Showing papers in "I-perception in 2020"

Seven Myths on Crowding and Peripheral Vision.

Abstract: Crowding has become a hot topic in vision research, and some fundamentals are now widely agreed upon. For the classical crowding task, one would likely agree with the following statements. (1) Bouma's law can be stated, succinctly and unequivocally, as saying that critical distance for crowding is about half the target's eccentricity. (2) Crowding is predominantly a peripheral phenomenon. (3) Peripheral vision extends to at most 90° eccentricity. (4) Resolution threshold (the minimal angle of resolution) increases strongly and linearly with eccentricity. Crowding increases at an even steeper rate. (5) Crowding is asymmetric as Bouma has shown. For that inner-outer asymmetry, the peripheral flanker has more effect. (6) Critical crowding distance corresponds to a constant cortical distance in primary visual areas like V1. (7) Except for Bouma's seminal article in 1970, crowding research mostly became prominent starting in the 2000s. I propose the answer is "not really" or "not quite" to these assertions. So should we care? I think we should, before we write the textbook chapters for the next generation.

bmlTUX: Design and Control of Experiments in Virtual Reality and Beyond.

Abstract: Advances in virtual reality technology have made it a valuable new tool for vision and perception researchers. Coding virtual reality experiments from scratch can be difficult and time-consuming, s...

Feeling Blue or Seeing Red? Similar Patterns of Emotion Associations With Colour Patches and Colour Terms:

Abstract: For many, colours convey affective meaning. Popular opinion assumes that perception of colour is crucial to influence emotions. However, scientific studies test colour–emotion relationships by pres...

Scenting the Anosmic Cube: On the Use of Ambient Scent in the Context of the Art Gallery or Museum:

Abstract: In recent years, there has been growing interest in the possibility of augmenting the visitor’s experience of the exhibits in various art galleries and museums by means of the delivery of a genuine...

Scent and the Cinema.

Abstract: From the very earliest days of public cinema (moving pictures), there has been consideration about how odors and scents might influence the viewer’s experience. While initially this was primarily a...

Fechner (1866): The Aesthetic Association Principle-A Commented Translation.

Abstract: Most of the groundbreaking works of Gustav Theodor Fechner (1801-1887), who paved the way for modern experimental psychology, psychophysics, and empirical aesthetics, are so far only available in German. With the first full text translation of Fechner's article on The Aesthetic Association Principle (Das Associationsprincip in der Aesthetik), we want to fill in one of the blank spots in the reception of his Aesthetics from Below (Aesthetik von Unten). In his 1866 article, Fechner devises a fundamental principle that accounts for the role of associations in the formation of aesthetic preferences. Based on concrete everyday examples and thought experiments, he demonstrates how aesthetic choices are largely shaped by the observer's learning history (associative factors) rather than by an object's formal properties (direct factors). Fechner's Aesthetic Association Principle has lost nothing of its initial relevance as the role of content and personal meaning is still grossly underrated in theory and practice of empirical aesthetics today.

In the Blink of an Eye: Reading Mental States From Briefly Presented Eye Regions

Abstract: Faces provide not only cues to an individual's identity, age, gender, and ethnicity but also insight into their mental states. The aim was to investigate the temporal aspects of processing of facial expressions of complex mental states for very short presentation times ranging from 12.5 to 100 ms in a four-alternative forced choice paradigm based on Reading the Mind in the Eyes test. Results show that participants are able to recognise very subtle differences between facial expressions; performance is better than chance, even for the shortest presentation time. Importantly, we show for the first time that observers can recognise these expressions based on information contained in the eye region only. These results support the hypothesis that the eye region plays a particularly important role in social interactions and that the expressions in the eyes are a rich source of information about other peoples' mental states. When asked to what extent the observers guessed during the task, they significantly underestimated their ability to make correct decisions, yet perform better than chance, even for very brief presentation times. These results are particularly relevant in the light of the current COVID-19 pandemic and the associated wearing of face coverings.

The Effect of Optical Flow Motion Direction on Vection Strength.

Abstract: In some phenomena of visual perception, the motion direction of visual stimuli can affect perception. In particular, asymmetries between oblique directions and cardinal (horizontal and vertical) directions have been reported and are known as oblique effects (e.g., contrast sensitivity and motion threshold). In this study, we investigated how vection strength depends on motion direction. Participants observed random-dot optical flow in a circular field and rated the perceived vection strength. Dot movement was systematically controlled using the following angles: 0° (up), 30°, 45°, 60°, 90°, 120°, 135°, 150°, and 180° (down). We found that vection strength depended on motion direction and was weaker in the oblique directions than cardinal directions. Thus, the effect of motion direction on vection strength was variable, as seen in the shape of the oblique effect.

The Influence of Each Facial Feature on How We Perceive and Interpret Human Faces.

