scholarly journals Face familiarity promotes stable identity recognition: exploring face perception using serial dependence

2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 160685 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca Kok ◽  
Jessica Taubert ◽  
Erik Van der Burg ◽  
Gillian Rhodes ◽  
David Alais
Keyword(s):  
Visual System ◽  
Temporal Integration ◽  
Visual Cognition ◽  
Viewing Distance ◽  
Serial Dependence ◽  
Identity Recognition ◽  
Sequential Dependencies ◽  
Continuous Scale ◽  
Retinal Input ◽  
Unfamiliar Faces

Studies suggest that familiar faces are processed in a manner distinct from unfamiliar faces and that familiarity with a face confers an advantage in identity recognition. Our visual system seems to capitalize on experience to build stable face representations that are impervious to variation in retinal input that may occur due to changes in lighting, viewpoint, viewing distance, eye movements, etc. Emerging evidence also suggests that our visual system maintains a continuous perception of a face's identity from one moment to the next despite the retinal input variations through serial dependence. This study investigates whether interactions occur between face familiarity and serial dependence. In two experiments, participants used a continuous scale to rate attractiveness of unfamiliar and familiar faces (either experimentally learned or famous) presented in rapid sequences. Both experiments revealed robust inter-trial effects in which attractiveness ratings for a given face depended on the preceding face's attractiveness. This inter-trial attractiveness effect was most pronounced for unfamiliar faces. Indeed, when participants were familiar with a given face, attractiveness ratings showed significantly less serial dependence. These results represent the first evidence that familiar faces can resist the temporal integration seen in sequential dependencies and highlight the importance of familiarity to visual cognition.

scholarly journals Attention “Blinks” Differently for Plants and Animals

2014 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 437-443 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin Balas ◽  
Jennifer L. Momsen
Keyword(s):  
Visual Attention ◽  
Visual System ◽  
Attentional Blink ◽  
Visual Processing ◽  
Refractory Period ◽  
Visual Cognition ◽  
Image Sequences ◽  
Functional Roles ◽  
Physiological Constraints ◽  
Attentional Resources

Plants, to many, are simply not as interesting as animals. Students typically prefer to study animals rather than plants and recall plants more poorly, and plants are underrepresented in the classroom. The observed paucity of interest for plants has been described as plant blindness, a term that is meant to encapsulate both the tendency to neglect plants in the environment and the lack of appreciation for plants’ functional roles. While the term plant blindness suggests a perceptual or attentional component to plant neglect, few studies have examined whether there are real differences in how plants and animals are perceived. Here, we use an established paradigm in visual cognition, the “attentional blink,” to compare the extent to which images of plants and animals capture attentional resources. We find that participants are better able to detect animals than plants in rapid image sequences and that visual attention has a different refractory period when a plant has been detected. These results suggest there are fundamental differences in how the visual system processes plants that may contribute to plant blindness. We discuss how perceptual and physiological constraints on visual processing may suggest useful strategies for characterizing and overcoming zoocentrism.

scholarly journals Perceptual history acts in world-centred coordinates

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kyriaki Mikellidou ◽  
Guido Marco Cicchini ◽  
David C. Burr
Keyword(s):  
Temporal Integration ◽  
Bias Current ◽  
Serial Dependence ◽  
Recent Past ◽  
Fixed Position ◽  
Reproduction Task

AbstractSerial dependence effects have been observed using a variety of stimuli and tasks, revealing that the recent past can bias current percepts, leading to increased similarity between two. The aim of this study is to determine whether this temporal integration occurs in egocentric or allocentric coordinates. We ask participants to perform an orientation reproduction task using grating stimuli while the head is kept at a fixed position throughout the whole session or while alternating position from one trial to the next, from left (−20°) to right (+20°), putting the egocentric and allocentric cues in conflict. Under these conditions, allocentric cues prevail.

scholarly journals Serial dependence tracks objects and scenes independently

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thérèse Collins
Keyword(s):  
Visual Processing ◽  
Scene Perception ◽  
Temporal Integration ◽  
Object Perception ◽  
Serial Dependence ◽  
Recent Past ◽  
Individual Object ◽  
Ensemble Perception ◽  
Visual Attribute ◽  
Feature Values

The visual world is made up of objects and scenes. Object perception requires both discriminating an individual object from others and binding together different perceptual samples of that object across time. Such binding manifests by serial dependence, the attraction of the current perception of a visual attribute towards values of that attribute seen in the recent past. Scene perception is subserved by global mechanisms like ensemble perception, the rapid extraction of the average feature value of a group of objects. The current study examined to what extent the perception of single objects in multi-object scenes depended on previous feature values of that object, or on the average previous attribute of all objects in the scene. Results show that serial dependence occurs independently on two simultaneously present objects, that ensemble perception depends on previous ensembles, and that serial dependence of an individual object occurs only on the features of that particular object. These results suggest that the temporal integration of successive perceptual samples operates simultaneously at independent levels of visual processing.

