Visual Information Processing, Essay Example

Research psychology has directed a good portion of its attention to the processing of visual information in humans especially. Conventional visual information process models explain how we see based on our attention, recognition, perception, and memory explains how we see. Besides that model, culture, aggression, and other emotional processes all influence how we see with normal vision.

First, culture influences how we see with normal vision (Boduroglu, Shah, & Nisbett, 2009). For example, East Asians are known to focus more on relative aspects of visual stimuli; while, Westerners focus on more obvious cues. An experiment was conducted that found that East Asians’ visual attention is broader than that of Americans.

Next, aggression influences how we see with normal vision (Huessman, 1988). When children see aggression acted out, they sometimes encode it into memory. When they see relevant retrieval cues, the likelihood they will re-enact the aggression increases. If they see enough aggression, are exposed to enough relevant retrieval cues, and act on them enough, these behavior patterns may continue throughout their lives. This is all in how we process visual stimuli.

Last, other emotional processes influence how we see with normal vision (Pourtoi, G., Delplanque, Michel, & Vuilleumier, 2008). It seems that emotionally charges visual stimuli are processed differently than other visual stimuli. Experimentation showed that when people are exposed to emotionally charge visual stimuli; scalp EEG readings differ from those of normal visual stimuli.

Conventional visual information process models explain how we see based on our attention, recognition, perception, and memory explains how we see. Besides that model, culture, aggression, and other emotional processes all influence how we see with normal vision. Research psychology has directed a good portion of its attention to the processing of visual information in humans especially.

References

Pourtoi, G., Delplanque, S., Michel, C. & Vuilleumier, P. (2008). Beyond Conventional Event-related Brain Potential (ERP): Exploring the Time-course of Visual Emotion Processing Using Topographic and Principal Component Analyses. Brain Topography, 20:256-277.

Huessman, L.R. (1988). An Information Processing Model for the Development of Aggression. Aggressive Behavior, 14: 13-24.

Boduroglu, A., Shah, P., & Nisbett, R.E. (2009). Cultural Differences in Allocation of Attention in Visual Information Processing. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 40(3): 349-360.