The extreme relativity of perception: A new contextual effect modulates human resolving power.

Namdar, Gal; Ganel, Tzvi; Algom, Daniel

doi:10.1037/xge0000149

Cited by 12 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 41 publications

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“…The lack of a difference between Part‐word and Non‐word ratings in Experiment 1 is also not predicted by either model. Here, we suggest that the presence of the highly unfamiliar Reduplication condition played a role in reducing the dynamic range for other responses (Namdar, Ganel, & Algom, ). It is possible that if the Reduplication condition had not been present, a significant difference between Part‐words and Non‐words might have been observed, as in Experiment 2.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 67%

Statistical Learning of Unfamiliar Sounds as Trajectories Through a Perceptual Similarity Space

2019

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In typical statistical learning studies, researchers define sequences in terms of the probability of the next item in the sequence given the current item (or items), and they show that high probability sequences are treated as more familiar than low probability sequences. Existing accounts of these phenomena all assume that participants represent statistical regularities more or less as they are defined by the experimenters—as sequential probabilities of symbols in a string. Here we offer an alternative, or possibly supplementary, hypothesis. Specifically, rather than identifying or labeling individual stimuli discretely in order to predict the next item in a sequence, we need only assume that the participant is able to represent the stimuli as evincing particular similarity relations to one another, with sequences represented as trajectories through this similarity space. We present experiments in which this hypothesis makes sharply different predictions from hypotheses based on the assumption that sequences are learned over discrete, labeled stimuli. We also present a series of simulation models that encode stimuli as positions in a continuous two‐dimensional space, and predict the next location from the current location. Although no model captures all of the data presented here, the results of three critical experiments are more consistent with the view that participants represent trajectories through similarity space rather than sequences of discrete labels under particular conditions.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 67%

Statistical Learning of Unfamiliar Sounds as Trajectories Through a Perceptual Similarity Space

2019

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“…The results showed that stimulus resolution was affected by context range. When the stimulus was presented in a wide context range, resolution went in the same direction of the context range and JNDs were larger compared to the narrow-range condition (Namdar et al, 2016). These results were replicated and extended in a follow-up study that compared the effect of stimulus range between perception and action .…”

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confidence: 67%

“…The results of Experiment 1 suggest that 2D grasping is subjected to effects of context. In a similar way to perceptual estimations (Namdar et al, 2016, resolution was modulated by the range of the other stimuli presented in the block. This pattern of results suggests that the visuomotor system, which in other cases was found to be immune to task-irrelevant contextual information, is intruded by this information when 2D objects are presented for grasp.…”

Section: Grip Aperturesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Therefore, the question of whether 2D grasping is affected by contextual information calls for further investigation. The purpose of the current study was to test this issue by focusing at the resolving power of the response-a basic psychophysical aspect of performance (Ganel et al, 2008;Namdar, Ganel, & Algom, 2016;Zitron-Emanuel & Ganel, 2017). To this purpose, we tested the effect of contextual information on the visual resolution of 2D (and 3D) grasping using a simple psychophysical tool, recently developed in our laboratory (Namdar, Algom, & Ganel, 2017;Namdar et al, 2016).…”

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confidence: 99%

“…Recently, Namdar et al, (2016) reported the discovery of a new contextual effect on visual resolution. According to the range of standards effect (RSE), visual resolution for a target stimulus depends on the range of the contextual stimuli presented within the same session (for a similar idea in the domain of stimulus identification, see Ward, Armstrong, & Golestani, 1996).…”

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Dissociable effects of irrelevant context on 2D and 3D grasping

Ozana

Ganel

2017

Atten Percept Psychophys

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Grasping movements directed toward real objects are typically unaffected by irrelevant aspects of the object and its surroundings, indicating that such interactions are based on analytic processing of object shape and size. However, recent findings show that grasping directed toward two-dimensional (2D) objects is subjected to perceptually mediated effects of relative shape and size. It is unclear however, whether context-dependent processing-a hallmark of visual perception-affects 2D grasping in the same fashion. Here, we explored this possibility by comparing the influence of a newly discovered contextual effect on 2D and on 3D grasping. According to the range of standard effect (RSE), the perceptual resolution for a stimulus depends on the range of the other stimuli presented within the same session, with higher resolution obtained under narrow compared to wide context range. In two experiments, participants were asked to grasp 3D and 2D objects embedded in a wide or a narrow range. The results showed that, unlike 3D grasping, which was immune to contextual information, the resolution during 2D grasping was significantly modulated by the range of the irrelevant context. The findings suggest that visuomotor control directed to 2D objects is intruded by irrelevant perceptual information, making it context-dependent.

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Priors Bias Perceptual Decisions in Autism, But Are Less Flexibly Adjusted to the Context

2020

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According to the predictive coding framework, percepts emerge from combinations of sensory input and prior knowledge, whose relative contributions depend on their reliability. Recent predictive coding theories suggest that Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) could be characterized by an atypical weighting of priors. Here, we assessed whether individuals with ASD can flexibly adjust the weight (precision) of the prior to the context. Thirty‐one neurotypical adults (NT) and 26 adults with ASD participated in a visual discrimination task designed to elicit a time‐order effect (TOE). The TOE reflects the integration of priors with sensory estimates. We used two experimental contexts: a narrow stimulus range (Narrow condition) and a broader range (Broad condition) in order to induce a prior with a higher and lower precision, respectively. Both groups learned a prior that biased their perception, as shown with the TOE. As expected, the NT group had a larger TOE in the Narrow condition than in the Broad condition, revealing a contextual adjustment of the prior precision. In contrast, ASD participants were more inflexible: the extent of the TOE was not modulated by the context. In addition, the accuracy increased when the stimulus range decreased in both group, which may be interpreted as a contextual adjustment of the sensory precision. To conclude, adults with and without ASD implicitly learned a prior mean, but ASD participants failed to flexibly adjust the prior precision to the context. This increased inflexibility in ASD could account for many symptoms, such as their intolerance of uncertainty. Lay Summary Based on our experience, we have expectations about our environment. Theories suggest that the symptoms encountered in autism could be due to atypical expectations, leading to an impression of an unpredictable world. Using a visual discrimination task, we showed that adults with and without autism were biased by their expectations. Yet, the extent to which expectations biased perception did not depend on the context in autism. This higher inflexibility found in autism may explain symptoms such as resistance to change.

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The extreme relativity of perception: A new contextual effect modulates human resolving power.

Cited by 12 publications

References 41 publications

Statistical Learning of Unfamiliar Sounds as Trajectories Through a Perceptual Similarity Space

Statistical Learning of Unfamiliar Sounds as Trajectories Through a Perceptual Similarity Space

Dissociable effects of irrelevant context on 2D and 3D grasping

Priors Bias Perceptual Decisions in Autism, But Are Less Flexibly Adjusted to the Context

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