scholarly journals Learning to see the Ebbinghaus illusion in the periphery reveals a top-down stabilization of size perception across the visual field

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cécile Eymond ◽  
Tal Seidel Malkinson ◽  
Lionel Naccache
Keyword(s):  
Visual Field ◽  
Size Perception ◽  
Size Difference ◽  
Illusion Effect ◽  
Ebbinghaus Illusion ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Perceptual Stability ◽  
Perceptual Difference ◽  
Sensory Uncertainty

AbstractOur conscious visual perception relies on predictive signals, notably in the periphery where sensory uncertainty is high. We investigated how such signals could support perceptual stability of objects’ size across the visual field. When attended carefully, the same object appears slightly smaller in the periphery compared to the fovea. Could this perceptual difference be encoded as a strong prior to predict the peripheral perceived size relative to the fovea? Recent studies emphasized the role of foveal information in defining peripheral size percepts. However, they could not disentangle bottom-up from top-down mechanisms. Here, we revealed a pure top-down contribution to the perceptual size difference between periphery and fovea. First, we discovered a novel Ebbinghaus illusion effect, inducing a typical reduction of foveal perceived size, but a reversed increase effect in the periphery. The size percept was similar at both retinal locations and deviated from the classic perceptual difference. Then through an updating process of successive peripheral-foveal viewing, the unusual peripheral perceived size decreased. The classic perceptual eccentricity difference was restored and the peripheral illusion effect changed into a fovea-like reduction. Therefore, we report the existence of a prior that actively shapes peripheral size perception and stabilizes it relative to the fovea.

scholarly journals Feature-based attention: it is all bottom-up priming

2013 ◽  
Vol 368 (1628) ◽  
pp. 20130055 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan Theeuwes
Keyword(s):  
Visual Field ◽  
Imaging Studies ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Bottom Up ◽  
Specific Stimulus ◽  
Image Characteristics ◽  
Feature Based ◽  
Neuro Imaging ◽  
Rule Out

Feature-based attention (FBA) enhances the representation of image characteristics throughout the visual field, a mechanism that is particularly useful when searching for a specific stimulus feature. Even though most theories of visual search implicitly or explicitly assume that FBA is under top-down control, we argue that the role of top-down processing in FBA may be limited. Our review of the literature indicates that all behavioural and neuro-imaging studies investigating FBA suffer from the shortcoming that they cannot rule out an effect of priming. The mere attending to a feature enhances the mandatory processing of that feature across the visual field, an effect that is likely to occur in an automatic, bottom-up way. Studies that have investigated the feasibility of FBA by means of cueing paradigms suggest that the role of top-down processing in FBA is limited (e.g. prepare for red). Instead, the actual processing of the stimulus is needed to cause the mandatory tuning of responses throughout the visual field. We conclude that it is likely that all FBA effects reported previously are the result of bottom-up priming.

scholarly journals Relative Size Perception at a Distance is Best at Eye Level

Perception ◽  
1997 ◽  
Vol 26 (1_suppl) ◽  
pp. 89-89
Author(s):  
M Bertamini ◽  
T L Yang ◽  
D R Proffitt
Keyword(s):  
Visual Field ◽  
Distance Perception ◽  
Relative Size ◽  
Size Perception ◽  
Horizon Line ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Source Of Information

We studied the role of the horizon line as a source of information about the relative size of objects at a distance. Relative-size judgements (2AFC) were collected for two objects at 30.5 m and 23.8 m away from the observer to assess how performance depends on the relationship between the size of the objects and the eye level of the observer. In three experiments in an indoor hallway and in one experiment outdoors, accuracy was higher for objects in the neighbourhood of eye level. We consider these results in the light of two hypotheses: one which proposes that observers localise the horizon as a reference for judging relative size, ie on the basis of the horizon ratio, and another which proposes that observers perceive the general neighbourhood of the horizon and then employ a height-in-visual-field heuristic. The finding that relative-size judgements are best around the horizon implies the use of information independent of distance perception in perceiving size.

Top-Down Processing and Visual Reorientation Illusions in a Virtual Reality Environment

2004 ◽  
Vol 63 (3) ◽  
pp. 143-149 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fred W. Mast ◽  
Charles M. Oman
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Visual Processing ◽  
Line Length ◽  
Perceptual Cues ◽  
Virtual Reality Environment ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Test Conditions ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Processing Mechanisms

The role of top-down processing on the horizontal-vertical line length illusion was examined by means of an ambiguous room with dual visual verticals. In one of the test conditions, the subjects were cued to one of the two verticals and were instructed to cognitively reassign the apparent vertical to the cued orientation. When they have mentally adjusted their perception, two lines in a plus sign configuration appeared and the subjects had to evaluate which line was longer. The results showed that the line length appeared longer when it was aligned with the direction of the vertical currently perceived by the subject. This study provides a demonstration that top-down processing influences lower level visual processing mechanisms. In another test condition, the subjects had all perceptual cues available and the influence was even stronger.

