Dr. Bedford, Fall 2007, University of Arizona, Perceptual Learning and adaptation
EXAM
Instructions: Answer six of the following questions. There are 3 categories of questions. At least one question must be chosen from each category. The others can be from any category. There are alot of questions you can choose from.
The following are requirements if you want to have a chance for full credit; they are not suggestions.
Scholarship: Each answer must include explicit mention of at least one of the readings or lectures (e.g. "As Author, 2001, claims..." or "This should work because Author found X in article Y and this situation is analogous because..." or "According to lecture..." etc.); refer to such sources for each question, even when the question does not explicitly mention a reading.
Thoroughness: Each answer should be at least 250 words (about 1/2 page single space; do a word count to check) with no maximum, but keep to what is being asked. For each answer, explain every logical step in your thinking. Do not assume it is obvious to a reader. You'll also find that if you explain everything, words very quickly add up.
Completeness: Answer all subparts of a question, even if you think they are too obvious or too hard or think you don't know the answer or think they are merely suggestions, or think you've already said enough.
As before, word process your answers, single spaced, do not start a new page for each question, and put your name at the top of the first page (no separate cover sheet). Exam is due as per syllabus. Do not email the exam; bring it to our classroom on that day.
FAQ:
Can I meet with my group? Yes! BUT only to discuss very restrictive, largely procedural and clarification issues. That is, you can meet to explain to each other/clarify what each question is asking. You can comment on which questions you think are easiest. You can figure out together which assigned readings, lectures, handouts, and websites are relevant for each question. You can lend your copies of materials to be xeroxed or emailed for other group members that don't' have them. But you have to think of and write the answers entirely on your own. Do not risk copying from one another. Keep your ideas about answers to yourself so as not to raise any suspicions. Remember also you do not have much time, so use your time wisely.
What if I'm missing a group assignment? If you are missing an assignment, you can answer an additional question on the exam for each assignment you are missing. This is the last opportunity to make up missing assignments. Put those questions at the end; do not start a new page but make sure they're clearly marked as the extra questions. Staple them with your main exam. In addition, if you have not already discussed with me the reasons for your absence, you may wish to include that as well.
What if I missed the last exam or failed the last exam? Answer an additional 5 questions.
Can I use the web if I think it will help? Yes. If you use anything, be sure to cite it.
Can I quote from the web, readings, and lectures? Yes, but keep it very short. If too much of your paper is in someone else's words, I won't be able to tell if you understand the material and you will not got a good grade. (exact quotes get quotation marks in addition to citations)
Any tips? Follow through on points, figure out exactly what the question is asking, be concrete by using examples, be careful about using terms correctly, avoid layman phrases, think a lot before you start writing.
What if I still have questions? Email me at bedford@u.arizona.edu.
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The Questions
Questions from new topics:
S1) In class, you conducted an experiment involving "severed body parts". Explain what you did for the experiment (so that someone who is not in our class would understand what you had done). Next, what are 5 factors/procedures that should make the effect stronger? The factors could be ones that your group discovered or that other groups said they discovered. For the final third of the question, explain why these factors should make the effect stronger by appealing to "object identity", which is the first of the three steps we discussed in class that occur following a discrepancy (the second and the third were capture and adaptation).
S2) Answer the following questions about the ventriloquism effect:
S3) You have seen both the ventriloquism effect and the dancing Christmas lights effect. For each effect, explain why it occurs. Next, What is the most important similarity between the effects? What is the most important difference? In the classic paper by Rock and Harris, they conclude that "vision dominates touch", something that is still cited frequently today. Based on your explanations of the above, discuss whether or not this is true.
S4) You look through a prism that displaces everything that you see 10 degrees further to the left. If you succeed at getting adaptation, one type of change involves the felt hand, and another type involves vision. For each type, explain exactly what change would occur and why. (You can do this in one or 2 sentences for each type if desired). Use pictures to supplement your text. If you succeeded in getting adaptation, and you took off the prism such that the subject no longer looked through it, how would the subject point to targets in space? Explain why. (You can do this in one or two sentences also if desired.) Finally, pretend you are writing a procedure section on a simple prism adaptation experiment where you just wanted to see if you could replicate adaptation using the 10-degree prism. Write that method section.
S5) Use the article "keeping perception accurate" by Bedford to answer and discuss the following questions: 1) what is the difference between perceptual learning and other learning processes? 2) Why is a discrepancy between vision and proprioception NOT sufficient to get adaptation? 3) Why do we have adaptation? (That is, what are the reasons that the mechanisms responsible for adaptation exist at all?). 4) Finally, what is one additional new question that you would like to see answered. Include why you want to know the answer. (Yes, you can use the same question you used for your group project or any other.)
S6) There are quite a few situations we discussed where people report that their perception of time seems altered from ordinary in some way. Briefly describe 6 of those situations and the perceived time distortion that occurs (this part should be no more than 1/2 of your answer). Next, for the second half of your answer (which should make up at least 1/2 of your answer- i.e. at least 125 words): If you were making an analogy between space and time like we did in class, how would you do it? Explain. Finally, look over your list of the 6 situations, and for at least half of them, think of what the analogous distortion in space would be and describe it (based on the analogy between space and time)
S7) Explain carefully how genuine time adaptation would lead to a perceived cause/effect reversal. Your answer can include diagrams if helpful, but they cannot substitute for a verbal explanation. This part should make up half of your answer- at least 125 words. Next, describe the experiment that Cunningham et al. performed. Include in your answer how he tried to get time adaptation and why the exposure procedure, in principle, could be used to get time adaptation. Was he successful at obtaining/showing time adaptation? Why or why not?
