A Combined Method for an Exhaustive Investigation of the Anidolic Ceiling Effect on Improving Indoor Office Daylight Quality: an Approach Based on HDR Photography and Subjective Evaluations

Lighting quality in office environments is a broad concept that must be taken into account in the design stage to deliver comfortable spaces to reduce workers' stress. Indeed, daylight should be sufficient to perform visual tasks while avoiding excessive brightness, high contrast, or intense sunlight reflections that can cause discomfort glare. This research aims to test the Anidolic Integrated Ceiling (AIC) performance in creating a visually comfortable space by reducing the probability of glare. A combined method was adopted for investigating the influence of the building orientation and the workers' view directions in the different moments of the day in the winter season. Data collection was performed in an experimental environment, i.e., a physical scale model of 1:4 under real sky conditions. Three variables were: (i) the viewer's positions (parallel and face to the window), (ii) the façade orientation, (iii) the time of the day (morning and afternoon). To investigate the correlation between the simulated environment and the subjective comfort, we collected the following data in parallel: illuminance level, Daylight Glare Probability Index (DGIP), Luminance Contrast Ratios (LCR) for assessing the daylighting environments, and people reactions to the lighting setting to evaluate the perceived discomfort glare. The findings indicate that the Anidolic system's performance differs according to the occupant's orientation and her\his visual direction. The performance of the north façade of the case study application in Biskra, Algeria, was the best one. Indeed, the AIC system allows a harmonious luminance distribution without creating discomfort glare. Glare assessment shows that glare is perceived imperceptible in the lateral view (less than 0.30) and varies between imperceptible and perceptible in the parallel view (LCR values between 1:1 and 1:29). The questionnaire results show that the subjects were more satisfied with the luminous atmosphere of the lateral view than the parallel view where people more likely perceived discomfort. The statistical analysis shows that participants' perceptions of contrast and sensitivity to glare have a strong relationship with DGIP and LCR (0.000) and no correlation with illuminance and LCR.

Cross-modal motion aftereffects transfer between vision and touch in early deaf adults

Previous research on early deafness has primarily focused on the behavioral and neural changes in the intact visual and tactile modalities. However, how early deafness changes the interplay of these two modalities is not well understood. In the current study, we investigated the effect of auditory deprivation on visuo-tactile interaction by measuring the cross-modal motion aftereffect. Consistent with previous findings, motion aftereffect transferred between vision and touch in a bidirectional manner in hearing participants. However, for deaf participants, the cross-modal transfer occurred only in the tactile-to-visual direction but not in the visual-to-tactile direction. This unidirectional cross-modal motion aftereffect found in the deaf participants could not be explained by unisensory motion aftereffect or discrimination threshold. The results suggest a reduced visual influence on tactile motion perception in early deaf individuals.

The Dominant Eye: Dominant for Parvo- But Not for Magno-Biased Stimuli?

Eye dominance is often defined as a preference for the visual input of one eye to the other. Implicit in this definition is the dominant eye has better visual function. Several studies have investigated the effect of visual direction or defocus on ocular dominance, but there is less evidence connecting ocular dominance and monocular visual thresholds. We used the classic “hole in card” method to determine the dominant eye for 28 adult observers (11 males and 17 females). We then compared contrast thresholds between the dominant and non-dominant eyes using grating stimuli biased to be processed more strongly either by the magnocellular (MC) or parvocellular (PC) pathway. Using non-parametric mean rank tests, the dominant eye was more sensitive overall than the non-dominant eye to both stimuli (z = −2.54, p = 0.01). The dominant eye was also more sensitive to the PC-biased stimulus (z = −2.22, p = 0.03) but not the MC-biased stimulus (z = −1.16, p = 0.25). We discuss the clinical relevance of these results as well as the implications for parallel visual pathways.

Learning to Integrate an Artificial Sensory Device: From Decision Fusion to Sensory Integration

The present study examines how artificial tactile stimulation from a novel non-invasive sensory device is learned and integrated with information from another sensory system. Participants were trained to identify the direction of visual dot motion stimuli with a low, medium, and high signal-to-noise ratio. In bimodal trials, this visual direction information was paired with reliable symbolic tactile information. Over several blocks of training, discrimination performance in unimodal tactile test trials improved, indicating that participants were able to associate the visual and tactile information and thus learned the meaning of the symbolic tactile cues. Formal analysis of the results in bimodal trials showed that the information from both modalities was integrated according to two different integration policies. Initially, participants seemed to rely on a linear decision integration policy based on the metacognitive experience of confidence. In later learning phases, however, our results are consistent with a Bayesian integration policy, that is, optimal integration of sensory information. Thus, the present study demonstrates that humans are capable of learning and integrating an artificial sensory device delivering symbolic tactile information. This finding connects the field of multisensory integration research to the development of sensory substitution systems.

Atypical visual direction of in the episodes of joint attention with pre-school children

Introduction. The article is devoted to the problem of manifestations of joint attention deficit in preschool age. Joint attention is considered as a key skill in dyadic orientation and providing joint access to the reference to the reference object in the communication process. The study focuses on how skills in a joint search in episodes of joint attention and understanding of the intentional actions of another person are interconnected in typical and atypical ontogenesis.Materials and methods. In the present study, an experiment examines the visual orientation of directional social signals (orientation toward the direction of eye movements of the communication partner) in typically developing children (n = 21) and children with mental retardation (n = 20). The sample of the study consisted of children of preschool age (5-7 years). To fix the data, we used the recognition criteria and using the correct (congruent) or incorrect (incongruent) direction of eye movements of another person to determine the location of the target (object) that the communication partner chooses during the experiment.Results. A comparison was made of the use of unmarked instructions by preschool children, which help them to carry out a joint search for potential visually accessible referents and contributes to the selection of a relevant object that the adult had in mind. It is shown that preschoolers with mental retardation have difficulty in the functional use of joint attention for social exchange. Markers of joint attention deficit associated with atypical development at an early stage of ontogenesis were found.Discussion and Conclusions. In the episodes of joint attention with preschoolers with mental retardation, there are changes in the profile of suggestive attitudes, sensitivity to the direction of the partner’s gaze, differences in the mechanistic and mentalistic gaze. We can single out the following specific difficulties in children with mental retardation: deficiencies in the reference search, deficiencies in the declarative indication and display, deficiencies in the search, where others indicate.

No single, stable 3D representation can explain pointing biases in a spatial updating task

People are able to keep track of objects as they navigate through space, even when objects are out of sight. This requires some kind of representation of the scene and of the observer’s location but the form this representation might take is debated. We tested the accuracy and reliability of observers’ estimates of the visual direction of previously-viewed targets. Participants viewed 4 objects from one location, with binocular vision and small head movements giving information about the 3D locations of the objects. Without any further sight of the targets, participants walked to another location and pointed towards them. All the conditions were tested in an immersive virtual environment and some were also carried out in a real scene. Participants made large, consistent pointing errors that are poorly explained by any consistent 3D representation. Instead, if a 3D representation is to account for the data it would need to be one where the target boxes were squashed, almost into a plane, quite far away from the true location of the boxes and in different places depending on the orientation of the obscuring wall at the moment the participant points. In short, our data show that the mechanisms for updating visual direction of unseen targets are not based on a stable 3D model of the scene, even a distorted one.