The Art of Hybrid Images: Two for the View of One

2013 ◽  
Vol 1 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 65-74 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aude Oliva
Keyword(s):  
Visual System ◽  
Human Visual System ◽  
Perceptual Grouping ◽  
The Other ◽  
Viewing Distance ◽  
Static Pictures

Hybrid images are static pictures with two interpretations that change depending on the image’s viewing distance or size. The phenomenon of hybrid images arises from the multiscale processing of images in the human visual system. By taking into account perceptual grouping mechanisms, one can build compelling hybrid images with two different stable interpretations: one that appears when the image is viewed up-close, and the other that appears from afar. Hybrid images can be used to create compelling prints and photographs in which the observer experiences different percepts when interacting with the image.

scholarly journals Feature Fusion Reveals Slow and Fast Visual Memories

2007 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 632-641 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frank Scharnowski ◽  
Frouke Hermens ◽  
Thomas Kammer ◽  
Haluk Öğmen ◽  
Michael H. Herzog
Keyword(s):  
Visual System ◽  
Moving Objects ◽  
Short Term Memory ◽  
Feature Fusion ◽  
Temporal Integration ◽  
Substantial Part ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Visual Short Term Memory ◽  
Short Time

Although the visual system can achieve a coarse classification of its inputs in a relatively short time, the synthesis of qualia-rich and detailed percepts can take substantially more time. If these prolonged computations were to take place in a retinotopic space, moving objects would generate extensive smear. However, under normal viewing conditions, moving objects appear relatively sharp and clear, suggesting that a substantial part of visual short-term memory takes place at a nonretinotopic locus. By using a retinotopic feature fusion and a nonretinotopic feature attribution paradigm, we provide evidence for a relatively fast retinotopic buffer and a substantially slower nonretinotopic memory. We present a simple model that can account for the dynamics of these complementary memory processes. Taken together, our results indicate that the visual system can accomplish temporal integration of information while avoiding smear by breaking off sensory memory into fast and slow components that are implemented in retinotopic and nonretinotopic loci, respectively.

scholarly journals Perceptual History Acts in World-Centred Coordinates

i-Perception ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (5) ◽  
pp. 204166952110293
Author(s):  
Kyriaki Mikellidou ◽  
Guido Marco Cicchini ◽  
David C. Burr
Keyword(s):  
Temporal Integration ◽  
Bias Current ◽  
Serial Dependence ◽  
Recent Past ◽  
Fixed Position ◽  
Reproduction Task

Serial dependence effects have been observed using a variety of stimuli and tasks, revealing that the recent past can bias current percepts, leading to increased similarity between two. The aim of this study is to determine whether this temporal integration occurs in egocentric or allocentric coordinates. We asked participants to perform an orientation reproduction task using grating stimuli while the head was kept at a fixed position, or after a 40° yaw rotation between trials, from left (−20°) to right (+20°), putting the egocentric and allocentric cues in conflict. Under these conditions, allocentric cues prevailed.

scholarly journals Serial dependence alters perceived object appearance

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thérèse Collins
Keyword(s):  
Temporal Integration ◽  
Visual Object ◽  
Serial Dependence ◽  
Visual Objects ◽  
Psychological Mechanisms ◽  
Perceptual Stability ◽  
Visual Attribute ◽  
Object Appearance ◽  
Spatio Temporal ◽  
Response Determination

The visual world is constantly changing, in contrast with human perceptual experience which is smooth and stable. One of the posited psychological mechanisms that may contribute to this constructed perceptual stability is the continuity field, a spatio-temporal integration window. The current study examined whether the continuity field, as quantified by serial dependence between reported attributes of successive visual stimuli, influenced the subjective appearance of objects or decisional stages in response determination. To do so, an oddball task required participants to directly compare visual objects, and decorrelated responses (present/absent) from the visual attribute on which serial dependence may occur (orientation). Results showed that serial dependence could cause a single visual object to appear different from surrounding distractors, leading to modulations of performance. These results argue in favor of an early, perceptual level of serial dependence.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document