Perception (Psychology)

The Fourier phase spectrum plays a central role regarding where in an image contours occur, thereby defining the spatial relationship between those structures in the overall scene. Only a handful of studies have demonstrated
psychophysically the relevance of the Fourier phase spectrum with respect to human visual processing, and none have demonstrated the relative amount of local cross-scale spatial phase alignment needed to perceptually
extract meaningful structure from an image. We investigated the relative amount of spatial phase alignment needed for humans to perceptually match natural scene image structures at three different spatial frequencies [3, 6, and 12 cycles per degree (cpd)] as a function of the number of structures within the image (i.e., “structural sparseness”). The results showed that (1) the amount of spatial phase alignment needed to match structures depends on structural sparseness, with a bias for matching structures at 6 cpd and (2) the ability to match partially phase-randomized images at a given spatial frequency is independent of structural sparseness at other spatial frequencies. The findings of the current study are discussed in terms of a network of feature integrators in the human visual system.

La radio es uno de los medios de comunicación más propicios para contar historias. Su poder estimulador la ha convertido en un soporte idóneo para hacer soñar al oyente. Pero los relatos de ficción en la radio se han ido perdiendo y por ello este libro nace con el objetivo de recuperar esa magia, analizando sus beneficios, y explicando paso a paso cómo elaborar una historia de ficción en la radio. Para quienes quieran idear, escribir o producir relatos de ficción en la radio, es un gran libro de apoyo.

Dualist and Reductionist theories of mind disagree about whether or not consciousness can be reduced to a state of or function of the brain. They assume, however, that the contents of consciousness are separate from the external physical world as-perceived. According to the present paper this assumption has no foundation either in everyday experience or in science. Drawing on evidence for perceptual projection in both interoceptive and exteroceptive sense modalities, the case is made that the physical world as-perceived is a construct of perceptual processing and, therefore, part of the contents of consciousness. A finding which requires a Reflexive rather than a Dualist or Reductionist model of how consciousness relates to the brain and the physical world. The physical world as-perceived may, in turn be thought of as a biologically useful model of the world as described by physics. Redrawing the boundaries of consciousness to include the physical world as-perceived undermines the conventional separation of the 'mental' from the physical', and with it the very foundation of the Dualist-Reductionist debate. The alternative Reflexive model departs radically from current conventions, with consequences for many aspects of consciousness theory and research. Some of the consequences which bear on the internal consistency and intuitive plausibility of the model are explored, e.g. the causal sequence in perception, representationalism, a suggested resolution of the Realism versus Idealism debate, and the way manifest differences between physical events as-perceived and other conscious events (images, dreams, etc.) are to be construed.

The unconscious mind tends to disregard negations in its processing of semantic meaning. Therefore, messages containing negated concepts can ironically prime mental representations and evaluations that are opposite to those intended. We hypothesized that the subtle presentation of a negated concept (e.g., “no smoking”) would activate ironic motivational orientations as well. We tested this hypothesis in a public health context. Smokers viewed photographs in which no-smoking signs were either inconspicuously embedded (prime) or edited out (control). Primed smokers showed amplified automatic approach tendencies toward smoking-related stimuli, but not toward smoking-unrelated stimuli. Since passive priming effects generally serve to facilitate forms of action, not inhibit them, anti-smoking and other public health campaigns may ironically increase the very behaviors they seek to reduce.

La radio es voz. A través de ella se expresa y nos reclama. Es la voz del locutor con su amplia gama de recursos expresivos la que hace viva la comunicación y la conduce hasta nosotros. Dominar la locución entonces supone dominar el principal enlace entre la radio y el oyente. Este es el objetivo que se propone este libro: adquirir la versatilidad vocal necesaria que permita comunicar con eficacia cualquier contenido radiofónico. Cualquier estudiante o profesional de la voz, en especial, de la radio encontrará en estas páginas una guía que le ayudará a comprender todos los conceptos sobre locución para después aprender a manejarlos a través de una serie de ejercicios prácticos. Por tanto, no sólo sabrá cómo sino por qué debe emplear su voz de una manera determinada. Para ello, la obra se divide en dos partes: una primera dedicada a conocer y a educar la voz en las técnicas apropiadas y una segunda sobre el manejo de la locución aplicada a diversos contenidos. En definitiva, una obra fundamentada teóricamente pero con un fuerte componente práctico que aborda todo el fenómeno de la locución para que aquellos interesados en dominar su voz sean capaces de comunicar con eficacia expresiva cualquier mensaje radiofónico

