, where receptors detect external environmental stimuli. These could include the tactile sensation of...
Cognitive Learning01:21

Cognitive Learning

Cognitive learning is based on purposive behavior, incidental learning, and insight learning.
E. C. Tolman's theory of purposive behavior emphasizes that much behavior is goal-directed. He argued that to understand behavior, we must look at the entire sequence of actions leading to a goal. For instance, high school students study hard, not just due to past reinforcement but also to achieve the goal of getting into a good college.
Tolman introduced the idea that behavior is influenced by...
Purposive Learning01:22

Purposive Learning

E. C. Tolman emphasized the purposiveness of behavior — the idea that much of our behavior is goal-directed. For instance, employees who aim for a promotion work diligently to meet their targets. Tolman argued that when classical conditioning and operant conditioning occur, the organism acquires certain expectations. In classical conditioning, a child might fear a dog because they expect it to bite. In operant conditioning, a person might consistently work overtime because they expect a bonus...
Factors Affecting Perception01:25

Factors Affecting Perception

Perception is influenced by perceptual set, context, motivation, and emotion. Perceptual set, or perceptual expectancy, refers to the tendency to perceive things in a particular way, influenced by previous experiences and expectations. This phenomenon affects the interpretation of stimuli, creating a set of mental tendencies and assumptions that impact sensory perceptions of sound, taste, touch, and sight.
An illustrative example of a perceptual set is the scenario where an airline pilot told...
Subliminal Perception01:15

Subliminal Perception

Subliminal perception refers to the processing of sensory information that occurs below the level of conscious awareness. Researchers study subliminal perception by presenting a stimulus, such as a word or image, very quickly, typically around 50 milliseconds. This rapid presentation is often followed by another stimulus, such as a pattern of dots or lines, which blocks further mental processing of the initial stimulus. As a result, if participants cannot identify the initial stimulus better...
Perceptual Constancy01:12

Perceptual Constancy

Perceptual constancy is the ability to recognize that objects remain consistent and unchanged even when their appearance varies due to changes in sensory input. There are four main types of perceptual constancy: size constancy, shape constancy, color constancy, and brightness constancy.
Size constancy is the recognition that an object remains the same size, even when its image on the retina changes. For instance, a bus is perceived to be large enough to carry people, even if it looks tiny from...

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Related Experiment Video

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Measurement of Neurophysiological Signals of Ignoring and Attending Processes in Attention Control
09:37

Measurement of Neurophysiological Signals of Ignoring and Attending Processes in Attention Control

Published on: July 5, 2015

Exploring the relationship between perceptual learning and top-down attentional control.

Anna Byers1, John T Serences

  • 1Department of Psychology, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093-0109, United States. abyers@ucsd.edu

Vision Research
|August 2, 2012
PubMed
Summary

Top-down attention influences perceptual learning acquisition and expression. While not always required for learning, attention critically shapes how learning impacts behavior and neural activity.

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Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Neuroscience
  • Perception and Learning

Background:

  • Perceptual learning involves changes in how we process sensory information.
  • Top-down attention, the voluntary focusing of cognitive resources, plays a complex role in this process.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To review the interplay between top-down attention and perceptual learning.
  • To examine how attention influences the acquisition and expression of learning.
  • To explore how learning optimizes attentional control.

Main Methods:

  • This study is a review of existing research.
  • It synthesizes findings from behavioral and neuroimaging studies.
  • Focuses on the theoretical integration of attention and learning mechanisms.

Main Results:

  • Attention often mediates initial learning but isn't always necessary for learning to occur.
  • Task demands can modulate whether attention overrides or facilitates perceptual learning.
  • Learning can enhance attentional efficiency through mechanisms like sensory gain modulation.

Conclusions:

  • Top-down attention is crucial for expressing learned perceptual changes, even if not for initial acquisition.
  • Perceptual learning can refine attentional control, leading to more efficient sensory processing.
  • The dynamic interaction between attention and learning shapes cognitive flexibility.