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Psychonomic Bulletin & Review Dec 2023Previous studies have demonstrated that visual memory is improved when stimuli are processed by larger cortical regions. For example, a physically large stimulus that...
Previous studies have demonstrated that visual memory is improved when stimuli are processed by larger cortical regions. For example, a physically large stimulus that recruits larger areas of the retinotopic cortex is better remembered. However, the spatial extent of neural responses in the visual cortex is not only modulated by the retinal size of a stimulus, but also by the perceived size of the stimulus. In this online study, we modulated the perceived size of the visual stimuli using the Ebbinghaus illusion and asked participants to remember the stimuli. The results showed that perceptually larger images were remembered better than perceptually smaller but physically same-sized images. Our finding supports the idea that visual memory is modulated by top-down feedback from higher visual regions to the early visual cortex.
Topics: Humans; Memory; Illusions; Mental Recall; Brain Mapping; Photic Stimulation; Visual Perception
PubMed: 37268748
DOI: 10.3758/s13423-023-02313-2 -
ELife Aug 2021The pupil provides a rich, non-invasive measure of the neural bases of perception and cognition and has been of particular value in uncovering the role of arousal-linked...
The pupil provides a rich, non-invasive measure of the neural bases of perception and cognition and has been of particular value in uncovering the role of arousal-linked neuromodulation, which alters both cortical processing and pupil size. But pupil size is subject to a multitude of influences, which complicates unique interpretation. We measured pupils of observers experiencing perceptual multistability-an ever-changing subjective percept in the face of unchanging but inconclusive sensory input. In separate conditions, the endogenously generated perceptual changes were either task-relevant or not, allowing a separation between perception-related and task-related pupil signals. Perceptual changes were marked by a complex pupil response that could be decomposed into two components: a dilation tied to task execution and plausibly indicative of an arousal-linked noradrenaline surge, and an overlapping constriction tied to the perceptual transient and plausibly a marker of altered visual cortical representation. Constriction, but not dilation, amplitude systematically depended on the time interval between perceptual changes, possibly providing an overt index of neural adaptation. These results show that the pupil provides a simultaneous reading on interacting but dissociable neural processes during perceptual multistability, and suggest that arousal-linked neuromodulator release shapes action but not perception in these circumstances.
Topics: Adult; Arousal; Attention; Humans; Pupil; Visual Perception; Young Adult
PubMed: 34378532
DOI: 10.7554/eLife.66161 -
Current Opinion in Psychology Jun 2020Humans build hierarchical relations, in which they coordinate according to rankings. Rankings need to be mentally represented in order to be communicated and... (Review)
Review
Humans build hierarchical relations, in which they coordinate according to rankings. Rankings need to be mentally represented in order to be communicated and constituted. These mental representations are grounded: They depend on the body and its interactions with the physical and social environment. The review reports evidence from four fields on the nature of this grounding. Work on nonverbal behavior shows that rank is inferred from various magnitudes related to bodily size and strength. Conversely, rank is envisioned using the same magnitudes. Schematized versions of these and other magnitude and dimensional cues influence cognition about ranks. Finally, cognition about ranks shows characteristics of magnitude. These lines of work converge in the conclusion that humans have developed a general representation of rank as a magnitude grounded in bodily size and strength.
Topics: Cognition; Cues; Hierarchy, Social; Humans; Pattern Recognition, Visual; Size Perception
PubMed: 31751922
DOI: 10.1016/j.copsyc.2019.09.012 -
Attention, Perception & Psychophysics Oct 2020Intersensory interactions predicted by the sensory precision hypothesis have been infrequently examined by distorting the reliability of size perception by touch....
Intersensory interactions predicted by the sensory precision hypothesis have been infrequently examined by distorting the reliability of size perception by touch. Consequently, participants were asked to see one size and manually feel another unseen size either with bare fingers or with fingers sleeved in rigid tubes to decrease the precision of touch. Their subsequent visual estimates of the perceived size favored the more precise modality. Experiment 1 (N = 46) varied the intersensory discordance to examine whether the estimate arose from trivial response biases or from perceptual binding effects. Experiment 2 (N = 32) examined the presence of the perceptual effect in the absence of discordant sensory cues. Results favored a perceptual interpretation because the haptic and visual cues merged regardless of the discordance amount only when the stimulation arose from separate sources. The observed interaction between touch imprecision and visual bias is consistent with computational models of optimal perception.
