Perception

Prof. Jonathan Winawer

jonathan.winawer@nyu.edu

Syllabus, lecture slides, study questions

announcements, etc. available at NYUClasses
https://newclasses.nyu.edu

Course Assistants
Zuzanna Kyszejko
zuzanna.klyszejko@nyu.edu
Recitation sections*
2
3

T 3:30-4:45, 7E12 129

T 9:30-10:45, WAVE 435

Serra Favila
serra.favila@nyu.edu
Recitation sections*
3
4

W 3:30-4:45, BOBS LL138

M 3:30-4:45, 25W4 C13

* Note on recitation organization

A few personal comments

Classics
(BA, Columbia)

Myopia and eye

growth
(MS, CCNY)

Cognition &
Perception
(PhD, MIT)

Seeing and the brain

(Postdoc, Stanford;
Assistant professor,
NYU)

Course acknowledgements:
Brian Wandell (Stanford)
David Heeger (NYU)
Michael Landy (NYU)
Marisa Carrasco (NYU)
Larry Maloney (NYU)
Kalanit Grill-Spector

John Locke
and Perception
Let us suppose the mind to be, as we
say, a white paper void of all
characters, without any ideas: - How
comes it to be furnished? Whence
comes it by that vast store which the
busy and boundless fancy of man has
painted on it with an almost endless
variety?
Whence has it all the materials of
reason and knowledge?
To this I answer, in one word.
EXPERIENCE. In that all our knowledge
is founded; and from that it ultimately
derives itself (Locke, 1690).

John Locke
and Perception
The reason many of you have
heard of the tabula rasa
argument is because it underlies
that phrase that is so familiar to
Americans:
``we hold these truths to be selfevident, that all men people are
created equal.''

The main problem of

perception:

How does the physical

world reach our
consciousness?

Perception
Objectivist view
Our senses precisely, and accurately, reflect the physical world.
They provide us with a true, complete, and accurate representation.

J.J. Gibson (Cornell)

Direct Perception

Human Abilities
Detect a candle, 30 miles away, on a dark, clear
night
Detect the tick of a watch, in a silent room, at 20
feet - cochlear displacement equal to the width of
a hydrogen atom
Taste one teaspoon of sugar even when it is
mixed into two gallons of water
Smell a drop of perfume diffused into the space of
a three bedroom apartment.
Galanter, 1962

Perception
Objectivist view
Our senses precisely, and accurately, reflect the physical world.
They provide us with a true, complete, and accurate representation.

Subjectivist view (Gestalt)

See Ch 5 on Gestalt Psychology

There is no inherent organization to the world, but rather, our brain

organizes our perceptions, and we therefore believe the world is,
itself, organized.

Wertheimer

Kohler

Wallach

Ames

Rotating Mask Illusion

Link: http://www.richardgregory.org/experiments/

Richard Gregory

Apparent Motion

When you view one frame, and then the other, in alternation, you have
the perception of motion through the intervening space. (Why might
you interpret it this way?) The Gestalt psychologists took this as
evidence that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, since
each frame by itself is static.

Apparent Motion

When you view one frame, and then the other, in alternation, you have
the perception of motion through the intervening space. (Why might
you interpret it this way?) The Gestalt psychologists took this as
evidence that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, since
each frame by itself is static.

Ambiguous Apparent Motion

Ambiguous Apparent Motion

with Grouping

Grouping
Vase for the
Queen's Jubilee
Gift

Illusory surfaces: Kanisza triangle

Illusory volumes

Peter Tse

Illusory curves

Interpretation
The essence of Perception

Interpretation
The essence of Perception

Visual System Interprets

Images

Dakin and Bex, 2003, Proc. Roy Soc.

Local image features are ambiguous

Interpretatio
n depends
on context

Anderson & Winawer, Journal of Vision, 2008

Anderson & Winawer, Nature, 2005

Local image features are ambiguous

Interpretatio
n depends
on context

Anderson & Winawer, Journal of Vision, 2008

Anderson & Winawer, Nature, 2005

How are visual features combined over space?

Interpretatio
n depends
on context

Anderson & Winawer, Journal of Vision, 2008

Anderson & Winawer, Nature, 2005

Fraser's
Spiral
Gestalt
interpretation:
'The whole is
greater than the
sum of its parts'

Size Constancy

E.G. Boring

Size Constancy

Beuchet Chair

Turning the tables

Roger Shepard

Memory can change what you see

Yoon, Witthoft, Winawer, Frank, Everett, Gibson, Markman, Cog Sci Proceedings, 2011

Memory can change what you see

Yoon, Witthoft, Winawer, Frank, Everett, Gibson, Markman, Cog Sci Proceedings, 2011

Memory can change what you see

Yoon, Witthoft, Winawer, Frank, Everett, Gibson, Markman, Cog Sci Proceedings, 2011

Gestalt Principles
In this view, our perceptions may be likened to
the output of a piano: these perceptions are
evoked by the world, much as the piano
melody is evoked by the pianist.
A piano can only emit its own notes it can't
sound like a clarinet. Similarly perceptions are
evoked by the world, but they generate
experiences limited by the neural structures of
our brain.
Our percepts are evoked by nature; but they
are personal and not a copy of nature.

