Evolutionary internalized regularities

2001 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 626-628 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Schwartz
Keyword(s):  
Circadian Rhythms ◽  
Motion Perception ◽  
Apparent Motion ◽  
Ecological Validity ◽  
Experimental Studies ◽  
Evolutionary Development ◽  
Kinematic Constraint ◽  
Explanatory Role ◽  
Kinematic Geometry ◽  
Primary Focus

Roger Shepard's proposals and supporting experiments concerning evolutionary internalized regularities have been very influential in the study of vision and in other areas of psychology and cognitive science. This paper examines issues concerning the need, nature, explanatory role, and justification for postulating such internalized constraints. In particular, I seek further clarification from Shepard on how best to understand his claim that principles of kinematic geometry underlie phenomena of motion perception.My primary focus is on the ecological validity of Shepard's kinematic constraint in the context of ordinary motion perception. First, I explore the analogy Shepard draws between internalized circadian rhythms and the supposed internalization of kinematic geometry. Next, questions are raised about how to interpret and justify applying results from his own and others' experimental studies of apparent motion to more everyday cases of motion perception in richer environments. Finally, some difficulties with Shepard's account of the evolutionary development of his kinematic constraint are considered.

Neurobiological correlates of apparent motion perception in the human visual system using magnetoencephalography

NeuroImage ◽  
2001 ◽  
Vol 13 (6) ◽  
pp. 893
Author(s):  
C.I. Horenstein ◽  
R.R. Ramirez ◽  
E. Kronberg ◽  
U. Ribary ◽  
R.R. Llinas
Keyword(s):  
Visual System ◽  
Motion Perception ◽  
Apparent Motion ◽  
Human Visual System

scholarly journals Watching television in a home environment: effect on children’s attention, comprehension and behavior

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah E Rose ◽  
Alexandra Lamont ◽  
Nicholas Reyland
Keyword(s):  
Problem Solving ◽  
Ecological Validity ◽  
Experimental Studies ◽  
Tv Viewing ◽  
Facilitation Effect ◽  
Environment Effect ◽  
And Performance ◽  
And Behavior ◽  
Harmful Effects ◽  
Problem Solving Task

Correlational studies have suggested some harmful effects of television (TV) viewing in early childhood, especially for the viewing of fast-paced entertainment programs. However, this has not been consistently supported by experimental studies, many of which have lacked ecological validity. The current study explores the effects of pace of program on the attention, problem solving and comprehension of 41 3- and 4-year-olds using an ecologically valid experimental design. Children were visited twice at home; on each visit they were shown an episode of a popular animated entertainment program which differed in pace: one faster paced, one slower paced. Children’s behavior was coded for attention and arousal during viewing, attention, effort and performance after viewing during a problem-solving task, and comprehension of the program. The faster paced program was attended to more, but this had no impact on comprehension. Although 3-year-olds showed more attention and effort on the problem-solving task after watching the slower program, both 3- and 4-year-olds completed more problems successfully after watching the faster program. The results provide evidence to counter the ‘harm’ perceived in young children watching fast-paced entertainment programs as where differences were found it was the fast-paced program which appeared to have a cognitive facilitation effect.

scholarly journals Does Danger Level Affect Bystander Intervention in Real-Life Conflicts? Evidence From CCTV Footage

2021 ◽  
pp. 194855062110426
Author(s):  
Marie Rosenkrantz Lindegaard ◽  
Lasse Suonperä Liebst ◽  
Richard Philpot ◽  
Mark Levine ◽  
Wim Bernasco
Keyword(s):  
Ecological Validity ◽  
Experimental Studies ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Active Role ◽  
Bystander Intervention ◽  
Interpersonal Conflicts ◽  
Ethical Concerns ◽  
Public Surveillance ◽  
Helping Others

In real-life violence, bystanders can take an active role in de-escalating conflict and helping others. Recent meta-analytical evidence of experimental studies suggests that elevated danger levels in conflicts facilitate bystander intervention. However, this finding may lack ecological validity because ethical concerns prohibit exposing participants to potentially harmful situations. Using an ecologically valid method, based on an analysis of 80 interpersonal conflicts unobtrusively recorded by public surveillance cameras, the present study confirms that danger is positively associated with bystander intervention. In the presence of danger, bystanders were 19 times more likely to intervene than in the absence of danger. It extends this knowledge by discovering that incremental changes in the severity level of the danger (low, medium, and high), however, were not associated with bystander intervention. These findings confirm the importance of further investigating the role of danger for bystander intervention, in larger samples, and involving multiple types of real-life emergencies.