Abstract: Facial information is processed by our brain in such a way that we immediately make judgments about, for example, attractiveness or masculinity or interpret personality traits or moods of other people. The appearance of each facial feature has an effect on our perception of facial traits. This research addresses the problem of measuring the size of these effects for five facial features (eyes, eyebrows, nose, mouth, and jaw). Our proposal is a mixed feature-based and image-based approach that allows judgments to be made on complete real faces in the categorization tasks, more than on synthetic, noisy, or partial faces that can influence the assessment. Each facial feature of the faces is automatically classified considering their global appearance using principal component analysis. Using this procedure, we establish a reduced set of relevant specific attributes (each one describing a complete facial feature) to characterize faces. In this way, a more direct link can be established between perceived facial traits and what people intuitively consider an eye, an eyebrow, a nose, a mouth, or a jaw. A set of 92 male faces were classified using this procedure, and the results were related to their scores in 15 perceived facial traits. We show that the relevant features greatly depend on what we are trying to judge. Globally, the eyes have the greatest effect. However, other facial features are more relevant for some judgments like the mouth for happiness and femininity or the nose for dominance.

Cross-Modal Perceptual Organization in Works of Art.

Abstract: This study investigates the existence of cross-modal correspondences between a series of paintings by Kandinsky and a series of selections from Schonberg music. The experiment was conducted in two phases. In the first phase, by means of the Osgood semantic differential, the participants evaluated the perceptual characteristics first of visual stimuli (some pictures of Kandinsky's paintings, with varying perceptual characteristics and contents) and then of auditory stimuli (musical excerpts taken from the repertoire of Schonberg's piano works) relative to 11 pairs of adjectives tested on a continuous bipolar scale. In the second phase, participants were required to associate pictures and musical excerpts. The results of the semantic differential test show that certain paintings and musical excerpts were evaluated as semantically more similar, while others were evaluated as semantically more different. The results of the direct association between musical excerpts and paintings showed both attractions and repulsions among the stimuli. The overall results provide significant insights into the relationship between concrete and abstract concepts and into the process of perceptual grouping in cross-modal phenomena.

Colors and Things.

Abstract: How many colors are there? Quoted numbers range from ten million to a dozen. Are colors object properties? Opinions range all the way from of course they are to no, colors are just mental paint. These questions are ill-posed. We submit that the way to tackle such questions is to adopt a biological approach, based on the evolutionary past of hominins. Hunter-gatherers in tundra or savannah environments have various, mutually distinct uses for color. Color differences aid in segmenting the visual field, whereas color qualia aid in recognizing objects. Classical psychophysics targets the former, but mostly ignores the latter, whereas experimental phenomenology, for instance in color naming, is relevant for recognition. Ecological factors, not anatomical/physiological ones, limit the validity of qualia as distinguishing signs. Spectral databases for varieties of daylight and object reflectance factors allow one to model this. The two questions are really one. A valid question that may replace both is how many distinguishing signs does color vision offer in the hominin Umwelt? The answer turns out to be about a thousand. The reason is that colors are formally not object properties but pragmatically are useful distinguishing signs.

Icon Familiarity Affects the Performance of Complex Cognitive Tasks

Abstract: The purpose of this study was to investigate whether and how users' familiarity with symbols affects the performance of complex cognitive tasks which place considerable demands on working memory resources. We combined a modified math task paradigm with our previous icon familiarity training paradigm. Participants were required to complete a mathematical task involving icons to test their ability to perform complex cognitive tasks. The complexity of the task was manipulated using three independent variables: icon familiarity (high-frequency vs. low-frequency), whether or not the equation requires substitution (substitution vs. no-substitution), and the number of steps required for solution (one step vs. two steps). The results showed that participants performed better on the equation-solving task when it used icons they were more extensively trained on. Importantly, icon familiarity interacted with the complexity of the task and the familiarity effect on performance (accuracy and response time) became greater when the complexity increased. These findings provide evidence that familiarity affects not only the ease of information retrieval but also the ease of subsequent processing activities associated with these information, which extends our understanding of how familiarity affects working memory. Moreover, our findings have practical implications for improving interaction efficiency. Before the operators formally use a digital system, they need to learn the precise meaning of those complex or unfamiliar symbols in a certain context as much as possible.

Amodal Completion Revisited.

Abstract: Amodal completion (AC) is analyzed, by looking at its historical roots and persisting conceptual difficulties. Looking at the origin of the concept, it becomes clear that it is not equivalent to perception of occluded parts. The role of fragment incompleteness is discussed, to clarify that it cannot be taken as a necessary factor for eliciting AC. The standard view of AC, depicted as a set of processes that extrapolate from veridically represented image fragments, is evaluated and rejected on the basis of evidence that AC modifies also modal parts. The theoretical importance of AC phenomena and their potential to reveal the inner forces of perceptual organization are emphasized, with specific reference to the minimum principle. Instances in which AC might be expected but does not occur are examined, to define the limits of such an integrative process.

