Color and brightness constancies may not be independent, since increasing a sample saturation sho... more Color and brightness constancies may not be independent, since increasing a sample saturation should decrease the demand on the color constancy and increase that on the brightness constancy [Color Res. Appl. 43, 630 (2018)CREADU0361-231710.1002/col.22227]. We tested this claim using color and brightness constancy data from Foster et al. [Vis. Res. 41, 285 (2001)VISRAM0042-698910.1016/S0042-6989(00)00239-X], whose observers made side-by-side and successive comparisons of central patches (“asymmetric matches”) presented in pairs of identical Mondrian displays with simulated illuminants of 25000 K and 6700 K daylights. Saturations (CIE “chroma”) of the central patches varied from 0.007 to 0.092. For most observers (as in a toy Gaussian model of the surface reflectance spectra), increasing saturation reduced color constancy and increased brightness constancy.
Less salient, lower contrast disks appear to be more numerous than more salient, higher contrast ... more Less salient, lower contrast disks appear to be more numerous than more salient, higher contrast disks when intermingled in equal numbers into the same display (Lei and Reeves, 2018), but they are equal in perceived numerosity when segregated into different displays. Comparative judgements indicate that the apparent numerosity of the lower contrast disks is unaffected by being intermingled with high contrast disks, whereas the high contrast disks are reduced in numerosity by being intermingled with the low contrast ones (Lei and Reeves, 2018). Here, we report that this illusion also occurs for absolute judgements of the numerosities of displays of from 20 to 80 disks. A model based on luminance-difference contrast normalization (LDCN) explains the illusory loss of high-contrast (salient) items along with veridical perception of the low-contrast ones. The model correctly predicts that perceived numerosity is linearly related to the square-root of the number of disks, with the extent ...
We investigated the effect of a sweetness blocker on the synesthetic taste experience of a rare c... more We investigated the effect of a sweetness blocker on the synesthetic taste experience of a rare color-gustatory synesthete, E.C., for whom specific colors elicit unique tastes. Blocking E.C.’s sweetness receptors while the tongue was otherwise unstimulated left other taste components of the synesthesia unaltered but initially reduced her synesthetic sweetness, which suggests a peripheral modulation of the synesthetic illusion.
We review research on the visual working memory for information portrayed by items arranged in de... more We review research on the visual working memory for information portrayed by items arranged in depth (i.e., distance to the observer) within peri-personal space. Most items lose their metric depths within half a second, even though their identities and spatial positions are retained. The paradoxical loss of depth information may arise because visual working memory retains the depth of a single object for the purpose of actions such as pointing or grasping which usually apply to only one thing at a time.
Attention, perception & psychophysics, Jan 6, 2017
Short-term visual memory was studied by displaying arrays of four or five numerals, each numeral ... more Short-term visual memory was studied by displaying arrays of four or five numerals, each numeral in its own depth plane, followed after various delays by an arrow cue shown in one of the depth planes. Subjects reported the numeral at the depth cued by the arrow. Accuracy fell with increasing cue delay for the first 500 ms or so, and then recovered almost fully. This dipping pattern contrasts with the usual iconic decay observed for memory traces. The dip occurred with or without a verbal or color-shape retention load on working memory. In contrast, accuracy did not change with delay when a tonal cue replaced the arrow cue. We hypothesized that information concerning the depths of the numerals decays over time in sensory memory, but that cued recall is aided later on by transfer to a visual memory specialized for depth. This transfer is sufficiently rapid with a tonal cue to compensate for the sensory decay, but it is slowed by the need to tag the arrow cue's depth relative to th...
Picture Theory, Tacit Knowledge or Vividness-Core? Three Hypotheses on the Mind’s Eye and Its Elu... more Picture Theory, Tacit Knowledge or Vividness-Core? Three Hypotheses on the Mind’s Eye and Its Elusive Size Amedeo D’Angiulli ([email protected]), Thompson Rivers University School of Education & Department of Psychology, 103-1402 McGill Road Kamloops, BC V2C 5N3 Adam Reeves ([email protected]), Northeastern University Department of Psychology, 125 NI Boston, MA 02115 USA visible details because one knows from daily experience that real-world objects that are smaller are less detailed when viewed from far off. One could have generated any image at any size with any level of detail, but one did not, because of one’s (tacit) knowledge of how objects look. This is similar to the notion of ‘demand characteristics’, in that the participant is trying to understand the implications of the imagery task (and does so by relating it to actual visual experience), even though there is no explicit demand from the experimenter. Paraphrasing Pylyshyn's argument, if we are asked to generate a small ...