Visual Perception of Apparent Motion Abides by Minimization Principles of Geometry

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yaxin Liu ◽  
Stella F. Lourenco
Keyword(s):  
Visual Perception ◽  
Target Detection ◽  
Apparent Motion ◽  
Visual Space ◽  
Detection Task ◽  
Newtonian Physics ◽  
Kinematic Geometry ◽  
Shed Light ◽  
Target Detection Task ◽  
Perceptual Phenomenon

Apparent motion is a robust perceptual phenomenon in which observers perceive a stimulus traversing the vacant visual space between two flashed stimuli. Although it is known that the “filling-in” of apparent motion favors the simplest and most economical path, the interpolative computations remain poorly understood. Here, we tested whether the perception of apparent motion is best characterized by Newtonian physics or kinematic geometry. Participants completed a target detection task while Pacmen- shaped objects were presented in succession to create the perception of apparent motion. We found that target detection was impaired when apparent motion, as predicted by kinematic geometry, not Newtonian physics, obstructed the target’s location. Our findings shed light on the computations employed by the visual system, suggesting specifically that the “filling-in” perception of apparent motion may be dominated by kinematic geometry, not Newtonian physics.

4. Motion perception

2017 ◽  
pp. 50-58
Author(s):  
Brian Rogers
Keyword(s):  
Motion Perception ◽  
Apparent Motion ◽  
Time To Contact ◽  
Motion System ◽  
Visual Systems ◽  
Temporal Process ◽  
The World ◽  
Induced Motion ◽  
After Effect ◽  
Spatio Temporal

The ability to detect motion is one of the most important properties of our visual system and the visual systems of nearly every other species. Motion perception is not just important for detecting the movement of objects—both for catching prey and for avoiding predators—but it is also important for providing information about the 3-D structure of the world, for maintaining balance, determining our direction of heading, segregating the scene and breaking camouflage, and judging time-to-contact with other objects in the world. ‘Motion perception’ describes the spatio-temporal process of motion perception and the perceptual effects that tell us something about the characteristics of the motion system: apparent motion, the motion after-effect, and induced motion.

Perceptual Organization in Multistable Apparent Motion

Perception ◽  
1985 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 135-143 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vilayanur S Ramachandran ◽  
Stuart M Anstis
Keyword(s):  
Motion Perception ◽  
Apparent Motion ◽  
Perceptual Organization ◽  
Necker Cube ◽  
The Other ◽  
Horizontal Oscillation ◽  
Random Location ◽  
Single Figure ◽  
Looking Back

Is motion perception based on a local piecemeal analysis of the image or do ‘global’ effects also play an important role? Use was made of bistable apparent-motion displays in trying to answer this question. Two spots were flashed simultaneously on diagonally opposite corners of a 1 deg wide square and then switched off and replaced by two spots appearing on the other two corners. One can either see vertical or horizontal oscillation and the display is bistable just as a Necker cube is. If several such bistable figures are randomly scattered on the screen and presented simultaneously, then one usually sees the same motion axis in all of them, suggesting the presence of field-like effects for resolving ambiguity in apparent motion. While viewing a single figure observers experience hysteresis: they tend to adhere to one motion axis or the other and can switch the axis only by looking away and looking back after 10–30 s have elapsed. The figure can be switched off and made to reappear at some other random location on the screen and it is then always found to retain its motion axis. Several such demonstrations are presented to show that spatial induction effects in metastable motion displays may provide a particularly valuable probe for studying ‘laws’ of perceptual organization.

Regularities in motion: Apparent, real and internalized

2001 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 757-762 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Schwartz
Keyword(s):  
Motion Perception ◽  
Ecological Validity ◽  
Pros And Cons

By and large the commentators express reservations similar to my own concerning Shepard's position. Some focus on the issue of ecological validity, others are skeptical of Shepard's evolutionary thesis. The assumptions and reasons for their criticisms, however, are not always ones I fully accept. In addition, several commentators, although rejecting Shepard's particular claims, support his overall approach. They offer models for motion perception and for phenomena in other domains that they feel are amenable to treatment along Shepard's lines. I examine the pros and cons of the commentators' analyses of Shepard. I also briefly evaluate aspects of their alternative proposals.

scholarly journals Internalization: A metaphor we can live without

2001 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 618-625 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Kubovy ◽  
William Epstein
Keyword(s):  
Natural Selection ◽  
Apparent Motion ◽  
Evolutionary History ◽  
Motion Path ◽  
The World ◽  
Kinematic Geometry ◽  
Innate Knowledge ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Mind ◽  
Internal Knowledge

Shepard has supposed that the mind is stocked with innate knowledge of the world and that this knowledge figures prominently in the way we see the world. According to him, this internal knowledge is the legacy of a process of internalization; a process of natural selection over the evolutionary history of the species. Shepard has developed his proposal most fully in his analysis of the relation between kinematic geometry and the shape of the motion path in apparent motion displays. We argue that Shepard has made a case for applying the principles of kinematic geometry to the perception of motion, but that he has not made the case for injecting these principles into the mind of the percipient. We offer a more modest interpretation of his important findings: that kinematic geometry may be a model of apparent motion. Inasmuch as our recommended interpretation does not lodge geometry in the mind of the percipient, the motivation of positing internalization, a process that moves kinematic geometry into the mind, is obviated. In our conclusion, we suggest that cognitive psychologists, in their embrace of internal mental universals and internalization may have been seduced by the siren call of metaphor.

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