Amelioration of axis-aligned motion bias for active versus stationary judgments of bilaterally symmetric moving shapes' final destinations

Dolgov, Igor; Birchfield, David; McBeath, Michael K.; Thornburg, Harvey; Todd, Christopher

doi:10.3758/app.71.3.523

Cited by 6 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 42 publications

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“…Objectively ambiguous object motion is perceptually interpreted as being in the direction in which the object appears to be facing (McBeath, Morikawa, & Kaiser, 1992). Perception of the direction of motion is biased toward the direction of orientation of the object's axis of symmetry, when it has one (Dolgov, Birchfield, McBeath, Thornburg, & Todd, 2009; Dolgov, McBeath, & Sugar, 2009; Morikawa, 1999). Morikawa (1999) argued that this tendency shows a proclivity to perceive object motion as biological, on the grounds that biological entities tend to move with an axis of symmetry aligned in the direction of motion, whereas that is less often the case for human-made objects.…”

Section: Perception Of Motion As Internally Causedmentioning

confidence: 99%

The experience of force: The role of haptic experience of forces in visual perception of object motion and interactions, mental simulation, and motion-related judgments.

White

2012

Psychological Bulletin

177

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Forces are experienced in actions on objects. The mechanoreceptor system is stimulated by proximal forces in interactions with objects, and experiences of force occur in a context of information yielded by other sensory modalities, principally vision. These experiences are registered and stored as episodic traces in the brain. These stored representations are involved in generating visual impressions of forces and causality in object motion and interactions. Kinematic information provided by vision is matched to kinematic features of stored representations, and the information about forces and causality in those representations then forms part of the perceptual interpretation. I apply this account to the perception of interactions between objects and to motions of objects that do not have perceived external causes, in which motion tends to be perceptually interpreted as biological or internally caused. I also apply it to internal simulations of events involving mental imagery, such as mental rotation, trajectory extrapolation and judgment, visual memory for the location of moving objects, and the learning of perceptual judgments and motor skills. Simulations support more accurate judgments when they represent the underlying dynamics of the event simulated. Mechanoreception gives us whatever limited ability we have to perceive interactions and object motions in terms of forces and resistances; it supports our practical interventions on objects by enabling us to generate simulations that are guided by inferences about forces and resistances, and it helps us learn novel, visually based judgments about object behavior.

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Section: Perception Of Motion As Internally Causedmentioning

confidence: 99%

The experience of force: The role of haptic experience of forces in visual perception of object motion and interactions, mental simulation, and motion-related judgments.

White

2012

Psychological Bulletin

177

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“…Other natural regularities are present, with most organisms and other objects of interest displaying 3D symmetry and orientations that are generally vertically upright (McBeath et al, 1997; Schiano et al, 2008). Motion patterns exhibit natural regularities like tendencies for forward-facing and axis-aligned motion, especially the motion patterns associated with living organisms and human artifacts (Dolgov et al, 2009; McBeath, et al, 1992), and it follows that observers exhibit a bias to attend to these nonarbitrary more meaningful motion patterns (Wallis & Bulthoff, 2000).…”

Section: Ecological Theory Interactive Space and Affordancesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Children and adults exhibit a common vertical attention bias for object tops and scene bottoms.

Langley,

Van Houghton,

McBeath

et al. 2023

Developmental Psychology

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Adults have a vertical attention bias (VAB) that directs their focus toward object tops and scene bottoms. This is consistent with focusing attention on the informative aspects and affordances of the environment, and generally favoring a downward gaze. The smaller size of children, combined with their relatively limited interactions with objects and scenes, could lead them to have diminished bias that only gradually develops. Alternatively, an early coupling of attention to action space could lead to VAB similar to adults. The current study investigates the developmental timeline of VAB, comparing 4-7-year-olds to adults. Participants (N = 50 children, 53 adults; 58% White, 22% Asian, 6% Black, 2% Native American, and 12% other) observed naturalistic photographic triptychs (48 objects, 52 scenes, all online). They made similarity judgments comparing a test figure to two flanking figures containing either the same top or same bottom. We found that (a) children and adults exhibit a common VAB for object tops and scene bottoms and (b) the adult bias is stronger than children's. Exploratory analyses revealed the same age trend within children, with VAB increasing with age, and asymptoting at the adult level at age 8. This demonstrates that despite age and body size differences that could make the environment for young children relatively disparate from adults, their perceptual system is already largely attuned to their individual interactive action space, with only minor continuing residual development. The findings support that, like adults, young children focus their attention on their action space and body level affordances, where they interact more with tops of objects and bottoms of scenes. Public Significance StatementThis study confirms that visual perceptual biases to favor attending to object tops and scene bottoms extend from adults to 4-7-year-olds children. The findings support that both groups attend more to their interactive space near their arms and legs, below eye height. This supports a common vertical attention bias coupled to a general downward vantage, largely independent of age, body size, and cognitive growth, which could help designers optimize learning environment layouts.

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“…This morphology is ubiquitous across the spectrum of living organisms, from single-celled protozoa to elephants, and is a robust natural regularity used by the visual system in defining orientation and identity (McBeath et al, 1997; McBeath & Sugar, 2005). The regularity of orientation is also displayed in most organisms and objects, such that the reliable orientation is generally vertically upright (Dolgov et al, 2009; Schiano et al, 2008). Here again, our perceptual system has a preference to assume a reference frame in which the tops of objects are oriented upwards and are gravitationally centered.…”

Section: Ecological Theory—natural Regularities and Coupled Perceptua...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Vertical attention bias for tops of objects and bottoms of scenes.

Langley,

McBeath

2023

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Perfor

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Past research demonstrated a top-salience bias in object identification, with random shapes appearing more similar when they share the same top versus the same bottom. This is consistent with tops of natural objects and lifeforms tending to be more informative locations of intentionality and functionality, leading observers to favor attending to tops. However, this bias may also reflect a generic downward vantage tendency that occurs with more informative interactive aspects of scenes typically lying below the horizon. Two experiments test for this overall pattern of vertical attention bias (VAB) for both objects and scenes. Participants observed picture triptychs and judged if the center object or scene appeared more similar to flanking comparison figures that contain the same top versus same bottom. Experiment 1 used vertically informationbalanced impoverished stimuli, either polygon objects or polygon-array scenes. Experiment 2 extended the triptych stimuli to naturalistic objects or scenes. Results generally support a VAB for object tops and scene bottoms that varies as a function of the informative aspects of visually attended stimuli. This pattern held for information-balanced objects but not scenes, however, with more ecologically valid naturalistic stimuli, VAB was large and robust, consistent with a vertical information imbalance that drives a generic downward vantage. Public Significance StatementThis study shows how a general visual perceptual tendency to attend to interactive space can lead to seemingly opposite stimulus-related biases, salience of tops of objects, but bottoms of scenes. Our findings integrate these biases and support that they are both consistent with a general downward vantage and a vertical attention bias toward the most useful interactive parts of our environment. This work has potential relevance to both perceptual theory and design applications.

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Amelioration of axis-aligned motion bias for active versus stationary judgments of bilaterally symmetric moving shapes' final destinations

Cited by 6 publications

References 42 publications

The experience of force: The role of haptic experience of forces in visual perception of object motion and interactions, mental simulation, and motion-related judgments.

The experience of force: The role of haptic experience of forces in visual perception of object motion and interactions, mental simulation, and motion-related judgments.

Children and adults exhibit a common vertical attention bias for object tops and scene bottoms.

Vertical attention bias for tops of objects and bottoms of scenes.

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