The neural networks of the human visual brain derive representations of three-dimensional structu... more The neural networks of the human visual brain derive representations of three-dimensional structure from specific two-dimensional image cues. Neural models backed by psychophysical data predict how local differences in either luminance contrast or physical size of local boundaries in 2D images may determine the perception of 3D properties. Predictions relative to the role of color in this process do not follow from any of the current models. To further clarify the potential contribution of color to perceptual organization, image configurations with multiple surface representations where the relative physical size of local boundaries between contrast regions was held constant were submitted to perceptual judgments of relative size and relative depth. The only potential cues available in the images were generated by the specific local combinations of color and luminance contrast. It is shown that response probabilities for subjective depth and subjective size are systematically and co...
Analyzing Mental Image Generation Data through Imputation: Evidence of a Visual and an Episodic B... more Analyzing Mental Image Generation Data through Imputation: Evidence of a Visual and an Episodic Buffer for Image-Size Scaling Amedeo D’Angiulli ([email protected]) School of Education & Department of Psychology, Thompson Rivers University Suite 103 – 1402 McGill Road, Kamloops, B.C., Canada V2C 1L3 Adam Reeves ([email protected]) Department of Psychology, Northeastern University 125 NI, Boston, MA 02115 USA We reanalyzed data reported in previous mental imagery experiments (D’Angiulli, 2001; D’Angiulli & Reeves, 2002). The data consisted of self-reported image vividness ratings (1 = no image; 7 = perfectly vivid) and image latencies (image completion RTs) for “small” (i.e., subtending 16 o ) images, in two image generation conditions: trial-unique and repeated. In the original experiments, the seven vividness levels were not used equally frequently. This produced “planned” missing values. Consequently, we investigated whether filling-in the missing data through regression modeling (imp...
Victor Vasarely’s (1906-1997) important legacy to the study of human perception is brought to the... more Victor Vasarely’s (1906-1997) important legacy to the study of human perception is brought to the forefront and discussed. A large part of his impressive work conveys the appearance of striking three-dimensional shapes and structures in a large-scale pictorial plane. Current perception science explains such effects by invoking brain mechanisms for the processing of monocular (2D) depth cues. Here in this study, we illustrate and explain the local effects of 2D color and contrast cues on the perceptual organization in terms of figure-ground assignments, i.e. which local surfaces are likely to be seen as “nearer” or “bigger” in the image plane. Paired configurations are embedded in a larger, structurally ambivalent pictorial context inspired by some of Vasarely’s creations. The figure-ground effects these configurations produce reveal a significant correlation between perceptual solutions for “nearer” and “bigger” when no other monocular depth cues are given in the image. In consisten...
In this paper, I discuss attention in terms of selecting visual information and acting on it. Sel... more In this paper, I discuss attention in terms of selecting visual information and acting on it. Selection has been taken as a bedrock concept in attention research since James (1890). Selective attention guides action by privileging some things at the expense of others. I formalize this notion with models which capture the relationship between input and output under the control of spatial and temporal attention, by attenuating or discarding certain inputs and by weighing energetic costs, speed, and accuracy in meeting pre-chosen goals. Examples are given from everyday visually guided actions, and from modeling data obtained from visual searches through temporal and spatial arrays and related research. The relation between selection, as defined here, and other forms of attention is discussed at the end.
Apart from the well-known loss of color vision and of foveal acuity that characterizes human rod-... more Apart from the well-known loss of color vision and of foveal acuity that characterizes human rod-mediated vision, it has also been thought that night vision is very slow (taking up to 40 min) to adapt to changes in light levels. Even cone-mediated, daylight, vision has been thought to take 2 min to recover from light adaptation. Here, we show that most, though not all adaptation is rapid, taking less than 0.6 s. Thus, monochrome (black-white-gray) images can be presented at mesopic light levels and be visible within a few 10th of a second, even if the overall light level, or level of glare (as with passing headlamps while driving), changes abruptly.
