PSYC-3220 EXAM 1 QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
Sensation and perception is... - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅the means by which we gain knowledge about
what's in the world around us (how info gets from the world into the head).
The Fundamental Purpose of Perception is... - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅Prospective Control
Prospective: - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅relating to or effecting the future
Aristotle (350 BC): Perception involves 3 things: - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅Animal, Medium, Object
Medium: - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅conveys and holds info
Medium for ancient philosophers: - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅spiritual energy
The Fundamental Problem of Perception: - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅How does info cross the gap between
the object and the animal? The answer must not postulate Action at a Distance.
The answer to The Fundamental Problem of Perception that Greek thinkers proposed is... - CORRECT
ANSWER✅✅that we get copies of things in our heads.
-Assumption: in order to perceive something, you must get a copy of it in your head.
-Copies mediate our contact with the world
-Building these copies of things is an active mental process, it doesn't just happen
Principle of Representation: - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅In order to perceive something, you must get a
COPY of it into your head. Copies mediate our contact with the world.
How does a copy get into the head? - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅Intromission or Emanation
Intromission: - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅one copy (of an infinite number of copies) are captured by our
eyes and another person might see a different copy of the same object
,Emanation: - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅(weak) spiritual energy hits object and comes back with copy of the
object
Medieval Optics: - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅-Alkindi (850 AD): Pointillistic theory of emanation
-Alhazan (1000): First to treat the eyes as an optical instrument
Alkindi (850 AD): Pointillistic theory of emanation: - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅-The emanations are built up
of separate elements ('pencils' or 'rays')
-The picture we receive is of small points retrieved by the 'pencils' or 'rays' from our eyes
-The perceiver receives a mosaic of points to create an image
Alhazan (1000): First to treat the eyes as an optical instrument: - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅Copies are
images, carried in the form of structured light
First to nail down an intromission theory that follows Alkindi's Pointillism
Example of Emanation: - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅bats using echo location
From Alkindi and Alhazan we get... - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅the essential elements of most modern
theories of visual perception:
-Principle of Representation: perception involves copies in the head
-Structured Light: comprises the copies
-Pointillism: 'pencils' or 'rays' of light create a retinal mosaic-like image
-Mental Entity: required to reconstruct the representation
Da Vinci (1500): - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅Advanced Alhazan's theory by recognizing the retina as the
sensitive part of the eye.
-Modeled the eye as a camera obscura
, Kelper (1600): - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅provided an understanding of how a lens would work to focus
the light.
Da Vinci and Kelper noted... - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅The Destructive Mapping
Destructive Mapping: - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅The proximal stimulus is an impoverished version of the
distal stimulus.
Proximal stimulus: - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅(copy of image in eye)
Distal Stimulus: - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅the actual object that is "out there" in the environment
The same distal stimulus can produce... - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅a different proximal stimulus based on
distance, orientation, etc.
Different distal stimuli can... - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅produce the same proximal stimulus
Molyneux's Premise (1692): - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅"Distance is a line presented to the eye with its end
towards us, which must therefore be a point, thus distance is invisible."
The ____ dimension is 'lost' on the 2D retina. - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅3rd
The Problem of Perception: - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅the proximal stimulus is an inverted, distorted, 2D,
ambiguous, changing, copy of the distal stimulus. How can the proximal stimulus support perception?
What was brought out of the Medieval Optics: - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅-Destructive Mapping: The
proximal stimulus is an impoverished version of the distal stimulus (thus sensation is an inadequate
support for perception).
-Enrichment: Something must be added to sensation in order to form perception (A mental entity
(mind/brain) adds order to the effects of the senses, forms a representation (copy)).
-"Distance is perceived the way an astronomer calculates distances of planets in empty space." -Kelper
Sensation and perception is... - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅the means by which we gain knowledge about
what's in the world around us (how info gets from the world into the head).
The Fundamental Purpose of Perception is... - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅Prospective Control
Prospective: - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅relating to or effecting the future
Aristotle (350 BC): Perception involves 3 things: - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅Animal, Medium, Object
Medium: - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅conveys and holds info
Medium for ancient philosophers: - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅spiritual energy
The Fundamental Problem of Perception: - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅How does info cross the gap between
the object and the animal? The answer must not postulate Action at a Distance.
The answer to The Fundamental Problem of Perception that Greek thinkers proposed is... - CORRECT
ANSWER✅✅that we get copies of things in our heads.
-Assumption: in order to perceive something, you must get a copy of it in your head.
-Copies mediate our contact with the world
-Building these copies of things is an active mental process, it doesn't just happen
Principle of Representation: - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅In order to perceive something, you must get a
COPY of it into your head. Copies mediate our contact with the world.
How does a copy get into the head? - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅Intromission or Emanation
Intromission: - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅one copy (of an infinite number of copies) are captured by our
eyes and another person might see a different copy of the same object
,Emanation: - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅(weak) spiritual energy hits object and comes back with copy of the
object
Medieval Optics: - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅-Alkindi (850 AD): Pointillistic theory of emanation
-Alhazan (1000): First to treat the eyes as an optical instrument
Alkindi (850 AD): Pointillistic theory of emanation: - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅-The emanations are built up
of separate elements ('pencils' or 'rays')
-The picture we receive is of small points retrieved by the 'pencils' or 'rays' from our eyes
-The perceiver receives a mosaic of points to create an image
Alhazan (1000): First to treat the eyes as an optical instrument: - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅Copies are
images, carried in the form of structured light
First to nail down an intromission theory that follows Alkindi's Pointillism
Example of Emanation: - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅bats using echo location
From Alkindi and Alhazan we get... - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅the essential elements of most modern
theories of visual perception:
-Principle of Representation: perception involves copies in the head
-Structured Light: comprises the copies
-Pointillism: 'pencils' or 'rays' of light create a retinal mosaic-like image
-Mental Entity: required to reconstruct the representation
Da Vinci (1500): - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅Advanced Alhazan's theory by recognizing the retina as the
sensitive part of the eye.
-Modeled the eye as a camera obscura
, Kelper (1600): - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅provided an understanding of how a lens would work to focus
the light.
Da Vinci and Kelper noted... - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅The Destructive Mapping
Destructive Mapping: - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅The proximal stimulus is an impoverished version of the
distal stimulus.
Proximal stimulus: - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅(copy of image in eye)
Distal Stimulus: - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅the actual object that is "out there" in the environment
The same distal stimulus can produce... - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅a different proximal stimulus based on
distance, orientation, etc.
Different distal stimuli can... - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅produce the same proximal stimulus
Molyneux's Premise (1692): - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅"Distance is a line presented to the eye with its end
towards us, which must therefore be a point, thus distance is invisible."
The ____ dimension is 'lost' on the 2D retina. - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅3rd
The Problem of Perception: - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅the proximal stimulus is an inverted, distorted, 2D,
ambiguous, changing, copy of the distal stimulus. How can the proximal stimulus support perception?
What was brought out of the Medieval Optics: - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅-Destructive Mapping: The
proximal stimulus is an impoverished version of the distal stimulus (thus sensation is an inadequate
support for perception).
-Enrichment: Something must be added to sensation in order to form perception (A mental entity
(mind/brain) adds order to the effects of the senses, forms a representation (copy)).
-"Distance is perceived the way an astronomer calculates distances of planets in empty space." -Kelper
