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Association and differentiation in perceptual learning
WAHRNEHMUNG IJ/qD LERNEN
325
Or, le d6veloppement des op6rations de l'intelligence rel~:ve aussi en pattie des processus d'fquilibrations. (Pour plus de d(~tails vois notre ouvrage sur Les mdcanismes perceptgfs, Pari~ (Presses Unlversitaires de France), 1961, chap. It et HI.)
ASSOCIATION AND DIFFERENTIATION
IN PERCEPTUAL
LEARNING ELEANOR J. GIBSON Ithaca, N.Y. (USA) It has been assumed by many psychologists that perceptual learning is an associative or inferential process which converts "sensation" into "perception". But the distinction between sensation and perception has become less and less tenabIe. If it be dropped, must we abandon the notion of perceptual learning? Nativism is not the alternative, if a new concept of the stimulus and of the nature of perceptual learning are adopted. First, the stimulus mast be redefined as an array of energy, not as a single point. Tile array of energy surrounding the organism at any given moment consists of a vast set of potential stimuli to be explored and discovered. Perception, in such an environment, begins as only crudely differentiated and grossly selective. But with growth, and increased exposure to the world of stimulation, perception becomes more differentiated and discrimination more and more precise. Also, there occurs discovery and detection of new features of stimulation rrever previously apprehended. Thus, perceptual learning is not "learning to see what ~;s not thcre"; neither is it making guesses or inferences from clues by reference to a "schema". it is, instead, learning to see more of, and to discriminate better, what is there. More of the potential stimulation becomes effective. How does this change occur? Our best way to find out will be to examine a number of cases of perceptual learning. Improvement in precision (Iowered limens), rem?ganization (as in finding embedded figures), detection of qualities and features (e.g., learning to hear "distinctive features" in speech), identification of objects, identification of "coded stimuli" (e.g., speech and reading), and adaptation to distortion are cases which may involve different processes. Selective processes, such as attention, feedback from sense organ adjustment, and reinforcement m a y be involved. In the detection of new features, a kind of abstractive process seems to occur. The
326
THEMA 8
"distinctive feature" recurs in stimulation, but with small variations and in r;ew combinations from which the invariant property can be abstracted. Where does association come in? In the identification of "coded stimuli" it appears to play a major role in the matching of the items of the code. But the "cue" items of the code (e.g., written words) must first become discriminable as unique items; then they tnay be linked associatively to the already discriminated half of the code (the spoken words). It is thus possible to say that association and diff~:~entiation both occur in perceptual learning, but only if the foregoing distiJ :tions are made.
ON T H E R E F L E C T O R Y O R I G I N OF VISUAL P E R C E P T I O N O F OBJECTS A. V. ZAPORO~HETS Moscow (USSR)
While there exist quite a variety of viewpoints on the .,rigin of perception, there are two main theoretical izes in the development of this psychological problem. One of them, phenomenal, starts with the feelings of the subject as originally given. It ignores material activity of the subject in relation to the object, which is the cause of the feelings. The second line stems from objective conditions oL material activity of the subject, and studies how in the process of this activity an adequate reflection of the environment appears, the reflection which is necessary for successful adjustment to the environment and purposeful changing of the latter. This materialistic approach to the problem opens ways to really scientific, cause-genetic study of perception, and allows a psychologist to use as a basis the reflex theory by Seehenov and Parlor, and in particular their teaching about exploratory reflexes, which pays especially serious attention to orienting movements of pereeptory apparatus for the analyses of the qualities of the perceived stimuli. In the activity, of man one can differentiate between the executive part, the system of executive movements which wifi immediately give certain practical results, and the orientiug part which is a system of orienting zcfions. Their function is to form a copy, an adequate image of the object, reproducing its features, forming, a "likeness" (Leontiev) of the latter. Orienting movements originally appear and develop as organic parts
325
Or, le d6veloppement des op6rations de l'intelligence rel~:ve aussi en pattie des processus d'fquilibrations. (Pour plus de d(~tails vois notre ouvrage sur Les mdcanismes perceptgfs, Pari~ (Presses Unlversitaires de France), 1961, chap. It et HI.)
ASSOCIATION AND DIFFERENTIATION
IN PERCEPTUAL
LEARNING ELEANOR J. GIBSON Ithaca, N.Y. (USA) It has been assumed by many psychologists that perceptual learning is an associative or inferential process which converts "sensation" into "perception". But the distinction between sensation and perception has become less and less tenabIe. If it be dropped, must we abandon the notion of perceptual learning? Nativism is not the alternative, if a new concept of the stimulus and of the nature of perceptual learning are adopted. First, the stimulus mast be redefined as an array of energy, not as a single point. Tile array of energy surrounding the organism at any given moment consists of a vast set of potential stimuli to be explored and discovered. Perception, in such an environment, begins as only crudely differentiated and grossly selective. But with growth, and increased exposure to the world of stimulation, perception becomes more differentiated and discrimination more and more precise. Also, there occurs discovery and detection of new features of stimulation rrever previously apprehended. Thus, perceptual learning is not "learning to see what ~;s not thcre"; neither is it making guesses or inferences from clues by reference to a "schema". it is, instead, learning to see more of, and to discriminate better, what is there. More of the potential stimulation becomes effective. How does this change occur? Our best way to find out will be to examine a number of cases of perceptual learning. Improvement in precision (Iowered limens), rem?ganization (as in finding embedded figures), detection of qualities and features (e.g., learning to hear "distinctive features" in speech), identification of objects, identification of "coded stimuli" (e.g., speech and reading), and adaptation to distortion are cases which may involve different processes. Selective processes, such as attention, feedback from sense organ adjustment, and reinforcement m a y be involved. In the detection of new features, a kind of abstractive process seems to occur. The
326
THEMA 8
"distinctive feature" recurs in stimulation, but with small variations and in r;ew combinations from which the invariant property can be abstracted. Where does association come in? In the identification of "coded stimuli" it appears to play a major role in the matching of the items of the code. But the "cue" items of the code (e.g., written words) must first become discriminable as unique items; then they tnay be linked associatively to the already discriminated half of the code (the spoken words). It is thus possible to say that association and diff~:~entiation both occur in perceptual learning, but only if the foregoing distiJ :tions are made.
ON T H E R E F L E C T O R Y O R I G I N OF VISUAL P E R C E P T I O N O F OBJECTS A. V. ZAPORO~HETS Moscow (USSR)
While there exist quite a variety of viewpoints on the .,rigin of perception, there are two main theoretical izes in the development of this psychological problem. One of them, phenomenal, starts with the feelings of the subject as originally given. It ignores material activity of the subject in relation to the object, which is the cause of the feelings. The second line stems from objective conditions oL material activity of the subject, and studies how in the process of this activity an adequate reflection of the environment appears, the reflection which is necessary for successful adjustment to the environment and purposeful changing of the latter. This materialistic approach to the problem opens ways to really scientific, cause-genetic study of perception, and allows a psychologist to use as a basis the reflex theory by Seehenov and Parlor, and in particular their teaching about exploratory reflexes, which pays especially serious attention to orienting movements of pereeptory apparatus for the analyses of the qualities of the perceived stimuli. In the activity, of man one can differentiate between the executive part, the system of executive movements which wifi immediately give certain practical results, and the orientiug part which is a system of orienting zcfions. Their function is to form a copy, an adequate image of the object, reproducing its features, forming, a "likeness" (Leontiev) of the latter. Orienting movements originally appear and develop as organic parts