Color and brightness constancies may not be independent, since increasing a sample saturation sho... more Color and brightness constancies may not be independent, since increasing a sample saturation should decrease the demand on the color constancy and increase that on the brightness constancy [Color Res. Appl. 43, 630 (2018)CREADU0361-231710.1002/col.22227]. We tested this claim using color and brightness constancy data from Foster et al. [Vis. Res. 41, 285 (2001)VISRAM0042-698910.1016/S0042-6989(00)00239-X], whose observers made side-by-side and successive comparisons of central patches (“asymmetric matches”) presented in pairs of identical Mondrian displays with simulated illuminants of 25000 K and 6700 K daylights. Saturations (CIE “chroma”) of the central patches varied from 0.007 to 0.092. For most observers (as in a toy Gaussian model of the surface reflectance spectra), increasing saturation reduced color constancy and increased brightness constancy.
Less salient, lower contrast disks appear to be more numerous than more salient, higher contrast ... more Less salient, lower contrast disks appear to be more numerous than more salient, higher contrast disks when intermingled in equal numbers into the same display (Lei and Reeves, 2018), but they are equal in perceived numerosity when segregated into different displays. Comparative judgements indicate that the apparent numerosity of the lower contrast disks is unaffected by being intermingled with high contrast disks, whereas the high contrast disks are reduced in numerosity by being intermingled with the low contrast ones (Lei and Reeves, 2018). Here, we report that this illusion also occurs for absolute judgements of the numerosities of displays of from 20 to 80 disks. A model based on luminance-difference contrast normalization (LDCN) explains the illusory loss of high-contrast (salient) items along with veridical perception of the low-contrast ones. The model correctly predicts that perceived numerosity is linearly related to the square-root of the number of disks, with the extent ...
We investigated the effect of a sweetness blocker on the synesthetic taste experience of a rare c... more We investigated the effect of a sweetness blocker on the synesthetic taste experience of a rare color-gustatory synesthete, E.C., for whom specific colors elicit unique tastes. Blocking E.C.’s sweetness receptors while the tongue was otherwise unstimulated left other taste components of the synesthesia unaltered but initially reduced her synesthetic sweetness, which suggests a peripheral modulation of the synesthetic illusion.
We review research on the visual working memory for information portrayed by items arranged in de... more We review research on the visual working memory for information portrayed by items arranged in depth (i.e., distance to the observer) within peri-personal space. Most items lose their metric depths within half a second, even though their identities and spatial positions are retained. The paradoxical loss of depth information may arise because visual working memory retains the depth of a single object for the purpose of actions such as pointing or grasping which usually apply to only one thing at a time.
Attention, perception & psychophysics, Jan 6, 2017
Short-term visual memory was studied by displaying arrays of four or five numerals, each numeral ... more Short-term visual memory was studied by displaying arrays of four or five numerals, each numeral in its own depth plane, followed after various delays by an arrow cue shown in one of the depth planes. Subjects reported the numeral at the depth cued by the arrow. Accuracy fell with increasing cue delay for the first 500 ms or so, and then recovered almost fully. This dipping pattern contrasts with the usual iconic decay observed for memory traces. The dip occurred with or without a verbal or color-shape retention load on working memory. In contrast, accuracy did not change with delay when a tonal cue replaced the arrow cue. We hypothesized that information concerning the depths of the numerals decays over time in sensory memory, but that cued recall is aided later on by transfer to a visual memory specialized for depth. This transfer is sufficiently rapid with a tonal cue to compensate for the sensory decay, but it is slowed by the need to tag the arrow cue's depth relative to th...
Picture Theory, Tacit Knowledge or Vividness-Core? Three Hypotheses on the Mind’s Eye and Its Elu... more Picture Theory, Tacit Knowledge or Vividness-Core? Three Hypotheses on the Mind’s Eye and Its Elusive Size Amedeo D’Angiulli ([email protected]), Thompson Rivers University School of Education & Department of Psychology, 103-1402 McGill Road Kamloops, BC V2C 5N3 Adam Reeves ([email protected]), Northeastern University Department of Psychology, 125 NI Boston, MA 02115 USA visible details because one knows from daily experience that real-world objects that are smaller are less detailed when viewed from far off. One could have generated any image at any size with any level of detail, but one did not, because of one’s (tacit) knowledge of how objects look. This is similar to the notion of ‘demand characteristics’, in that the participant is trying to understand the implications of the imagery task (and does so by relating it to actual visual experience), even though there is no explicit demand from the experimenter. Paraphrasing Pylyshyn's argument, if we are asked to generate a small ...