Topics: Humans; Reproducibility of Results; Size Perception; Touch; Touch Perception; Visual Perception
PubMed: 32686063
DOI: 10.3758/s13414-020-02082-3 -
Attention, Perception & Psychophysics May 2024The link between various codes of magnitude and their interactions has been studied extensively for many years. In the current study, we examined how the physical and...
The link between various codes of magnitude and their interactions has been studied extensively for many years. In the current study, we examined how the physical and numerical magnitudes of digits are mapped into a combined mental representation. In two psychophysical experiments, participants reported the physically larger digit among two digits. In the identical condition, participants compared digits of an identical value (e.g., "2" and "2"); in the different condition, participants compared digits of distinct numerical values (i.e., "2" and "5"). As anticipated, participants overestimated the physical size of a numerically larger digit and underestimated the physical size of a numerically smaller digit. Our results extend the shared-representation account of physical and numerical magnitudes.
Topics: Humans; Size Perception; Pattern Recognition, Visual; Male; Female; Young Adult; Judgment; Psychophysics; Adult; Attention; Discrimination, Psychological
PubMed: 38639857
DOI: 10.3758/s13414-024-02875-w -
Proceedings of the Institution of... Sep 2023A multitude of sensory modalities are involved in humans' experience of wetness, yet we know little of the integratory role of vision. Therefore, the aim was to quantify...
A multitude of sensory modalities are involved in humans' experience of wetness, yet we know little of the integratory role of vision. Therefore, the aim was to quantify the effect of physical stain volume, chroma and size on wetness perception, and to compare wetness perception under different sensory conditions, including visuotactile and visual only interactions. Eighteen participants visually observed and/or used their index fingerpad to dynamically interact with stimuli varying in physical wetness (0, 2.16 × 10 or 3.45 × 10 ml mm), stain chroma (clear, light, dark) and stain size (1150 or 5000 mm). After interaction participants rated wetness perception using a visual analogue scale (very dry to very wet). In visual only conditions participants were able to differentiate between dry and wet stimuli, and could also discriminate between different magnitudes of wetness with the addition of tactile cues. In both visual only and visuotactile conditions greater stain chroma resulted in increased wetness perception. Stain size did not have a significant effect in either condition. These results show that visual cues influence wetness perception ( = 0.29), but indicate that visual dominance does not apply in these sensory integrations. Findings are relevant for the design of products with wetness management properties.
Topics: Humans; Visual Perception
PubMed: 37615312
DOI: 10.1177/09544119231189105 -
Scientific Reports May 2022Motion-in-depth perception is critical in enabling animals to avoid hazards and respond to potential threats. For humans, important visual cues for motion-in-depth...
Motion-in-depth perception is critical in enabling animals to avoid hazards and respond to potential threats. For humans, important visual cues for motion-in-depth include changing disparity (CD) and changing image size (CS). The interpretation and integration of these cues depends upon multiple scene parameters, such as distance moved, object size and viewing distance, posing a significant computational challenge. We show that motion-in-depth cue integration depends upon sensitivity to the joint probabilities of the scene parameters determining these signals, and on the probability of CD and CS signals co-occurring. Models that took these factors into account predicted human performance in speed-in-depth and cue conflict discrimination tasks, where standard linear integration models could not. These results suggest that cue integration is affected by both the uncertainty of sensory signals and the mapping of those signals to real-world properties. Evidence of a role for such mappings demonstrates the importance of scene and image statistics to the processes underpinning cue integration and the perception of motion-in-depth.
Topics: Cues; Depth Perception; Motion; Motion Perception; Vision Disparity
PubMed: 35562584
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-12051-5 -
Psychological Research Sep 2022Body re-sizing illusions can profoundly alter perception of our own body. We investigated whether creating the illusion of a muscled and fit-looking back (Strong)...
