COG SCI C100 MIDTERM EXAM QUESTIONS WITH
ANSWERS GRADED A+ 2025/2026
recognition by components model - View that an object is represented as an
arrangement of simple 3-D shapes called geons.
-Cup/pail composed of cylinder and curved tube geons in a particular arrangement
Prototype Model - Object perception involves a comparison of the stimulus with an
ideal, abstract example
- people are faster at identifying a sparrow as a bird than penguin
- one of the most famous models in all of cognitive psychology
-it has been hypothesized that our sensory systems act primarily as a selective filtering
mechanism
- But prototype theory suggests that our minds can also perceive objects in a very
different way...
-that which is essential is invisible to the eye
Selective Filtering Mechanism (Baseline of the Prototype Model) - - This filter sorts
things according to a limited number of variables (e.g warm, unpleasant, green) out of
which we construct our world
Mindfulness - An alternative mode of perception.
Mindfulness is largely about seeing the "suchness" of things, that is , seeing things
directly without conceptual filters
- Our preconceived notions prevent us from seeing the real things in front of us.
Human Neurons - • Many different neurons connect to the dendrites of each neuron
-Some produce excitatory effect; others produce inhibitory effect
- There are also different levels of intensity of the effects
• If the activation of the neuron reaches a certain minimum threshold, the neuron will
fire.
Artificial neural networks - • The nodes or neurons are organized into layers in much the
same way that human neural networks are
,• The weights attached to the connections between pairs of units in adjacent layers
determine the overall behavior of the network
− This is similar to the way in which excitatory and inhibitory neurons of various
strengths connect to a particular neuron in human neural networks
• The bias term indicates what the weighted sum needs to be before the node/neuron
will activate
− This is similar to the threshold necessary for activation of a neuron in human neural
networks
Two Pathways of Visual Perception - Active Pathway:
Activated when attention is directed actively towards a target
(I.e looking at every individual component in the circle example.)
Passive Pathway:
Activated when attention is based on "gut instinct"
eg. example with circles where participants used the secondary "passive" pathway to
perform task.
-Visual perception did not go through visual cortex
-Instead simply makes a very short loop through the limbic system: the emotional,
instinctual center of the brain.
Evidence of two pathways - Rats auditory cortex was destroyed and then they were
exposed to a tone followed by an electric shock.
rats learned to fear tone, though they could not "hear it"
possible explanation:
the sound took the direct rout from ear to thalamus to amygdala, bypassing higher
avenues.
Blindsight and the Second Pathway - the second pathway has been used to account for
this phenomenon where people who are blind due to damage in their visual cortex can
"guess" significantly above chance
- The Identity or location of particular objects
, - The particular emotions expressed by a face in a photo in front of them
-> proposed mechanism for intuition
face recognition - Face Recognition is "special"
- Single cell recordings of monkeys show activation of particular cells in lower temporal
lobe only when full-face photos of other monkeys are presented
Recognition accuracy for faces and houses: parts vs. whole - •Participants were shown
series of faces with person's name and series of houses with owner's name
•Later on recognition test, they showed greater recall of
- Parts of Houses
-Whole Faces
People tend to perceive women more in parts
Prosopagnosia - failure to recognize particular people by the sight of their faces
-After stroke, a sheep rancher could not recognize people but could recognize sheep
Importance of Eyes - 70-90% of famous portrait painting sampled from the last 5
centuries have an eye at or within 5% of the painting's exact centerline
Limitations of object perception - What we perceive, the way we perceive, is not always
what would be predicted by these models
Our Concepts, expectations, and beliefs also play a much bigger role in perception than
we usually realize
Perception engages in both these type of processing - top-down and bottom-up
processing
Bottom-Up processing - analysis of information coming from stimuli through sensory
receptors
- Object perception as combination of stimulus information from sensory receptors
- Emphasizes the importance of information coming from the outside world
top-down processing - information processing guided by higher-level processes, such
as our beliefs, expectations, and memories
- Our knowledge, beliefs about the world inform our perceptions
ANSWERS GRADED A+ 2025/2026
recognition by components model - View that an object is represented as an
arrangement of simple 3-D shapes called geons.