The neural networks of the human visual brain derive representations of three-dimensional structu... more The neural networks of the human visual brain derive representations of three-dimensional structure from specific two-dimensional image cues. Neural models backed by psychophysical data predict how local differences in either luminance contrast or physical size of local boundaries in 2D images may determine the perception of 3D properties. Predictions relative to the role of color in this process do not follow from any of the current models. To further clarify the potential contribution of color to perceptual organization, image configurations with multiple surface representations where the relative physical size of local boundaries between contrast regions was held constant were submitted to perceptual judgments of relative size and relative depth. The only potential cues available in the images were generated by the specific local combinations of color and luminance contrast. It is shown that response probabilities for subjective depth and subjective size are systematically and co...
Analyzing Mental Image Generation Data through Imputation: Evidence of a Visual and an Episodic B... more Analyzing Mental Image Generation Data through Imputation: Evidence of a Visual and an Episodic Buffer for Image-Size Scaling Amedeo D’Angiulli ([email protected]) School of Education & Department of Psychology, Thompson Rivers University Suite 103 – 1402 McGill Road, Kamloops, B.C., Canada V2C 1L3 Adam Reeves ([email protected]) Department of Psychology, Northeastern University 125 NI, Boston, MA 02115 USA We reanalyzed data reported in previous mental imagery experiments (D’Angiulli, 2001; D’Angiulli & Reeves, 2002). The data consisted of self-reported image vividness ratings (1 = no image; 7 = perfectly vivid) and image latencies (image completion RTs) for “small” (i.e., subtending 16 o ) images, in two image generation conditions: trial-unique and repeated. In the original experiments, the seven vividness levels were not used equally frequently. This produced “planned” missing values. Consequently, we investigated whether filling-in the missing data through regression modeling (imp...
Victor Vasarely’s (1906-1997) important legacy to the study of human perception is brought to the... more Victor Vasarely’s (1906-1997) important legacy to the study of human perception is brought to the forefront and discussed. A large part of his impressive work conveys the appearance of striking three-dimensional shapes and structures in a large-scale pictorial plane. Current perception science explains such effects by invoking brain mechanisms for the processing of monocular (2D) depth cues. Here in this study, we illustrate and explain the local effects of 2D color and contrast cues on the perceptual organization in terms of figure-ground assignments, i.e. which local surfaces are likely to be seen as “nearer” or “bigger” in the image plane. Paired configurations are embedded in a larger, structurally ambivalent pictorial context inspired by some of Vasarely’s creations. The figure-ground effects these configurations produce reveal a significant correlation between perceptual solutions for “nearer” and “bigger” when no other monocular depth cues are given in the image. In consisten...
In this paper, I discuss attention in terms of selecting visual information and acting on it. Sel... more In this paper, I discuss attention in terms of selecting visual information and acting on it. Selection has been taken as a bedrock concept in attention research since James (1890). Selective attention guides action by privileging some things at the expense of others. I formalize this notion with models which capture the relationship between input and output under the control of spatial and temporal attention, by attenuating or discarding certain inputs and by weighing energetic costs, speed, and accuracy in meeting pre-chosen goals. Examples are given from everyday visually guided actions, and from modeling data obtained from visual searches through temporal and spatial arrays and related research. The relation between selection, as defined here, and other forms of attention is discussed at the end.
Apart from the well-known loss of color vision and of foveal acuity that characterizes human rod-... more Apart from the well-known loss of color vision and of foveal acuity that characterizes human rod-mediated vision, it has also been thought that night vision is very slow (taking up to 40 min) to adapt to changes in light levels. Even cone-mediated, daylight, vision has been thought to take 2 min to recover from light adaptation. Here, we show that most, though not all adaptation is rapid, taking less than 0.6 s. Thus, monochrome (black-white-gray) images can be presented at mesopic light levels and be visible within a few 10th of a second, even if the overall light level, or level of glare (as with passing headlamps while driving), changes abruptly.
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