Quiero ser locutor...o locutora. Cuántas veces a lo largo de los años chicos y chicas ilusionadas por la profesión te confiesan este deseo. Quiero ser locutor...pero no sé por dónde empezar. Generalmente son alumnos que ya han tenido contacto con algún medio de comunicación audiovisual y allí han descubierto que el micrófono es lo suyo. A otros les han dicho muchas veces aquello de ‘¡pero qué voz tienes! Y directamente quisieron dedicarse a ello. Unos por su manera de expresarse y otros por su voz han decidido que quieren dedicarse a la locución profesional. Pero, exactamente ¿qué es la locución?

Man, even though he may sometimes dream of being a pure spirit free from all material constraints, actually exists as a body in a world which is itself essentially constructed as a spatialized system of bodies; and in this constructed world features such as resistance, impenetrability, inertia, weight and forces are not accidents or exceptions but the rule.
The reflexions presented in this work aim at elucidating on a phenomenological level the relation that man entertains with the tangible aspects of his environment, and the function that this relation plays in the construction of the different sectors of his existence. The first of the sectors is perception: the opening on an ambient world that is pregnant with organisation and meaning. On the one hand, we shall take into account and conceptualize the way in which the tangibility of the world (the testing experience that the individual can have of resistance of his environment in the frame of a direct bodily relation with that environment, but more generally the understanding that the individual possesses of the very possibility of such a relation) participates in setting up the rationality by which man renders his world intelligible. On the other hand, we shall identify the structures of “subjectivity” (to speak the language of psychology, the structures of cognition) which make possible the specific way in which man constructs his experience and understanding of tangible resistance – whether this resistance is perceived in the context of an actual bodily engagement, or whether it is envisaged “indirectly” in the guise of a “simple” possibility.
We shall show here, on the basis of phenomenological analyses as well as elements coming from empirical psychology (experimental psychology as well as neuropsychology), that the relation that man has with the resistance of his ambient world depends on an opening towards the possible; and that the organisation of the ambient world in the form of a space which can contain material structures, or structures capable of opposing a resistance to the body, depends on a rationality which consists of making phenomena intelligible by interpreting them with reference to those capacities for action and for passion which the body confers on us, to the power that the body provides us with and the constraints to which it submits us.
Thus, even though the realm of material things – tangible objects, bodies – functions as an archetype of “presence” and of “being” (indeed, what is more “real” than a body?), in the last resort it gains its phenomenal character from the fact that it crystallizes for the person who perceives it a stream of virtual possibilities; hence, the here-and-now presence of the “tangible world” is in an essential way indebted to the realm of that which is not actually realized.

Seguro que a nadie le sorprende en el día a día escuchar a una estrella de Hollywood hablando un perfecto castellano, catalán o gallego. El doblaje forma ya parte de nuestras vidas gracias a la tradición histórica y a la calidad con la que se lleva a cabo en nuestro país. Sin embargo, a pesar de esta aparente familiaridad, muy pocos conocen qué se esconde tras esta actividad a la que se dedican muchos profesionales: traductores, directores, actores o mezcladores de sonido. Precisamente este libro descubre la labor de cada uno de ellos, describiendo el proceso íntegro del doblaje, desde el momento de recepción de la obra hasta su montaje final. Y lo hace de un modo comprensible, con un estilo ameno, ilustrado por anécdotas y curiosidades contadas por ellos mismos. Se trata, en definitiva, de una obra dirigida tanto a locutores, actores, traductores, como a todos aquellos que quieran conocer más sobre el doblaje y descubrir así un mundo fascinante, que por su propia esencia, prefiere permanecer en la sombra.

En una sociedad influenciada por los medios de comunicación audiovisual y sustentada en la educación formal por la enseñanza del lenguaje escrito y audiovisual, se hace imprescindible recuperar la formación educativa en las estructuras orales. La cultura auditiva ha sido la gran olvidada aún cuando es imprescindible en el desarrollo del lenguaje, como principal instrumento de acceso al conocimiento y relación con el exterior. En este sentido, la radio, como medio estrictamente sonoro y fuente de estimulación de la imaginación, que posibilita la capacitación en la escucha y el aprendizaje del lenguaje oral, se presenta como la fuente propicia para cumplir con estos objetivos formativos.

