Psychophysical Approaches to Cognition

Psychophysical Approaches to Cognition

Author: D. Algom

Publisher: Elsevier

Published: 1992-08-20

Total Pages: 639

ISBN-13: 0080867464

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Our lives are informed by perceptual and cognitive processes at all levels, from instrumental learning to metaphorical discourse to memorial representation. Yet, historically, these two branches of experimental psychology, perception and cognition, have developed separately using independent methods of experimentation and analysis. This volume is motivated by the assumption that a fundamental integration of the two fields is fruitful methodologically and indispensable theoretically. It explores how the notion of psychophysics aligned with cognitive processes shapes the study of perception and cognition, and illuminates a variety of contemporary research issues from a novel theoretical perspective. The papers raise conceptual and metatheoretical issues against the background of relevant empirical data. The authors provide a virtually narrative account of the most recent developments in their respective fields of expertise in psychophysics and cognitive psychology. Hence, this volume gives the interested reader an opportunity to reflect critically upon some of the current issues defining the two domains and their conjunction. Topics discussed include the psychology and psychophysics of similarity, the psychophysics of visual memory and cognitive factors in judgment. The emerging notion of cognitive psychophysics may well warrant the attention of experts in the field.


Psychophysics Beyond Sensation

Psychophysics Beyond Sensation

Author: Christian Kaernbach

Publisher: Psychology Press

Published: 2004-05-20

Total Pages: 526

ISBN-13: 1135633665

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This volume presents a series of studies that expand laws, invariants, and principles of psychophysics beyond its classical domain of sensation. This book's goal is to demonstrate the extent of the domain of psychophysics, ranging from sensory processes, through sensory memory and short-term memory issues, to the interaction between sensation and action. The dynamics and timing of human performance are a further important issue within this extended framework of psychophysics: Given the similarity of the various cortical areas in terms of their neuroanatomical structure, it is an important question whether this similarity is paralleled by a similarity of processes. These issues are addressed by the contributions in the present volume using state-of-the-art research methods in behavioral research, psychophysiology, and mathematical modeling. The book is divided into four sections. Part I presents contributions concerning the classical domain of psychophysical judgment. The next two parts are concerned with elementary and higher-order processes and the concluding section deals with psychophysical models. The sections are introduced by guest editorials contributed by independent authors. These editorials present the authors' personals view on the respective section, providing an integrated account of the various contributions or highlighting their focus of interest among them. While also voicing their own and sometimes different point of view, they contribute to the process of discussion that makes science so exciting. This volume should be of great interest to advanced students in neuroscience, cognitive science, psychology, neuropsychology, and related areas who seek to evaluate the range and power of psychological work today. Established scientists in those fields will also appreciate the variety of issues addressed within the same methodological framework and their multiple interconnections and stimulating "cross-talk."


Cognition, Information Processing, and Psychophysics

Cognition, Information Processing, and Psychophysics

Author: Hans-Georg Geissler

Publisher: Psychology Press

Published: 2013-04-15

Total Pages: 352

ISBN-13: 1134994001

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The plan for this volume emerged during the international Leipzig conference commemorating the centenary of the death of Gustav Fechner. The contributors suggested that while many features of modern psychological theory were anticipated by Fechner, many new theoretical approaches owe much more to him than often is realized. As such, they decided to honor Fechner by evaluating his own contribution to the founding of psychology and psychoanalysis, by deepening the foundations of psychological theories of consciousness, perception, and choice, and by using the analysis of time to create a new appreciation of constraints that bind mental processes together. Thus, this volume spans an extraordinary range of psychological topics, from hermeneutics to the time-quantum basis for mental processes, in a way that would both amaze and delight Fechner. Moreover, the international reach of his pioneering ideas can be seen from the current locations of the contributors. The span from Japan to the United States to Holland to Germany and to Israel provides a global measure of Fechner's scientific legacy.


Relational Psychophysics in Humans and Animals

Relational Psychophysics in Humans and Animals

Author: Viktor Sarris

Publisher: Psychology Press

Published: 2007-09-12

Total Pages: 221

ISBN-13: 1135420858

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Relational Psychophysics in Humans and Animals offers a comprehensive and integrated overview of the often fragmented field of psychophysics. It introduces key concepts in psychophysics and clearly summarises and illustrates the central issues through telling examples. It combines empirical research and theoretical approaches from general psychophysics, animal psychophysics and human-infant psychophysics, to create a systematic comparison of these three key areas. Through out, Viktor Sarris makes a strong case for more comparative psychophysical research across different species and across different stages of development. He presents original research and examines frame-of-reference models, behavioural psychophysics, developmental psychophysics, perceptual-cognitive psychophysics and evolutionary perspectives, to create an integrated framework for the direction of new research. The book will be an invaluable aid for researchers in the fields of perception and psychophysics.


The Psychophysics of Learning

The Psychophysics of Learning

Author: John N. Moye Ph.D.

Publisher: Emerald Group Publishing

Published: 2021-06-22

Total Pages: 154

ISBN-13: 1801171157

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The Psychophysics of Learning presents a learning system design approach that is formulated by the strategies and techniques the brain uses to process external information and make sense of that information to the learning ecology of all learners.


