Human beings are amazing visual processors. The way we can distinguish between essential and nonessential elements of the environment is quite astounding if you reflect on it

PSYC341 Memory and Cognition

Week 2 Discussion

Choose one of the topics below to use for this discussion.  Please make sure your initial post is 2-3 paragraphs in length.  Feel free to use supporting documentation (other resources) as well.

Option 1

Human beings are amazing visual processors. The way we can distinguish between essential and nonessential elements of the environment is quite astounding if you reflect on it. In particular, human beings are extremely adept at recognizing familiar faces. When you realize that faces are not comprised of too many elements (nose, mouth, shape of face, etc.), you begin to realize the complexity of this ability and cease to take for granted the ease with which most people make facial distinctions.

How good are you at recognizing faces? How important is context in that recognition? Can you describe a time you “knew” a face but could not place it? Are some people better at recognizing faces than others? Where do you fall on this spectrum?

Option 2

You read about bottom-up and top-down perceptual processing this week. Define each of these, and provide an example of each that has occurred (or could occur) in your life. Which of these processes do you feel you use more? Why?