What is space? Why is there space rather than nothing? Nowadays Physics claims to answer these questions without making any reference to the phenomenal space of the subject, and thus in total rupture with respect to its phenomenological meaning. We defend the idea that this elusion, although traditional in natural sciences, condemns in advance any attempt to explain space. And we will show that perceptual space is structured by a connection to possibilities. Spatialization is an operation affording us to understand the beings by embodying in the structure of the world the opportunities we can rely on.

The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) Patient Safety Program Office of the TRICARE Management Activity (TMA) provides training and support for the health-care facilities operated by military services to help strengthen their use of effective teamwork practices. In 2002, TMA funded a study aimed to assess the effects of teamwork training for labor and delivery teams on patient safety and other outcomes for mothers and newborns (Nielsen et al., 2007). The study presented in this report is a successor to the 2002 study, with the goal of addressing a number of the issues raised from the earlier study's findings. Using a case-study design, the study has focused on learning from the experiences of five labor and delivery units in implementing teamwork practices for the staff working in their units. Through a combination of process and outcome assessments, using site visits, interviews, staff surveys, and analysis of patient outcomes, the study sought to understand what is required for ...

D’Espagnat holds, as the Buddha taught, that sense impressions and sensations are real, as are our sense organs. In sight and color, both the photons or waves as well as the retinal cones are real, and their interactions create our vision. The same is true of our other sensations. This is the middle way of understanding our place in reality. We do not have to seek our ultimate participation in it; we are a part of
it. However, in our ignorance, we take our cognitive representations or pictures of reality to be reality itself. But under certain meditative conditions, we can understand how our subject/object dualistic world creates this illusion – the illusion that creates our ignorance

Music is a divine power and universal language that can be understood by non professionals also. Music is one of the most mystical powers that can affect the individual without getting noticed and can hypnotise to act accordingly or can have an amazing impact on mood, mind, personality and behaviour. This proposed research paper would reveal how listening of music can impact individual's personality according to the inclination of music depending on gender (male/female). The result was, an eye opener to the fact that listening of music as therapy has main relation to the one's personality and each individual 's choice of music is the reflection of their personality unlike its dependency on gender aspect.

We explored the relation between individual differences in working memory (WM) and color constancy, the phenomenon of color perception that allows us to perceive the color of an object as relatively stable under changes in illumination. Successive color constancy (measured by first viewing a colored surface under a particular illumination and later recalling it under a new illumination) was better for higher WM individuals than for lower WM individuals. Moreover, the magnitude of this WM difference depended on how much contextual information was available in the scene, which typically improves color constancy. By contrast, simple color memory, measured by viewing and recalling a colored surface under the same illumination, showed no significant relation to WM. This study reveals a relation between WM and a low-level perceptual process not previously thought to operate within the confines of attentional control, and it provides a first account of the individual differences in color constancy known about for decades.

One of the fundamental elements to construct a radio fiction product from the point of view of the sound is the denominated point of listening or ‘point icí’ of Souriau. The point of listening represents the space relation existing between the listener and the rest of the sound objects of the scene. Its importance is then in which it determines the place from which the sound perspective settles, forming the space and expressive meaning. For all these reasons, it is decisive in the perception process that the listener makes of a radio product. In spite of this, years of experience in the realization of fiction products on radio demonstrate that the suitable location of the point of listening is one of the most complicated aspects: the eternal problem. Therefore, the preoccupation by this aspect has taken to us to analyze 30 fiction stories on radio with the objective of finding the main problems of location of the point of listening and establishing a catalogue of errors that helps in the education of the radio production. The results indicate that 25 of 30 stories contain some error in the positioning of the point of listening.

The study of preconscious versus conscious processing has an extensive history in cognitive psychology, dating back to the writings of William James. Much of the experimental work on this issue has focused on perception, conceived of as input analysis, and on the relation of consciousness to attentional processing. The present paper examines when input analysis becomes conscious from the perspectives of cognitive modelling, methodology, and a more detailed understanding of what is meant by "conscious processing." Current evidence suggests that perception becomes conscious at a late-arising stage of focal-attentive processing concerned with information integration and dissemination. Reliable criteria for determining when perception becomes conscious combine the evidence of "first-person," phenomenological reports with "third-person" functional dissociations between preconscious and conscious processing. There are three, distinct senses in which a process may be said to be "conscious." It might be "conscious" (a) in the sense that one is conscious of the process, (b) in the sense that the operation of the process is accompanied by consciousness (of its results) and (c) in the sense that consciousness enters into or causally influences the process. Consciousness of familiar stimuli, rather than entering into input analysis, appears to follow it, in human information processing. Processes closely associated with the appearance of consciousness such as information integration and dissemination appear to operate unconsciously. Consequently, perception appears to be "conscious" only in sense (b).

