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

Factors Affecting Perception01:25

Factors Affecting Perception

3.0K
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...
3.0K
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
Color Vision01:24

Color Vision

1.8K
Color perception begins in the retina, the light-sensitive layer at the back of the eye. Two main theories explain how colors are seen: the trichromatic theory and the opponent-process theory. The trichromatic theory, proposed by Thomas Young in 1802 and extended by Hermann von Helmholtz in 1852, suggests that color vision is based on three types of cone receptors in the retina. These cones are sensitive to different but overlapping ranges of wavelengths corresponding to red, blue, and green.
1.8K
Visual System01:26

Visual System

2.2K
Light enters the eye through the cornea, a transparent, dome-shaped surface covering the surface of the eyeball that helps to direct and focus incoming light. This light is then channeled toward the pupil, an adjustable opening whose size is controlled by the iris. The iris, a pigmented muscle, regulates the amount of light entering the eye by contracting or dilating the pupil, thereby ensuring optimal light levels for clear vision.
Once through the pupil, the light passes through the lens, a...
2.2K
Perceptual Constancy01:12

Perceptual Constancy

1.6K
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...
1.6K
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

Large language models have learned to use language.

The Behavioral and brain sciences·2026
Same author

How Important Is Language for Human-Like Intelligence?

Perspectives on psychological science : a journal of the Association for Psychological Science·2026
Same author

The unity of sense and mind: A review of cross-domain mapping.

Psychonomic bulletin & review·2026
Same author

The 'design features' of language revisited.

Trends in cognitive sciences·2025
Same author

Multilab Direct Replication of Flavell, Beach, and Chinsky (1966): Spontaneous Verbal Rehearsal in a Memory Task as a Function of Age.

Advances in methods and practices in psychological science·2025
Same author

Differences in psychologists' cognitive traits are associated with scientific divides.

Nature human behaviour·2025

Related Experiment Video

Updated: Mar 5, 2026

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

Objective effects of knowledge on visual perception.

Gary Lupyan1

  • 1University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Journal of Experimental Psychology. Human Perception and Performance
|March 28, 2017
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Your knowledge influences perception. Meaningful words appear sharper and are easier to detect changes in blur compared to meaningless strings, demonstrating that cognitive states directly impact visual processing.

More Related Videos

Methods to Explore the Influence of Top-down Visual Processes on Motor Behavior
09:49

Methods to Explore the Influence of Top-down Visual Processes on Motor Behavior

Published on: April 16, 2014

27.0K
Visualizing Visual Adaptation
04:43

Visualizing Visual Adaptation

Published on: April 24, 2017

9.7K

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Mar 5, 2026

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
Methods to Explore the Influence of Top-down Visual Processes on Motor Behavior
09:49

Methods to Explore the Influence of Top-down Visual Processes on Motor Behavior

Published on: April 16, 2014

27.0K
Visualizing Visual Adaptation
04:43

Visualizing Visual Adaptation

Published on: April 24, 2017

9.7K

Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Psychology
  • Visual Perception
  • Psychology

Background:

  • A significant body of research suggests cognitive states influence perception.
  • Counterarguments propose these effects are confounded by nonperceptual factors.
  • Skepticism exists regarding whether knowledge directly enhances visual recognition.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the extent to which knowledge influences perception.
  • To provide empirical evidence against the claim that perception is encapsulated from knowledge.
  • To determine if semantic factors, beyond visual familiarity, predict performance improvements.

Main Methods:

  • A perceptual matching task was employed.
  • Participants detected subtle changes in blur in meaningful words versus meaningless letter strings.
  • Experiment 5 isolated the role of semantic factors like word imageability.

Main Results:

  • Meaningful words were perceived as sharper than meaningless letter strings.
  • Participants were more accurate in detecting blur changes in meaningful words.
  • Performance improvements were predicted by semantic factors, not solely visual familiarity.

Conclusions:

  • Knowledge directly influences visual perception.
  • Perception is not encapsulated from cognitive states like knowledge.
  • Semantic properties of stimuli play a crucial role in visual processing and recognition.