Modes of Perceiving and Processing Information

Modes of Perceiving and Processing Information

Author: H. L. Pick, Jr.

Publisher: Psychology Press

Published: 2014-03-18

Total Pages: 241

ISBN-13: 1317768922

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First published in 1978. Since World War II the field of perception has developed in two major directions. The first evolved out of the traditional psychophysical approach and is manifest today in the new psychophysics. The second direction is in the increasing bond between the fields of perception and cognition. This volume grew out of the context of this second direction, a particular product of two workshops (held in the Spring of 1974 and 1975), organized by the Committee on Cognitive Research of the Social Science Research Council. The Committee on Cognition was organized in 1971 to encourage communication and interaction on specific problems in the area of cognition among the various social sciences.


Visual Psychophysics

Visual Psychophysics

Author: Zhong-Lin Lu

Publisher: MIT Press

Published: 2013-10-11

Total Pages: 473

ISBN-13: 0262019450

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A comprehensive treatment of the skills and techniques needed for visual psychophysics, from basic tools to sophisticated data analysis. Vision is one of the most active areas in biomedical research, and visual psychophysical techniques are a foundational methodology for this research enterprise. Visual psychophysics, which studies the relationship between the physical world and human behavior, is a classical field of study that has widespread applications in modern vision science. Bridging the gap between theory and practice, this textbook provides a comprehensive treatment of visual psychophysics, teaching not only basic techniques but also sophisticated data analysis methodologies and theoretical approaches. It begins with practical information about setting up a vision lab and goes on to discuss the creation, manipulation, and display of visual images; timing and integration of displays with measurements of brain activities and other relevant techniques; experimental designs; estimation of behavioral functions; and examples of psychophysics in applied and clinical settings. The book's treatment of experimental designs presents the most commonly used psychophysical paradigms, theory-driven psychophysical experiments, and the analysis of these procedures in a signal-detection theory framework. The book discusses the theoretical underpinnings of data analysis and scientific interpretation, presenting data analysis techniques that include model fitting, model comparison, and a general framework for optimized adaptive testing methods. It includes many sample programs in Matlab with functions from Psychtoolbox, a free toolbox for real-time experimental control. Once students and researchers have mastered the material in this book, they will have the skills to apply visual psychophysics to cutting-edge vision science.


A Functional Theory of Cognition

A Functional Theory of Cognition

Author: Norman H. Anderson

Publisher: Psychology Press

Published: 2014-03-05

Total Pages: 516

ISBN-13: 1317778995

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A unified, general theory of functional cognition is presented in this book. Its generality appears in the titles of the 13 chapters listed below. Its unity appears in the effectiveness of the same methods and concepts across all of these areas. Generality and unity both stem from the foundation axiom of purposiveness. The axiom of purposiveness has been made effective through capability for functional measurement of values, which embody the goal-directed character of purposiveness. This measurement capability is based on the general cognitive algebra established in information integration theory. Functional theory can thus be made precise and effective near the level of everyday phenomenology. The book is written at a relatively simple level, directed at readers in every field of psychology. Among its characteristics are: * self-sufficient theory near the level of everyday phenomenology; * foundation on structure of the internal world; and * solid grounding in experimental analysis.


Multidimensional Models of Perception and Cognition

Multidimensional Models of Perception and Cognition

Author: F. Gregory Ashby

Publisher: Psychology Press

Published: 1992

Total Pages: 523

ISBN-13: 9780805805772

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The mental representations of perceptual and cognitive stimuli vary on many dimensions. In addition, because of quantal fluctuations in the stimulus, spontaneous neural activity, and fluctuations in arousal and attentiveness, mental events are characterized by an inherent variability. During the last several years, a number of models and theories have been developed that explicitly assume the appropriate mental representation is both multidimensional and probabilistic. This new approach has the potential to revolutionize the study of perception and cognition in the same way that signal detection theory revolutionized the study of psychophysics. This unique volume is the first to critically survey this important new area of research.


Recent Progress in Mathematical Psychology

Recent Progress in Mathematical Psychology

Author: Cornelia E. Dowling

Publisher: Psychology Press

Published: 2014-03-05

Total Pages: 367

ISBN-13: 1317779339

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Mathematical psychology is an interdisciplinary area of research in which methods of mathematics, operations research, and computer science in psychology are used. Now more than thirty years old, the field has continued to grow rapidly and has taken on a life of its own. This volume summarizes recent progress in mathematical psychology as seen by some of the leading figures in the field as well as some of its leading young researchers. The papers presented in this volume reflect the most important current directions of research in mathematical psychology. They cover topics in measurement, decision and choice, psychophysics and psychometrics, knowledge representation, neural nets and learning models, and cognitive modeling. Some of the major ideas included are new applications of concepts of measurement theory to social phenomena, new directions in the theory of probabilistic choice, surprising results in nonlinear utility theory, applications of boolean methods in the theory of knowledge spaces, applications of neural net ideas to concept learning, developments in the theory of parallel processing models of response time, new results in inhibition theory, and new concepts about paired associate learning.