Perception: Our Approach

Objectivist view

Helmholtz Shepard
Our senses precisely, and accurately, reflect the physical
world. They provide us with a true, complete, and accurate
representation.

Subjectivist view
There is no inherent organization to the world, but rather, our
brain organizes our perceptions, and we therefore believe
the world is, itself, organized.

Synthetic view

The world appears to us the way it does because:

(1) We perceive only within the limits of our nervous system
(2) Our nervous system has evolved to reflect portions of the
world very accurately.

Our Approach to
Understanding

We are striving for a theory of perception in which

every term, every idea, is well-defined. Much of what
this course is about is trying to give you a sense of
science generally, and what it means to say that we
really understand something.
To test our understanding we often ask:
Can we design a machine that perceives (Computer vision)
Can we fix the perceptual system (Medicine, Engineering)

When we understand something well, there are

usually important applications for that understanding.

Designing machines that perceive

Fixing perceptual systems:

Hearing aids and Cochlear Implants

Neurological Interventions
(Fine, Brewer, Wade, MacLeod, Wandell, Nature Neuroscience,
2002)

Chemical accident at 3 yrs

One eye lost; other cornea destroyed
Blind from age 3 through 46
Stem cell replacement in right eye for
both epithelium and stem cells

Corneal
epithelium
cells

Limbal
epithelial
stem cells

Syllabus Overview
Measuring perception
Chapter 1, Appendix
Visual perception
Chapters 2-10
Audition and speech
Chapters 11-13
Touch
Chapter 14
Smell and taste
Chapter 15

Syllabus
DATE
2Sep Introduction
7Sep NOCLASS(LaborDay)
9Sep
14Sep
16Sep
21Sep

TOPIC

* See NYU Classes. It may change slightly.

READING

Psychophysics
Signaldetection
Opticsandtheeye
Retina,transduction,light/darkadaptation

Chap.1andAppendix
Chap.1andAppendix
Chap.2(2126)
Chap.2(2635)
Chap.2(3544);Chap.3(53
23Sep ElectricalsignalsandRetinalganglioncells
62)
28Sep Receptivefieldsandsensorycodes
Chap.3(62end)
30Sep Corticalvisualpathwaysandfunctionalspecialization1 Chap.4(7783)
5Oct Corticalvisualpathwaysandfunctionalspecialization2 Chap.4(8392)
7Oct REVIEW1
*13Oct EXAM1(*TuesdaywithMondayschedule)
14Oct Recognitionandperceptualorganization
19Oct NOCLASSSocietyForNeuroscience
21Oct
26Oct
28Oct
2Nov
4Nov
9Nov

Attentionandvisualawareness
Motion
Brightness
Color
Depth,sizeandshape
REVIEW2

11Nov EXAM2
16Nov Soundandtheear
18Nov Pitch

RECITATION

Chap.1

1.Psychophysics&SDT
2.Optics&Retina

3.Receptivefields
4.Corticalpathways

CHAPTERS14,Appendix
Chap.5
5.Attention
Chap.6
Chap.8
Chap.9(217220)
Chap.9
Chap.10

6.Motion
7.Color&Brightness
8.Depth,Size,Shape

CHAPTERS56,810
Chap.11

9.Sound,Pitch,Loudness

23Nov Loudness
25Nov NOCLASSTHANKSGIVING
30Nov
2Dec
7Dec
9Dec
14Dec

Auditorypathwaysandlocalization
Speechperception
Touch
Smell&Taste
REVIEW3

21Dec EXAM3,2pm3:15(seeNYUfinalexamschedule)

Chap.12
Chap.13
Chap.14
Chap.15
CHAPTERS1115

10.LocalizationandSpeech
11.Touch,Taste,Smell

Web page:
NYUClasses
https://newclasses.nyu.edu
Please check the web page regularly
Syllabus & schedule
Announcements
Practice exams
Study questions

Text Book & Readings

Sensation and Perception (9th edition)
Goldstein (Wadsworth)
- Hard copy (bookstore)
- Ebook (bookstore or online)
- Rental (online)

Recitation sections
Recitation sections meet once per week (most
weeks see syllabus)
You must register for one!
Bring clickers!
Topics are on the syllabus
Study questions are due Mondays at noon
during weeks with recitations
Complete on NYU Classes
Study questions will be posted no later than
Wednesdays (for the following Monday)

Exams

Exam 1 (10/13/2015) (Tuesday with Monday schedule!)

Up to and including cortical visual pathways
Chapters 1-4, appendix, and online lecture notes
Exam 2 (11/11/2015)
Recognition through depth, shape, size
Chapters 5-6, 8-10
Exam 3 (12/21/2015)**
Hearing through chemical senses
Chapters 11-15
** Exam 3 is scheduled during the final exam time period, but it is NOT a final exam.
All three exams are weighted equally and no exam is cumulative.

Review sessions before each exam (see syllabus)

Exams will include material in book not covered in lectures and material
from lecture not covered in book

End