Body re-sizing illusions can profoundly alter perception of our own body. We investigated whether creating the illusion of a muscled and fit-looking back (Strong) influenced perceived back size, body ownership, and attitudes towards self-capacity during a lifting task. Twenty-four healthy male volunteers performed a standardised lifting task while viewing real-time (delay < 20 ms) video of their own back through a head-mounted display under four different conditions (Normal size, Strong, Reshaped, Large; order randomised). The MIRAGE-mediated reality system was used to modify the shape, size, and morphology of the back. Participants were poor at recognizing the correct appearance of their back, for both implicit (perceived width of shoulders and hips) and explicit (questionnaire) measures of back size. Visual distortions of body shape (Reshaped condition) altered implicit back size measures. However, viewing a muscled back (Strong condition) did not result in a sense of agency or ownership and did not update implicit perception of the back. No conditions improved perceptions/attitudes of self-capacity (perceived back strength, perceived lifting confidence, and perceived back fitness). The results lend support for the importance of the embodiment of bodily changes to induce changes in perception. Further work is warranted to determine whether increased exposure to illusory changes would alter perceptions and attitudes towards self-capacity or whether different mechanisms are involved.
Topics: Body Image; Body Size; Humans; Illusions; Lifting; Male; Ownership; Surveys and Questionnaires; Touch Perception; Visual Perception
PubMed: 34727227
DOI: 10.1007/s00426-021-01609-z -
Noro Psikiyatri Arsivi 2022Space, time, and number are important parts of our experiences and they are crucial for maintaining our behaviors in daily life. Comprehending the spatial and numerical... (Review)
Review
Space, time, and number are important parts of our experiences and they are crucial for maintaining our behaviors in daily life. Comprehending the spatial and numerical features of our environment and perceiving and constructing the temporal framework are critical for healthy cognitive functioning and also survival. Although the problem of how these three perceptual processes work was initially studied separately, the emergence of behavioral interactions between these perceptions led to the idea that they could be run by a "common system". Besides the behavioral interactions for space, time, and number perception, the lesion and neuroimaging studies investigating the neural basis of these perceptions suggest the existence of a common size perception system represented in a fronto-parietal network formed around the intraparietal sulcus. However, on the other side of the coin, there are different views proposed based on findings that contradict this common magnitude system theory. The purpose of this review is to evaluate suggested ideas together and to examine whether the representation of space, time, and number perception in the brain can be explained by a common magnitude system theory.
PubMed: 36578990
DOI: 10.29399/npa.28159 -
Journal of Speech, Language, and... Oct 2023Current evidence regarding the influence of hearing loss on the pupil response elicited by speech perception is inconsistent. This might be partially due to confounding...
PURPOSE
Current evidence regarding the influence of hearing loss on the pupil response elicited by speech perception is inconsistent. This might be partially due to confounding effects of age. This study aimed to compare pupil responses in age-matched groups of normal-hearing (NH) and hard of hearing (HH) listeners during listening to speech.
METHOD
We tested the baseline pupil size and mean and peak pupil dilation response of 17 NH participants ( = 46 years; age range: 20-62 years) and 17 HH participants ( = 45 years; age range: 20-63 years) who were pairwise matched on age and educational level. Participants performed three speech perception tasks at a 50% intelligibility level: noise-vocoded speech and speech masked with either stationary noise or interfering speech. They also listened to speech presented in quiet.
RESULTS
Hearing loss was associated with poorer speech perception, except for noise-vocoded speech. In contrast to NH participants, performance of HH participants did not improve across trials for the interfering speech condition, and it decreased for speech in stationary noise. HH participants had a smaller mean pupil dilation in degraded speech conditions compared to NH participants, but not for speech in quiet. They also had a steeper decline in the baseline pupil size across trials. The baseline pupil size was smaller for noise-vocoded speech as compared to the other conditions. The normalized data showed an additional group effect on the baseline pupil response.
CONCLUSIONS
Hearing loss is associated with a smaller pupil response and steeper decline in baseline pupil size during the perception of degraded speech. This suggests difficulties of the HH participants to sustain their effort investment and performance across the test session.
Topics: Humans; Young Adult; Adult; Middle Aged; Pupil; Speech Intelligibility; Hearing Loss; Noise; Deafness; Speech Perception
PubMed: 37699194
DOI: 10.1044/2023_JSLHR-23-00093