Perceptions as hypotheses

Abstract

Perceptions may be compared with hypotheses in science. The methods of acquiring scientific knowledge provide a working paradigm for investigating processes of perception. Much as the information channels of instruments, such as radio telescopes, transmit signals which are processed according to various assumptions to give useful data, so neural signals are processed to give data for perception. To understand perception, the signal codes and the stored knowledge or assumptions used for deriving perceptual hypotheses must be discovered. Systematic perceptual errors are important clues for appreciating signal channel limitations, and for discovering hypothesis-generating procedures. Although this distinction between 'physiological' and 'cognitive' aspects of perception may be logically clear, it is in practice surprisingly difficult to establish which are responsible even for clearly established phenomena such as the classical distortion illusions. Experimental results are presented, aimed at distinguishing between and disconvering what happens when there is mismatch with the neural signal channel, and when neural signals are processed inappropriately for the current situation. This leads us to make some distinctions between perceptual and scientific hypotheses, which raise in a new form the problem: What are 'objects'?

Susceptibility to Optical Illusions Varies as a Function of the Autism-Spectrum Quotient but not in Ways Predicted by Local–Global Biases

“…This idea is based on old notions regarding the importance of experience in typical visual perception that was first put forth by Hermann von Helmholtz (1867) and then elaborated and championed by Richard Gregory (1980). According to this view, what we experience as sight is the result of an active process of formulating and testing hypotheses about the world around us.…”

Symptoms and the body: Taking the inferential leap

“…The task of the brain is to group input into those patterns that are most useful, reducing computational load by ignoring inputs that are unlikely to have adaptive value. Since Helmholtz (1860), numerous theorists (e.g., Gregory, 1980;Friston, 2005;Kveraga et al, 2007;Clark, 2013) have argued that the brain achieves this through an inferential process, involving the creation of probabilistic models about the causes of current inputs to the system, based on prior knowledge. These assumptions have recently been elaborated for interoceptive and affective information processing and their interaction with external perception (Barrett and Bar, 2009;Edwards et al, 2012;Seth, 2013;Barrett and Simmons, 2015).…”

Comment étudier l’influence des stéréotypes de genre et de race sur la perception de la parole ?

“…Les études sur la cognition menées au cours des dernières décennies ont permis de montrer que la perception humaine ne repose pas uniquement sur un traitement ascendant (bottom-up), mais aussi sur un traitement descendant (top-down) : la perception n'est pas simplement une opération de recueil d'informations par les organes sensoriels, mais un processus dans lequel les informations recueillies sont structurées par les représentations stockées en mémoire (Bruner, 1957 ;Gregory, 1980 ;Rock, 1983). Si nos représentations exercent une telle influence sur notre perception, alors les stéréotypes -ces « croyances sur les caractéristiques, attributs et comportements des membres d'un certain groupe » (Hilton & Von Hippel, 1996 ; notre traduction) -doivent jouer un rôle déterminant dans notre manière de percevoir le monde qui nous entoure (Hippel et al, 1995 : 181).…”