Perceptual load modulates conscious flicker perception

Abstract

Subjective visual experience depends not only on the spatial arrangement of the environment, but also on the temporal pattern of stimulation. For example, flickering and steady light presented in the same location evoke a very different perceptual experience due to their different temporal patterns. Here, we examined whether the availability of processing resources affected the temporal resolution of conscious flicker perception--the ability to distinguish rapid changes in light intensity, detecting visual temporal patterns. Participants detected flicker in a fixated LED that flickered at or around the individually adjusted critical flicker fusion (CFF) threshold while searching for a target letter presented in the periphery either on its own (low perceptual load) or among other letters (high load). Physically identical flickering stimuli were more likely to be perceived as "fused" under high (compared to low) load in the peripheral letter search. Furthermore, psychophysical measures showed a reduction in flicker detection sensitivity under high perceptual load. These results could not be due to criterion or stimulus prioritization differences or to differential likelihood of forgetting the correct response under different load conditions. These findings demonstrate that perceptual load influences conscious perception of temporal patterns.

Identifying visual targets amongst interfering distractors: Sorting out the roles of perceptual load, dilution, and attentional zoom

“…In the second group (see Fig. 1B), PL is increased by increasing the similarity between the target and the nontargets and among the nontargets (Carmel, Saker, Rees, & Lavie, 2007;Lavie & Cox, 1997). In the third group (see Fig.…”

Perceptual load effects on processing distractor faces indicate face-specific capacity limits

“…tasks with a greater number of items, or with a more demanding perceptual discrimination) cause reduced processing of any task-irrelevant items (see Lavie, 2005Lavie, , 2010. These effects of perceptual load have been shown across the range of perceptual processing from low level visual processing such as detecting stimulus presence (Carmel, Saker, Rees, & Lavie, 2007;Cartwright-Finch & Lavie, 2007;Macdonald & Lavie, 2008;Schwartz et al, 2005;Simons & Chabris, 1999), or motion (Rees, Frith, & Lavie, 1997) to higher levels, involving letter discrimination (Lavie, 1995;Lavie & Cox, 1997;Lavie & Fox, 2000) and recognition of meaningful distractor images of objects (Forster & Lavie, 2008;Jenkins, Lavie, & Driver, 2005;Lavie, Lin, Zokaei, & Thoma, 2009;Pinsk, Doniger, & Kastner, 2004) and places (Yi, Woodman, Widders, Marois, & Chun, 2004). …”

The effect of hypoxia on the critical flicker fusion threshold in pilots

“…An advantage of this method is the possibility to evaluate threshold changes in response to a varying pulsation of the light stimulus. Some authors emphasized the advantages of CFF assessment [1,12] as an objective, quantitative, and important method for measuring alertness and arousal, The CFF test makes it possible to determine the degree of CNS fatigue and cortical arousal. The results of the studies indicating that an exhausting physical exercise increases the CFF threshold are particularly interesting [1,12].…”

“…These studies concern mainly the effect of the perceptual load, anxiety level and age on CFF threshold [12][13][14].…”