Questions from old topics:
F1) You have seen quite a few principles that are involved in the acquisition of perceptual expertise (AKA perceptual discrimination learning). Suppose you wanted to teach a novice to become a perceptual expert in different dog breeds, or cats, or music, or flowers or beer or faces. Pick one, and design a training program that would do that, using those principles. Explicitly mention each principle and how you are using it in your training program. You should use at least 5 principles in your program. (Hint: handouts are relevant)
F2) Answer the following questions about the Other Race Effect. In each case, explain and justify based on what you know about the ORE: A) an Asian man is shown a photo of a Pakistani man for 1/10th of a second. Do you think he'd be more likely to know it's a man than if he were shown a photo of an Asian man? B) An Asian man is shown a photo of a Pakistani man for 5 minutes. Do you think he'd be more likely to know it's a man than if he were shown a photo of an Asian man? C) A woman from a Native American tribe is shown a photo of a man from Ireland. 5 minutes later, she's asked to pick him out of a lineup of 6 Irish men. How well do you think she will do? D) The woman's cousin was raised in an Irish-American family and given the same task. How well o you think she will do? E) Finally, what is a new question that you would like to ask about the ORE and why would you like to know the answer to that question?
F3) In the Ahissar article you read (the one we did not go over in class), they briefly describe a rather clever experiment they performed demonstrating the role of attention (see figure 2). Describe the experiment they conducted and what it found. Explain why you think the experiment is clever. Second, refer to the handout you got on the acquistion principles (the one I made available on the web a couple of times). Go through each one, and figure out which of those principles were also discussed by Ahissar even though the names he uses might be different. What does he say about each of those?
F4) In class you performed a replication of the classic Gibson and Gibson 1955 experiment. The data for the whole class was averaged (shown on the web under "feedback" and shown in class as well). a) Based on the whole class average, between which and which trial did the class show the most improvement? Explain what factors you think led to such a sharp improvement. b) Did the class show a higher percent of false alarm errors or miss errors? Explain. c) Why is it that one needs to consider both false alarms and misses together to determine if learning has taken place? d) What is the relation between hits and misses? e) Finally, do Gibson and Gibson report misses in their paper? Briefly explain
F5) Consider sounds coming from the following 6 locations: 90 degrees to the left, 45 degrees to the left, straight ahead (0 degrees), 60 degrees to the right, 90 degrees to the right, and directly behind you (180 degrees). A) Order the sounds so that they are in order from producing the SMALLEST interaural timing difference to the LARGEST interaural timing difference. Explain your ordering. B) Suppose the perceiver were an adult. How would he/she tell the difference between the sounds that were 60 Right vs. 90 Right? C) How would he/she tell the difference between the sounds at 0 vs.180? D) How would he/she tell the difference between the sounds at 90 to the left vs. 90 to the right? E) Suppose the perceiver was an infant who just grew suddenly and his/her mental map had not yet caught up to her physical size. Which sound (sounds) would be the easiest to localize accurately? Explain. F) Which sound (sounds) would be the most confusing for the infants? (This one is sort of hard and a little tricky but if you consider each sound you'll get it). Explain.
F6) You and 2 friends go bowling. You watch them bowl and after a while conclude Friend #1 has a constant error. Describe what this means and how your friend bowled on the first few frames that led you to this conclusion. You also conclude Friend #2 has a variable error. Describe what this means and how your friend bowled on the first few frames that led you to this conclusion. Based on the Wagman et al. article, what should you instruct Friend #1 to do to get rid of the constant error and what should you instruct Friend 2 to do to get rid of the variable error? (You of course bowled perfectly without either a constant or variable error.)
Questions integrating old and new topics:
I1) In the first half of the semester, you heard about recent experiments on the Out of Body Experience that were published in the journal Science. In the second half of the semester, you performed your own experiment on the severed body parts. What is the relation between these two effects/experiments? That is, in what important ways are they similar (what do they have in common?) and in what important ways do they differ? Finally, explain what each has to do with the concept of "body schema" (include a definition of body schema).
I2) In the first half of the semester, you heard and read about growth of the head in infants and its consequences for perceptual change. In the second half of the semester, you heard and read about space adaptation (prism adaptation) in adults. For each of these two effects, describe what the discrepancy between modalities might be (include what the modalities are, what the discrepancy is about, and how large the discrepancy might be). Second, recall on the Banks' handout, there were 3 different ways for the kid to learn he/she has made errors-which of these three is most relevant for adaptation that we've looked out for adults. Describe at least 1thing the two effects (the consequences of head growth in kids and space adaptation that we looked at in adults) have in common and at least 1 way in which they differ. Finally, do you think the process occurring in the kids' growth and the adult adaptation is the same process or a different process? Explain.
I3) In the first half of the semester, you learned about one of the major types of perceptual learning, that of perceptual expertise, and in the second half of the semester you learned about another major type of perceptual learning, that of perceptual adaptation. For each of the following 4 readings you've done, was the experiment conducted in the article more about perceptual expertise or about perceptual adaptation? Explain. The articles (in alphabetical order) are: Gibson & Gibson, O'Toole et al., Rock and Harris, Wagman et al.)
I4) Throughout the semester, we've touched (so to speak) on issues of perceiving our own bodies. Argue for or against the following statement "Even the perception of our own bodies is changed by experience". To make your argument, you must include each of the following 4 topics that we've discussed and/or read about: 1) changes with extensive tool use 2) localizing our own body in space 3) any disorder involving body schema 4) estimating the width of an object with just your hand following practice. Describe what each topic is and then discuss how they either contribute to your argument or are not relevant for your argument.
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Bonus: how do you know if you are dealing with a short-term resolution to a discrepancy (capture) or a long- term resolution of a discrepancy (adaptation)? Answer in no more than 125 words.
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Congratulations on finishing 8 projects and 2 difficult exams!
It's been a pleasure having you in the class.