Cross-cultural comparisons of color perception and cognition often feature versions of the “similarity sorting”
procedure. By interpreting the assignment of two color samples to different groups as an indication that the dis-
similarity between them exceeds some threshold, sorting data can be regarded as low-resolution similarity judg-
ments. Here we analyze sorting data from speakers of Italian, Russian, and English, applying multidimensional
scaling to delineatethe boundaries between perceptual categories while highlighting differencesbetweenthe three
populations. Stimuli were 55 color swatches, predominantly from the blue region. Results suggest that at least two Italian words for “blue”are basic, a similar situation to Russian, in contrast to English where a single“blue” term is basic.

In cognitive science, there is an ongoing debate about the architecture of the mind: does it consist of a number of mental “organs” each managing a different function in isolation, or is it more of general processor, adaptable to a wide range of tasks? One corner of this debate has centered on face processing. This is because face-perception is crucial to normal human functioning and some evidence shows that faces may be processed by the brain in a privileged way compared to other types of stimuli. For example, in EEG brain recordings, the N170 is a characteristic signal that occurs after a participant is exposed to an image of a face, but it is much less pronounced when other stimuli are shown. More than 15 years of research on the “N170 face effect” have yielded the standard view that the N170 is at the very least face-sensitive, and possibly even face-specific, that is, indexing modular processes tied exclusively to facial geometries. The specificity claim is clearly stronger, and hence subject to significant controversy; while the more conservative “sensitivity” claim had been regarded (until recently) as effectively settled. Nevertheless, Thierry and colleagues, in a contentious 2007 article, sought to undermine even this ‘conservative’ consensus: they argued that the apparent face-responsiveness of the N170 in prior research was due to systematic flaws in experimental design. Fiery debate has followed. In this review, we put the debate in its historical and philosophical context, and try to spell out some of the theoretical and logical assumptions that underlie the claims of the competing camps. We then show that the best available evidence counts, at least partially, against the Thierry et al. construal of the N170. Accordingly, it would be premature to abandon the “conservative” account of the N170, according to which it is—minimally—responsive to faces. We conclude by returning to the more controversial claim about face-specificity, and try to clarify what such a view would entail from a theoretical standpoint.

Few studies have investigated the possible role of higher-level cognitive mechanisms in color constancy. Follow- ing up on previous work with successive color constancy [J. Exper. Psychol. Learn. Mem. Cogn. 37, 1014 (2011)], the current study examined the relation between simultaneous color constancy and working memory—the ability to maintain a desired representation while suppressing irrelevant information. Higher working memory was associated with poorer simultaneous color constancy of a chromatically complex stimulus. Ways in which the executive attention mechanism of working memory may account for this are discussed. This finding supports a role for higher-level cognitive mechanisms in color constancy and is the first to demonstrate a relation between simultaneous color constancy and a complex cognitive ability.

Resumen:
Introducción. El creciente interés por los déficit cognitivos que presentan los pacientes con enfermedad de Parkinson ha dado lugar a la proliferación de trabajos sobre este tema durante los últimos años. En el presente artículo se revisa la alteración visuoespacial en dichos pacientes, que habitualmente se relaciona con otros trastornos como los que afectan a la planificación, la secuenciación, la atención o los procesos de la memoria. Desarrollo. Se exponen los hallazgos más relevantes que apuntan a que la existencia de esas
alteraciones visuoespaciales que muestran los pacientes con enfermedad de Parkinson no son siempre secundarias a otros déficit cognitivos de tipo frontal, como se ha afirmado en los últimos años, sino que pueden deberse a trastornos en otros puntos anteriores del proceso perceptivo (como consecuencia de la deficiencia dopaminérgica en el circuito basal-talámico-cortical). Para ello, se clasifican los trastornos visuoperceptivos en función de su localización cerebral: desde la retina hasta el núcleo geniculado lateral, la corteza visual y la corteza extraestriada, y, finalmente, la corteza frontal y prefrontal. Conclusiones. Se propone la presente clasificación de los trastornos según la localización de los mismos en aras de una selección objetiva de la muestra y de las pruebas neuropsicológicas utilizadas en los estudios. Es deseable, a este respecto, un mayor consenso entre los investigadores a la hora de diseñar las investigaciones que versen sobre alteraciones visuoespaciales en los pacientes con enfermedad de Parkinson.
Palabras clave:
Corteza visual. Enfermedad de Parkinson. Neuropsicología.
Percepción visual. Trastornos cognitivos. Trastornos
perceptivos.