TESTING GOAL-DRIVEN CAPTURE BY THREAT

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chris Robert Harrison Brown
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Evidence ◽  
Attentional Capture ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Experimental Manipulation ◽  
Contingent Capture ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Affective Stimuli ◽  
Clinical Disorders ◽  
Positive Stimuli

Attention has long been characterised within prominent models as reflecting a competition between goal-driven and stimulus-driven processes. It remains unclear, however, how involuntary attentional capture by affective stimuli, such as threat-laden content, fits into such models. While such effects were traditionally held to reflect stimulus-driven processes, recent research has increasingly implicated a critical role of goal-driven processes. Here we test an alternative goal-driven account of involuntary attentional capture by threat, using an experimental manipulation of goal-driven attention. To this end we combined the classic ‘contingent capture’ and ‘emotion-induced blink’ (EIB) paradigms in an RSVP task with both positive or threatening target search goals. Across six experiments, positive and threat distractors were presented in peripheral, parafoveal, and central locations. Across all distractor locations, we found that involuntary attentional capture by irrelevant threatening distractors could be induced via the adoption of a search goal for a threatening category; adopting a goal for a positive category conversely led to capture only by positive stimuli. Our findings provide direct experimental evidence for a causal role of voluntary goals in involuntary capture by irrelevant threat stimuli, and hence demonstrate the plausibility of a top-down account of this phenomenon. We discuss the implications of these findings in relation to current cognitive models of attention and clinical disorders.

scholarly journals Causal Evidence for the Role of Neuronal Oscillations in Top–Down and Bottom–Up Attention

2019 ◽  
Vol 31 (5) ◽  
pp. 768-779 ◽  
Author(s):  
Justin Riddle ◽  
Kai Hwang ◽  
Dillan Cellier ◽  
Sofia Dhanani ◽  
Mark D'Esposito
Keyword(s):  
Visual Field ◽  
Conjunction Search ◽  
Intraparietal Sulcus ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Neuronal Oscillations ◽  
Bottom Up ◽  
Search Condition ◽  
Gamma Frequency ◽  
Task Conditions ◽  
Beta Frequency

Beta and gamma frequency neuronal oscillations have been implicated in top–down and bottom–up attention. In this study, we used rhythmic TMS to modulate ongoing beta and gamma frequency neuronal oscillations in frontal and parietal cortex while human participants performed a visual search task that manipulates bottom–up and top–down attention (single feature and conjunction search). Both task conditions will engage bottom–up attention processes, although the conjunction search condition will require more top–down attention. Gamma frequency TMS to superior precentral sulcus (sPCS) slowed saccadic RTs during both task conditions and induced a response bias to the contralateral visual field. In contrary, beta frequency TMS to sPCS and intraparietal sulcus decreased search accuracy only during the conjunction search condition that engaged more top–down attention. Furthermore, beta frequency TMS increased trial errors specifically when the target was in the ipsilateral visual field for the conjunction search condition. These results indicate that beta frequency TMS to sPCS and intraparietal sulcus disrupted top–down attention, whereas gamma frequency TMS to sPCS disrupted bottom–up, stimulus-driven attention processes. These findings provide causal evidence suggesting that beta and gamma oscillations have distinct functional roles for cognition.

The Psychologist-Educator Views the Relationship of Vision to Reading and Related Learning Disabilities

1981 ◽  
Vol 14 (10) ◽  
pp. 565-567 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jules C. Abrams
Keyword(s):  
Learning Disabilities ◽  
Visual Field ◽  
Visual Perception ◽  
Learning Disability ◽  
Visual Defects ◽  
Considerable Controversy ◽  
Visual Problems ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship

The role of visual problems in learning disability has been a source of considerable controversy for many years. One major issue in the continuing argument is the frequent confusion of labels and concepts in the visual field. It is important to view vision as a psychophysiologic mechanism and to differentiate it from a mechanistic orientation emphasizing the eyes. Most visual problems related to learning disability represent a breakdown in the ability of the eyes to function in an harmonious fashion, that is, some interference in binocular function. While visual defects should not be confused with defects in visual perception, the identification and treatment of visual problems is an important element in the diagnosis and remediation of learning disabilities.

scholarly journals The future of SIMS: Who embodies which smile and when?

2010 ◽  
Vol 33 (6) ◽  
pp. 464-480 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paula M. Niedenthal ◽  
Martial Mermillod ◽  
Marcus Maringer ◽  
Ursula Hess
Keyword(s):  
Facial Expression ◽  
Eye Contact ◽  
Initial Position ◽  
Top Down ◽  
The Core ◽  
Facial Expression Of Emotion ◽  
Expression Of Emotion ◽  
Target Article ◽  
The Future

AbstractThe set of 30 stimulating commentaries on our target article helps to define the areas of our initial position that should be reiterated or else made clearer and, more importantly, the ways in which moderators of and extensions to the SIMS can be imagined. In our response, we divide the areas of discussion into (1) a clarification of our meaning of “functional,” (2) a consideration of our proposed categories of smiles, (3) a reminder about the role of top-down processes in the interpretation of smile meaning in SIMS, (4) an evaluation of the role of eye contact in the interpretation of facial expression of emotion, and (5) an assessment of the possible moderators of the core SIMS model. We end with an appreciation of the proposed extensions to the model, and note that the future of research on the problem of the smile appears to us to be assured.

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