-Cup/pail composed of cylinder and curved tube geons in a particular arrangement
Prototype Model - Object perception involves a comparison of the stimulus with an
ideal, abstract example
- people are faster at identifying a sparrow as a bird than penguin
- one of the most famous models in all of cognitive psychology
-it has been hypothesized that our sensory systems act primarily as a selective filtering
mechanism
- But prototype theory suggests that our minds can also perceive objects in a very
different way...
-that which is essential is invisible to the eye
Selective Filtering Mechanism (Baseline of the Prototype Model) - - This filter sorts
things according to a limited number of variables (e.g warm, unpleasant, green) out of
which we construct our world
Mindfulness - An alternative mode of perception.
Mindfulness is largely about seeing the "suchness" of things, that is , seeing things
directly without conceptual filters
- Our preconceived notions prevent us from seeing the real things in front of us.
Human Neurons - • Many different neurons connect to the dendrites of each neuron
-Some produce excitatory effect; others produce inhibitory effect
- There are also different levels of intensity of the effects
• If the activation of the neuron reaches a certain minimum threshold, the neuron will
fire.
Artificial neural networks - • The nodes or neurons are organized into layers in much the
same way that human neural networks are
,• The weights attached to the connections between pairs of units in adjacent layers
determine the overall behavior of the network
− This is similar to the way in which excitatory and inhibitory neurons of various
strengths connect to a particular neuron in human neural networks
• The bias term indicates what the weighted sum needs to be before the node/neuron
will activate
− This is similar to the threshold necessary for activation of a neuron in human neural
networks
Two Pathways of Visual Perception - Active Pathway:
Activated when attention is directed actively towards a target
(I.e looking at every individual component in the circle example.)
Passive Pathway:
Activated when attention is based on "gut instinct"
eg. example with circles where participants used the secondary "passive" pathway to
perform task.
-Visual perception did not go through visual cortex
-Instead simply makes a very short loop through the limbic system: the emotional,
instinctual center of the brain.
Evidence of two pathways - Rats auditory cortex was destroyed and then they were
exposed to a tone followed by an electric shock.
rats learned to fear tone, though they could not "hear it"
possible explanation:
the sound took the direct rout from ear to thalamus to amygdala, bypassing higher
avenues.
Blindsight and the Second Pathway - the second pathway has been used to account for
this phenomenon where people who are blind due to damage in their visual cortex can
"guess" significantly above chance
- The Identity or location of particular objects
, - The particular emotions expressed by a face in a photo in front of them
-> proposed mechanism for intuition
face recognition - Face Recognition is "special"
- Single cell recordings of monkeys show activation of particular cells in lower temporal
lobe only when full-face photos of other monkeys are presented
Recognition accuracy for faces and houses: parts vs. whole - •Participants were shown
series of faces with person's name and series of houses with owner's name
•Later on recognition test, they showed greater recall of
- Parts of Houses
-Whole Faces
People tend to perceive women more in parts
Prosopagnosia - failure to recognize particular people by the sight of their faces
-After stroke, a sheep rancher could not recognize people but could recognize sheep
Importance of Eyes - 70-90% of famous portrait painting sampled from the last 5
centuries have an eye at or within 5% of the painting's exact centerline
Limitations of object perception - What we perceive, the way we perceive, is not always
what would be predicted by these models
Our Concepts, expectations, and beliefs also play a much bigger role in perception than
we usually realize
Perception engages in both these type of processing - top-down and bottom-up
processing
Bottom-Up processing - analysis of information coming from stimuli through sensory
receptors
- Object perception as combination of stimulus information from sensory receptors
- Emphasizes the importance of information coming from the outside world
top-down processing - information processing guided by higher-level processes, such
as our beliefs, expectations, and memories
- Our knowledge, beliefs about the world inform our perceptions