Body Language Influences on Facial Identification at Passport Control: An Exploration in Virtual Reality:

Abstract: Person identification at airports requires the matching of a passport photograph to its bearer. One aim of this process is to find identity impostors, who use valid identity documents of similar-looking people to avoid detection. In psychology, this process has been studied extensively with static pairs of face photographs that require identity match (same person shown) versus mismatch (two different people) decisions. However, this approach provides a limited proxy for studying how other factors, such as nonverbal behaviour, affect this task. The current study investigated the influence of body language on facial identity matching within a virtual reality airport environment, by manipulating activity levels of person avatars queueing at passport control. In a series of six experiments, detection of identity mismatches was unaffected when observers were not instructed to utilise body language. By contrast, under explicit instruction to look out for unusual body language, these cues enhanced detection of mismatches but also increased false classification of matches. This effect was driven by increased activity levels rather than body language that simply differed from the behaviour of the majority of passengers. The implications and limitations of these findings are discussed.

Auditory Rate Perception Displays a Positive Serial Dependence.

Abstract: We investigated perceived timing in auditory rate perception using a reproduction task. The study aimed to test (a) whether central tendency occurs in rate perception, as shown for interval timing, and (b) whether rate is perceived independently on each trial or shows a serial dependence, as shown for other perceptual attributes. Participants were well able to indicate perceived rate as reproduced and presented rates were linearly related with a slope that approached unity, although tapping significantly overestimated presented rates. While the slopes approached unity, they were significantly less than 1, indicating a central tendency in which reproduced rates tended towards the mean of the presented range. We tested for serial dependency by seeing if current trial rate reproductions depended on the preceding rate. In two conditions, a positive dependence was observed. A third condition in which participants withheld responses on every second trial produced a negative dependency. These results suggest separate components of serial dependence linked to stimulus and response: Withholding responses reveals a negative perceptual effect, whereas making responses adds a stronger positive effect that is postperceptual and makes the combined effect positive. Together, these data show that auditory rate perception exhibits both central tendency and serial dependence effects.

Hues of Color Afterimages.

Abstract: We studied the relationship between color afterimages and complementary colors. The hues of afterimages of 24 inducer hues, uniformly distributed over the rgb color circle, were measured by an iterative method of adjustment. The judgment of equality of hue of the afterimage and a synthesized patch was effectively judged at the moment immediately after the switch-off of the inducer, when the synthesized patch went through any number of iterative adjustments. The two patches-both phenomenally present, but only one optically presented-appeared to the left and right of a fixation mark that was fixated throughout the whole procedure. Thus, both patches were present in eccentric vision. The hues of afterimages were found to be quite different from the hue of the complementary of the inducer. Almost one half of the color circle (orange to chartreuse) leads to afterimage hues in a narrow region of purples. This implies that color circles based on diametrically opposed inducer-afterimage hues are necessarily inconsistent. Yet, perhaps surprisingly, the relation between primary and afterimage hues is still approximately an involution (they are reciprocally related).

Aesthetic Perception of Line Patterns: Effect of Edge-Orientation Entropy and Curvilinear Shape

Abstract: Curvilinearity is a perceptual feature that robustly predicts preference ratings for a variety of visual stimuli. The predictive effect of curved/angular shape overlaps, to a large degree, with reg...

Dynamic Corridor Illusion in Pigeons: Humanlike Pictorial Cue Precedence Over Motion Parallax Cue in Size Perception.

Abstract: Depth information is necessary for perceiving the real size of objects at varying visual distances. To investigate to what extent this size constancy present in another vertebrate class, we address...

Enhanced Matching of Children's Faces in "Super-Recognisers" But Not High-Contact Controls.

Abstract: Face matching is notoriously error-prone, and some work suggests additional difficulty when matching the faces of children. It is possible that individuals with natural proficiencies in adult face ...

Spatial Heterogeneity in Bistable Figure-Ground Perception.

Abstract: The appearance of visual objects varies substantially across the visual field. Could such spatial heterogeneity be due to undersampling of the visual field by neurons selective for stimulus categories? Here, we show that which parts of a bistable vase-face image observers perceive as figure and ground depends on the retinal location where the image appears. The spatial patterns of these perceptual biases were similar regardless of whether the images were upright or inverted. Undersampling by neurons tuned to an object class (e.g., faces) or variability in general local versus global processing cannot readily explain this spatial heterogeneity. Rather, these biases could result from idiosyncrasies in low-level sensitivity across the visual field.

