The Ability of a Person to Perceive Changes and Find Objects in Visual Fields - Essay Example

Running head: COGNITIVE REPORT Cognitive Report Abstract There has been an increased much concern in use of hand held phone in Australia. This has been as a result of distraction the can probably cause motor accidents. Although, it is not an offence to use these hands free phones, presume that distractions are caused by the physical act of holding a mobile phone but not the cognitive load of its conversation. This research report gives an empirical test of the result of having a mobile conversation and at the same time detects change and position of the objects through flicker and no flicker change detection tasks. The aim of this study is to explore the model of change blindness and determine what happens when ones attention is distracted when having mobile conversations. In the study, one hundred and thirty two undergraduate psychology students were enrolled in a cognitive course to participate in the study. As part of the course the students participated in a (testmybrain) cognitive task. They were randomly allocated into one of the investigational conditions i.e. (control, hands free, hands held). All the students were required to enter their results of their change detection on the Tellus2 online survey. Cognitive Report The main importance of the research report is to explore human ability to perceive change and locate objects in the visual fields-to realise attentiveness. Visual perception can not at all times be trusted. There are components of an object that distort the perception of the entire object. Human mind is the ultimate arbitrator of certainty. Many of the visual illusions result from factors like; incongruent design found at the opposite ends of line that are parallel; background patterns that that influence the overall design of an object; change of perception at the boundaries in parts where the contrast is high; lack of the ability to construe an object’s spatial structure from the context presented by the image; or the after images that are often resulting from kinetic displays or eye movements. The study of optical illusion began with the ancient Greeks with a technique they called ‘entasis’. This incorporated a small convexity in the columns of Parthenon and the main objective was to compensate the illusions of concavity that is usually created by parallel lines. The psychologists have since popularized illusions on how we perceive them and how we relate to them. The psychologists define psychophysics as to entail a study on how physical stimuli can translate to psychological experience. They use threshold to measure these events. These are lines dividing energy that is detectable from what does not. An example is presence of automatic light sensors in classrooms. The lights go out when people have not been in the room for a while. But when someone gets into the room the lights sets back. The sensor contains a thresh hold for motion which is closed for the light to come back. In this case dust in the room can not make the lights to turn on but if somebody closes the room the lights will come back. The minimum intensity of stimulus change needed for a noticeable change help in realization of difference threshold i.e. the greatness of the intensity is directly proportional to the change. As defined in psychology illusion is an incorrect perception that occurs when visual sensations are distorted. In Signal Detection Theory- sensory process and decision making process are involved in detection of stimulus. These two are influence by several other factors other than intensity i.e; Noise - the presence of outside interference in existence Criterion – the degree of assurance that must be met before taking action think includes high mental processes. Criterion is set based on expectations ad consequences pertaining inaccuracy. Sight/Vision- these works through perceiving and sensing light waves and their varying length and amplitude. The wave length which is also known as frequency, the length of the frequency is inversely proportional to number of times it appears. The amplitude of a wave length refers to the height and size of a wave. It is apparent that when a few aspect of information regarding to our visual field is altered or when overloaded with visual information and it becomes had to attend to all of it, our attention is grabbed by dynamic changes. According to Simons and Ambinder (2005), if our attention is directed in another place it then becomes difficult to notice essential changes. Such has very significant real world inference for task such as monitoring a screen when in a flight control centre or even when driving, where ones attention might be temporarily distracted and one fails to notice the green light turn red or there is a child on a bike who appears all of a sudden. Such result to look but failed to see kind of accidents. Gestalt psychology helps us understand much on how we perceive things. Some of the examples of Gestalt principles include the Phi phenomenon. The Phi Phenomenon illustrates the illusion of movement from demonstration of stimuli that occur from rapid successions. When watching a cartoon or when running some Christmas lights one perceive to see movement that are inexistent because of gestalt principle. One example of gestalt principle is that of perpetual Organisation. Figure ground- it is a fundamental way of organising visual perceptions. It is when one looks at an object and its background, i.e. a picture of a friend and the sears brand at the background of the friend. Pragnanz/ simplicity- placement of elements that formulate a good appearance; the thought of ‘a good form’ appears subjective and vague. Proximity- belongingness/closeness; Object placed close to each other are perceived to fit in together. Similarity-it is the notion of object to appear related to each other. Continuity- is the notion of following whatever course we are lead. The principle of continuity demonstrates how lazy humans can become in perceiving things. Common fate – all the elements that go together appear to be in the same category, i.e. when observing geese moving south during winter they always appear to move in a “V” shape. And finally is the closure- we always tend to fill a form if it has gaps in it. There are ambiguous sensory information that appears in more than a single good form -Reversible figures and objects that appears two dimensional images that can not exist in three dimensions- impossible figures. In conclusion illusions in visual perception always appear when experiences reported by people fail to respond to physical capacity of stimuli. Most often people are stunned by lack of correspondence. The correspondence between different people’s reports and the characteristics of stimuli assessed through psychophysics. In psychophysics, these stimuli are either classified as proximal or distal. Distal demonstrates the patterns of energy emanating from object. Proximal refers to patterns of energy encroaching on receptors. Human computational brains conceptualize from neural signals that are generated in response to proximal stimuli; however, all the products that result from abstraction ought to correspond with distal stimuli in order to attain veridical experiences. Humans would have found it hand to adapt to survive and prosper if they could not correspond to psychophysics between distal stimuli and other experience. Illusions have been instances that are very informative in assisting us understand how we function and how humans are structured and how we can correspond to the world around us. Method Participants In this study, one hundred thirty two undergraduate psychology students enrolled in a cognitive psychology course at the Uni participated in the study. Of the 132 students, 31 were male and 101 were female, and the median is 20. As part of the course requirement, students participated in an online cognitive tests (testmybrain) task in which they were randomly allocated into one of the three experimental condition groups (control, hands free, hands held). Students were also required to enter the results of their change detection task on the Tellus2 online survey Materials The data for the study was acquired from the use of two instruments. Firstly, participants were required to go on the cognitive test from my test my brain website and undertake cognitive tests from their allocated condition group (i.e. talking on the mobile phone while completing the task). The second instrument involved participants to submit their data from the test my brain task via the Tellus2 online survey. The survey firstly asked participants to indicate which condition group they were allocated to, age in years and sex. The survey also asked for each score of each test (flicker dot change detection/ holding shapes in mind/ matching shapes and numbers/ vocabulary/ conditions allocated to). Finally the survey asked whether consent was agreed upon for responses to be used in the data file as part of their research report. Procedure During the first few weeks of the study period, the cognitive psychology lecturer instructed students about the process to completing the online cognitive test my brain task as part of their research report. Students were also informed on their allocation to one of the three condition groups (control, handheld mobile, hands free mobile) and the specific instructions required while completing the task. Students allocated in the control group were required to complete the task in a quiet room or in the computer laboratory. Students in the handheld mobile group were required to complete the task while talking on the phone in the computer laboratory. The students in the hands free mobile group were required to complete the task with the mobile on loud speaker. Once the task had been completed, the students were required to submit their responses on the online survey via the course homepage. The lecturer also debriefed the students about the task in class. Results A one-way ANOVA was conducted to compare the three groups (control, hand held, hands free) on both flicker and shapes. The ANOVA was not significant for flicker, F(2,126)=.852, p=.429, however ANOVA was significant for shapes, F(2,129)= 13.89, p=.001. Bonferroni post hoc tests (p Read More