Humans have large neural networks devoted to the processing of
sensory information that delivers the information into the higher levels of
cognition. Individuals process incoming
information from their senses in the brain in order to allow individuals to
see, hear, smell, taste, and touch things, recognize these things and then
process in the information into their memory for use later. The largest devotement of neural processing
is in processing visual information in order to allow individuals to process
and recognize the information that they are seeing in front of them at any
given time. This paper is going to describe the visual information processing,
explain two conditions that impair visual information processing, and discuss
the current trends in the research of visual information processing and how
they advance understanding of visual information processing.
Visual Information Process
Visual information is received to a person and is processed in a
certain sequence of steps that will take the visual information from the visual
sensors and process it to the cognitive processing; this is visual processing
in a person. In visual information processing, according to McMains (2008), it
is a set of skills that individuals use in order to gather visual information
from the environment and integrate the information with our other senses. In
order to figure out what a person is seeing the information is processed in the
person’s brain so that meaning to it can be derived. According to McMains
(2008), incorporating the information received from the senses with past
experiences, motivation and development, and other things allows a person to
derive understanding and meaning from what is being experienced (para. 1).
Visual information processing is also known as visual perceptual processing
which can be broken into three components including visual spatial skills,
visual analysis skills, and visual integration skills.
In visual spatial skills a person is required to observe an object
and then accurately report the object’s relationship in space relative to your
own self (McMains, 2008). In this a person is visually projecting themselves,
their body, into the world so that the person can understand directional
concepts in order to organize the visual space.
A person saying that something is to the left doesn’t mean anything to
the person unless the person has a point of references to start with. Essentially the person is proclaiming that
the object to the left is actually to the left of that person. According to
McMains (2008), this skill allows a person to make judgments about the world in
relation to “me” or the person that is making the judgment.
In visual analysis skills, these are a group of abilities which
are used to recognize, recall, and manipulate visual information (McMains,
2008). Visual analysis allows a person to be able to make judgments of size,
position, shape, and distance. Visual analysis according to Anderson (2010),
comes in form perception which is the ability to differentiate and recognize
forms, visual attention which is the ability to focus consciousness on the
requirements of a task, perception speed which is the ability to perform visual
processing tasks rapidly with minimal cognitive effort, and visual memory which
is the ability to recall visually presented material (p. 114). A person uses
these skills in learning so that the person can remember information, recognize
and remember letters, numbers, and words. In visual integration or visual motor
integration skills it is often more commonly referred to as a person’s hand-eye
coordination, but it the general ability of the person to coordinate visual
information processing skills with the person’s motor skills (McMains, 2008).
Conditions that Impair Processing
One condition that can affect a person’s ability to process visual
information is called visual agnosia. Visual agnosia according to Koller
(2012), is an impairment in the recognition of visually presented objects.
Visual agnosia comes in two types apperceptive and associative which are the
two primary levels that recognition occurs at, both of which are not due to
vision deficits, memory, low intellect, or language. According to Koller (2012),
at the apperceptive level the visual data received by the retina is organized
to form a perceptual representation of something while at the associative level
the meaning of an object is attached to the perceptual representation and the
item can be identified. An individual that displays difficulty in being able to
recognize objects or items due to the fact that the individual is unable to
perceive the correct forms of the items in question thought their knowledge of
the items is intact; then apperceptive agnosia may be the reason. If however a
person is able to recall or perceive the form of the item and has knowledge of
the item but is unable to come up with the name or identify it then it is
associative agnosia. Visual agnosia according to Koller (2012), is often due to
bilateral damage in the posterior occipital and or the temporal lobes in the
brain.
Another condition that a person may have which can impact their
visual information processing is visual spatial processing disorder. This according to Catarci, Costabile, and
Mussio (2007), is a disorder in which a person is unable to distinguish between
the spacing of two or more objects or the relationship between the objects. In
this disorder individuals may find it hard to tell the difference between the
letters p and q since both take up the same amount of space but are in reverse
of one another. Other things such as a missing door knob from a door may be
hard for the person to distinguish and the person may keep attempting to open
the door or a missing word or object may be hard to distinguish as it is
missing from a sentence.
Trends in Research and Advance Understanding
Accoridng to Catarci et., al. (2007), as more research is putting
into understanding the brain and cognitive processes more discoveries are being
made about how a person’s brain is devoted to vision either directly or
indirectly. Even parts of the brain that are small and simple support complex
functions of processing like visual illusions, which means that by knowing this
information predictions can be made about how the brain may function if damage
happens to these parts or the parts have to be removed for any reason such as
cancer or tumors. This leads to a better understanding of how the brain
functions to process visual information, as it was previously thought that
there was a hierarchy which has not been realized is not the case. In a person the brain’s different regions function
cooperatively together to process visual information which means that a better
understanding of this process leads to better understands of what happens when
parts of the brain go down or there is a glitch in the cooperative system
somewhere. Additionally more insight into how the brain functions and different
parts of the brain being responsible for different aspects of visual processing
means that there is greater information in how researchers can help individuals
with visual information processing conditions.
Individuals with conditions like the ones listed above benefit from the
greater knowledge gained as researchers learn how to better help these
individuals later on.
Conclusion
Humans have large neural networks devoted to the processing of sensory
information that delivers the information into the higher levels of
cognition. Individuals process incoming
information from their senses in the brain in order to allow individuals to
see, hear, smell, taste, and touch things, recognize these things and then
process in the information into their memory for use later. The largest devotement of neural processing
is in processing visual information in order to allow individuals to process
and recognize the information that they are seeing in front of them at any
given time. This paper described the visual information processing, explained
two conditions that impair visual information processing, and discussed the
current trends in the research of visual information processing and how they
advanced understanding of visual information processing.
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