Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Concept Videos

Evolutionary Psychology01:20

Evolutionary Psychology

1.1K
Evolutionary psychology explores the origins of human behavior and mental processes by framing them within the context of natural selection, a theory famously propounded by Charles Darwin. This field asserts that many behaviors common across human societies — ranging from instinctive fear reactions to complex social interactions — arose as evolutionary adaptations. These adaptations enhanced the survival and reproductive success of our ancestors, thereby becoming embedded in the...
1.1K
Criticisms of the Evolutionary Perspective01:23

Criticisms of the Evolutionary Perspective

412
In a study where individuals posing as strangers offered compliments and proposed casual sex to students, the responses differed significantly based on gender. Not a single woman accepted the proposal, while 70% of the men agreed. This outcome provides a useful scenario to explore through the lens of evolutionary psychology and social learning theory, highlighting the diverse perspectives on human sexual behaviors.
Evolutionary psychology provides one explanation for these findings, suggesting...
412
Vision01:24

Vision

60.9K
Vision is the result of light being detected and transduced into neural signals by the retina of the eye. This information is then further analyzed and interpreted by the brain. First, light enters the front of the eye and is focused by the cornea and lens onto the retina—a thin sheet of neural tissue lining the back of the eye. Because of refraction through the convex lens of the eye, images are projected onto the retina upside-down and reversed.
60.9K
Limits to Natural Selection01:38

Limits to Natural Selection

35.7K
Organisms that are well-adapted to their environment are more likely to survive and reproduce. However, natural selection does not lead to perfectly adapted organisms. Several factors constrain natural selection.
35.7K
Perceptual Constancy01:12

Perceptual Constancy

1.7K
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...
1.7K
Gestalt Principles of Perception01:21

Gestalt Principles of Perception

1.6K
Gestalt principles provide a framework for understanding how humans perceive objects as unified wholes within their context. These principles are essential in explaining the cognitive processes that make sense of complex visual stimuli by organizing them into coherent groups. One fundamental principle is proximity, which posits that objects located close to each other are perceived as a collective group. For instance, when dots are positioned near one another, the visual system interprets them...
1.6K

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by
Same author

A <i>number simplex</i> in the human medial temporal lobe.

bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology·2026
Same author

Stresses and fluid flow in lamina cribrosa through anisotropic poroelasticity.

ArXiv·2026
Same author

Causal dependencies between frontal and temporal lobe regions underlying word search and retrieval.

bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology·2026
Same author

Normative Gray Matter Stiffness Gradients in the Human Brain Predict Patterns of Cortical Injury after Concussion.

Journal of neurotrauma·2026
Same author

Number words recruit numerosity-related cortex in 3- to 5-year-old children.

Developmental cognitive neuroscience·2026
Same author

Graded extent of hippocampal resection is related to neuropsychological outcomes in temporal lobe epilepsy surgery.

Epilepsia·2026

Related Experiment Video

Updated: Mar 9, 2026

Creating Objects and Object Categories for Studying Perception and Perceptual Learning
14:38

Creating Objects and Object Categories for Studying Perception and Perceptual Learning

Published on: November 2, 2012

12.3K

Evolutionary Constraints on Human Object Perception.

Sarah E Koopman1, Bradford Z Mahon1,2,3,4, Jessica F Cantlon1

  • 1Department of Brain & Cognitive Sciences, University of Rochester.

Cognitive Science
|December 30, 2016
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Monkeys can perceive object similarity similarly to humans, even without language or cultural experience. This suggests a shared, evolutionarily conserved basis for abstract conceptual representation in primates.

Keywords:
EvolutionHomologyNon-human primateObject representationRepresentational structure

More Related Videos

Methods for Presenting Real-world Objects Under Controlled Laboratory Conditions
06:54

Methods for Presenting Real-world Objects Under Controlled Laboratory Conditions

Published on: June 21, 2019

6.4K
Perceptual and Category Processing of the Uncanny Valley Hypothesis' Dimension of Human Likeness: Some Methodological Issues
07:34

Perceptual and Category Processing of the Uncanny Valley Hypothesis' Dimension of Human Likeness: Some Methodological Issues

Published on: June 3, 2013

18.0K

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Mar 9, 2026

Creating Objects and Object Categories for Studying Perception and Perceptual Learning
14:38

Creating Objects and Object Categories for Studying Perception and Perceptual Learning

Published on: November 2, 2012

12.3K
Methods for Presenting Real-world Objects Under Controlled Laboratory Conditions
06:54

Methods for Presenting Real-world Objects Under Controlled Laboratory Conditions

Published on: June 21, 2019

6.4K
Perceptual and Category Processing of the Uncanny Valley Hypothesis' Dimension of Human Likeness: Some Methodological Issues
07:34

Perceptual and Category Processing of the Uncanny Valley Hypothesis' Dimension of Human Likeness: Some Methodological Issues

Published on: June 3, 2013

18.0K

Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Science
  • Comparative Psychology
  • Neuroscience

Background:

  • Humans utilize language and culture for extensive conceptual understanding.
  • Non-human animals may possess innate abilities to infer object similarities, independent of experience.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate if monkeys represent object similarity in a manner comparable to humans.
  • To determine if abstract conceptual representations are shared across primate species.

Main Methods:

  • Assessed monkeys' discrimination sensitivity in identifying animal images.
  • Utilized computational neuroscience and computer vision metrics to analyze semantic similarity.
  • Compared monkey performance with human conceptual judgments and low-level visual similarity.

Main Results:

  • Monkeys' discrimination performance correlated with human-derived semantic similarity measures.
  • Low-level visual features alone could not explain the observed performance in monkeys or humans.
  • Evidence suggests shared abstract object representations between humans and monkeys.

Conclusions:

  • Monkeys and humans share a primitive, evolutionarily constrained representation of object similarity.
  • This shared representation is independent of formal knowledge and cultural experience.
  • Findings support a common evolutionary basis for abstract conceptual abilities in primates.