Abstract:
Introduction. The growing interest in the cognitive impairment shown by patients with Parkinson’s disease has led to a wealth of research in this line over recent years. In this paper we review the visuospatial alterations in these patients, which are usually linked to other disorders such as those affecting planning, sequencing, attention or mnemonic processes. Development. We report the most relevant findings, which suggest that the existence of these visuospatial disorders shown by patients with Parkinson’s disease are not always secondary to other frontal-type cognitive impairments, as has been claimed in recent years. Instead, they may be due to disorders in other anterior points of the perceptive process (as a result of dopaminergic deficits in basal-thalamic-cortical circuits). Thus, visuoperceptual disorders are classified according to their location in the brain: from the retina to the lateral geniculate nucleus, the visual cortex and the extrastriate cortex and, finally, the frontal and prefrontal cortex. Conclusions. We propose this classification of the disorders according to their location to aid in achieving an objective selection of the sample and of the neuropsychological tests used in studies. In this regard, we consider that there should be a higher degree of agreement among researchers when it comes to designing research projects that deal with visuospatial disorders in patients with Parkinson’s disease.
Key words:
Cognitive disorders. Neuropsychology. Parkinson’s disease. Perceptive disorders. Visual cortex. Visual perception.

Several psychological theories of perception claim that the possible is something we perceive. Typically, the ecological approach holds that perception provides direct access to opportunities for action potentiated by the structures of the environment. Is such a claim legitimate? Can we actually perceive the possible? If perception plugs our mind into reality, should we not be freed from perception to gain access to possibilities? Therefore, shouldn’t the possible be conceived rather than perceived, something we have knowledge of, not something we see?
Answering these questions requires examining whether the thesis that the possible is perceived is consistent with: (a) the phenomenological structure of the perceived object, (b) our models of the perception mechanisms, especially the standard causal model. This inquiry will show that if, in a strict phenomenological sense, the possible is not something appearing in the same way as perceived objectities, it nevertheless contributes to determine the organization and semantics of the perceived environment. The possible as such is not seen, but it gives structure, form and meaning to the world that appears in perception.

FRENCH ABSTRACT
Différentes théories psychologiques de la perception soutiennent aujourd’hui que le possible est quelque chose que nous percevons. Pour l’approche écologique par exemple, la perception fournit un accès direct aux possibilités d’action potentialisées par les structures de l’environnement. Cette idée est-elle légitime ? Peut-on réellement percevoir le possible ? Si la perception nous branche sur le réel, ne faut-il pas justement se libérer de la perception pour accéder au possible ? Dès lors, le possible n’est-il pas plutôt pensé que perçu, l’objet d’un savoir et non pas d’un voir ?
Répondre à ces questions nécessite d’examiner si la thèse que le possible est perçu est en cohérence avec : (a) la structure phénoménologique de l’objet perçu ; (b) nos modèles du fonctionnement de la perception, en particulier le modèle causal standard. Cet examen permet de montrer que si, dans un sens phénoménologique strict, le possible n’est pas quelque chose qui apparaît sur le mode de l’objectité perçue, il contribue néanmoins à déterminer l’organisation et la sémantique de l’environnement perçu. Le possible comme tel n’est pas perçu, mais il confère structure, forme et sens au monde qui apparaît dans la perception.

Countless studies, articles, and opinion pieces have announced that U.S. strategic communication and public diplomacy are in crisis and are inadequate to meet current demand. There is consensus that such capabilities are critical and that they need to be improved. This paper reviews contemporary thinking regarding the advancement of U.S. strategic communication, cataloging recent recommendations and identifying common themes and the frequency with which they are endorsed. Based on the recommendations put forth by the 36 selected documents and articulated in more than a dozen interviews with stakeholders and subject-matter experts, findings indicate that four core themes capture consensus recommendations: (1) a call for "leadership," (2) demand for increased resources for strategic communication and public diplomacy, (3) a call for a clear definition of an overall strategy, and (4) the need for better coordination and organizational changes or additions. This paper also dis...