Effect of Force Level and Gender on Pinch Force Perception in Healthy Adults

Abstract: This study investigated the effects of both force level and gender on pinch force reproduction errors in normal participants during an ipsilateral force reproduction task. In total, 20 healthy participants were asked to generate a range of levels of reference forces ranging from 5% to 60% maximal voluntary isometric contraction (MVIC) in increments of 5% MVIC using the tip pinch and to reproduce these forces using the same hand. The results showed that the males more accurately and consistently reproduced the forces than did the females, and the most accurate estimation occurred at approximately 20% to 35% MVIC. This finding can help us better understand the reasons for the higher rate of musculoskeletal disorders in females than in males and to develop tools and preventive strategies to decrease the rate of hand injuries in both genders.

Apparent Motion Is Computed in Perceptual Coordinates.

Abstract: When a Gabor moves in one direction in the visual periphery while its internal texture moves in the orthogonal direction, its perceived direction can deviate from its physical direction by as much ...

Influences of Experience and Visual Cues of Virtual Arm on Distance Perception.

Abstract: Egocentric distance perception refers to the perception of distance from a target to a perceiver, which is an important component of visual space perception. It is important to activities in virtual environments and influenced by several factors, such as action capacities and visual cues. However, few studies have investigated such aspects. Hence, Experiments 1 and 2 investigated the effect of using experience and visual cues, respectively, of virtual arms on egocentric distance perception in near and far spaces at equal, prolonged, and shortened lengths of a virtual arm. Results revealed that using experience and visual cues of the virtual arm had a significant effect on egocentric distance perception when the length of virtual arm was equal to the real arm and prolonged but not when shortened. The egocentric distance perception on the conditions of having using experience and virtual arm was most precise. The findings provide implications for the design and implementation of virtual body self-representation in virtual environments.

On the Ambient Optic Array: James Gibson's Insights About the Phenomenon of Chiaroscuro.

Abstract: In 1966, James Gibson first presented his theory of the ambient optic array, and he proposed a new field of ecological optics that he hoped would advance our knowledge on this topic. This study will consider how his ideas have largely come to fruition over the past 50 years. It reviews the research on the visual perception of three-dimensional shape from shading, the effects of ambient light from surface interreflections on observers' perceptions, the perception of the light field, and the perception of surface materials. Finally, it also considers Gibson's impact on these developments.

Replicability of the Curvature Effect as a Function of Presentation Time and Response Measure in Japanese Observers

Abstract: Although objects with curved contours are generally preferred over those with sharp-angled contours, the strength of this preference varies according to several factors. In the present study, non-W...

MILO Mobile: An iPad App to Measure Search Performance in Multi-Target Sequences.

Abstract: This article introduces a mobile app version of the Multi-Item Localization (MILO) task The MILO task was designed to explore the temporal context of search through a sequence and has proven useful in both basic and applied research settings Here, we describe the basic features of the app and how it can be obtained, installed, and modified We also provide example data files and present two new sets of empirical data to verify that previous findings concerning prospective planning and retrospective memory (ie, inhibitory tagging) are reproducible with the app We conclude by discussing ongoing studies and future modifications that illustrate the flexibility and potential of the MILO Mobile app

The Illusion of Absence in Magic Tricks.

Abstract: Recently, a curious illusion of absence has been described, where the space behind an occluder is compellingly experienced as empty This illusion is similar to illusions based on amodal completion

Third-Eye Rivalry:

Abstract: We showcase an optical phenomenon that we call Third-Eye Rivalry. The effect is most easily induced by viewing one's own reflection in a mirror. Using the pupil of the opposing eye as a fixation target, people can easily cross their eyes in free fusion to experience vivid rivalry. The resulting percept is of a prominent central "third" eye and two peripheral faces rivaling for perceptual dominance. We illustrate the process of achieving third-eye rivalry and discuss historical connotations of the third eye in scientific and mystical contexts.

"The Harder One Tries …": Findings and Insights From the Application of Covert Response Pressure Assessment Technology in Three Studies of Visual Perception.

Abstract: In this article, we present a force measuring method for assessing participant responses in studies of visual perception. We present a device disguised as a mouse pad and designed to measure mouse-click-pressure and click-press-to-release-time responses by unaware, as regards to the physiological assessment, participants. The aim of the current technology, in the current studies, was to provide a physiological assessment of confidence and task difficulty. We tested the device in three experiments. The studies comprised of a gender-recognition study using morphed male and female faces, a visual suppression study using backwards masking, and a target-search study that included deciding whether a letter was repeated in a subsequently presented letter string. Across all studies, higher task difficulty was associated with higher click-release-time responses. Higher task difficulty was, intriguingly, also associated with lower click pressure. Higher confidence ratings were consistently associated with higher click pressure and shorter click-release time across all experiments. These findings suggest that the current technology can be used to assess responses relating to task difficulty and participant confidence in studies of visual perception. We suggest that the assessment of release times can also be implemented using standard equipment, and we provide manual and easy-to-use code for the implementation.