The temporal window of individuation limits visual capacity

Wutz, Andreas; Melcher, David

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00952

Cited by 46 publications

(57 citation statements)

References 157 publications

(232 reference statements)

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“…The temporal resolution of attention is thought to limit performance across many different tasks, including the temporal frequency limit of the attentional motion system (Cavanagh, 1992;Lu & Sperling, 2001), the pairing of color and motion direction (Arnold, 2005), temporal individuation tasks (Verstraten et al, 2000;Wutz & Melcher, 2014), and others. It is distinct from the temporal resolution of vision that underlies our perception of flicker (critical flicker fusion) or the temporal frequency limit of luminance-defined motion, among others (for review, see Holcombe, 2009).…”

Section: Age and Gender Effect On Attentional Tracking Of One Targetmentioning

confidence: 99%

Different effects of aging and gender on the temporal resolution in attentional tracking

Roudaia

Faubert

2017

Journal of Vision

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The current study examined the role of temporal resolution of attention in the decline in multiple object tracking abilities with healthy aging. The temporal resolution of attention is known to limit attentional tracking of one and multiple targets (Holcombe & Chen, 2013). Here, we examined whether aging is associated with a lower temporal resolution of attention when tracking one target, the efficiency of splitting attention across multiple targets, or both. Stimuli comprised three concentric rings containing five or 10 equally spaced dots. While maintaining central fixation, younger and older participants tracked a target dot on one, two, or three rings while the rings rotated around fixation in random directions for 5 s. Rotational speed was varied to estimate speed or temporal frequency thresholds in six conditions. Results showed that younger and older participants had similar temporal frequency thresholds for tracking one target, but the addition of one and two more targets reduced thresholds more in the older group compared to the younger group. Gender also affected performance, with men having higher temporal frequency thresholds than women, independently of the number of targets. These findings indicate that the temporal resolution of attention for a single target depends on gender but is not affected by aging, whereas aging specifically affects the efficiency of dividing attention across multiple targets.

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Section: Age and Gender Effect On Attentional Tracking Of One Targetmentioning

confidence: 99%

Different effects of aging and gender on the temporal resolution in attentional tracking

Roudaia

Faubert

2017

Journal of Vision

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“…Several authors have distinguished two levels of processing in vision, called level 1 and level 2 or low-level and high-level processing (Battelli, Pascual-Leone, & Cavanagh, 2007;Burr & Thompson, 2011;Cavanagh, 2011;Di Lollo, Enns, & Rensink, 2000;Holcombe, 2009;Itti & Koch, 2001;Rensink, 2000;Seiffert & Cavanagh, 1998;Wutz & Melcher, 2014). Level 1 processing is generally regarded as fast, automatic, non-attentive, bottom-up or feedforward, and local.…”

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confidence: 99%

Is the perceived present a predictive model of the objective present?

White

2018

Visual Cognition

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Processing latencies for coherent, high level percepts in vision are at least 100 ms and possibly as much as 500 ms. Processing latencies are less in other modalities, but still significant. This seems to imply that perception lags behind reality by an amount equal to the processing latency. It has been proposed that the brain can compensate for perceptual processing latencies by using the most recent available information to extrapolate forward, thereby constructing a model of what the world beyond the senses is like now. The present paper reviews several lines of evidence relating to this hypothesis, including the flash-lag effect, motion-induced position shifts, representational momentum, static visual illusions, and motion extrapolation at the retina. There are alternative explanations for most of the results but there are some findings for which no competing explanation has yet been proposed. Collectively, the evidence for extrapolation to the present is suggestive but not yet conclusive. An alternative account of compensation for processing latencies, based on the hypothesis of rapid emergence of percepts, is proposed. Keywords: perceived present moment; extrapolation to the present; predictive coding; flashlag effect; perceptual processing latencies. Word count: Main text: 16,921 Extrapolation to the present 3 Is the perceived present a predictive model of the objective present? All of us have the feeling that we live in the present moment; that is, in terms of perception, that we perceive the world outside our brains as it is now. I shall hereafter use the term "perceived present" to refer to the collective set of perceptual information that seems to us to represent the outside world as it is now. In fact, operation of peripheral sensors, neural transduction and perceptual processing of input information take time, so it can be argued that our conscious percepts are out of date by an amount equal to the combined latency of those things (hereafter just "processing latency", for convenience). 1 That is, we are in effect perceiving a moment that is in the past by however long it takes for perceptual processing to generate the percept of that moment. An alternative possibility is that the brain uses the processed information, not to represent the recent past, but to predict the present moment. In that case, conscious percepts would be the contents of the predictive model of the present moment, generated from the most recent available information. The aim of this paper is to review the evidence concerning that possibility. I shall start by briefly describing the processing latency problem, and I shall then proceed to a review of several lines of research that have been taken as evidence for the predictive model hypothesis, which I shall call the extrapolation to the present hypothesis. At the end I shall propose an alternative account, based on the hypothesis that conscious percepts begin to emerge no more than 100-150 ms after stimulus onset (ASO). Several kinds of adjustment to the temporal location of thing...

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“…Although some authors have argued against the theory of discontinuous perceptual cycles (Allport 1968;Kline and Eagleman 2008), a growing body of neurophysiological investigation confirms that our conscious experience of the surrounding world as a seamless flow of information is actually the result of the combination and assembly of distinct processing epochs, which are produced by a periodic processing whose physiological basis is provided by electrical neural oscillations (Baumgarten et al 2015;Blais et al 2013;Busch et al 2009;Doesburg et al 2009;Fingelkurts 2006, 2014;Fingelkurts et al 2010;Kranczioch et al 2007;Mathewson et al 2009;Neuling et al 2012;Romei et al 2010;Van Dijk et al 2008;Varela et al 1981;Wutz and Melcher 2014).…”

Section: Periodicitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Consciousness: a unique way of processing information

Marchetti¹

2018

Cogn Process

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In this article, I argue that consciousness is a unique way of processing information, in that: it produces information, rather than purely transmitting it; the information it produces is meaningful for us; the meaning it has is always individuated. This uniqueness allows us to process information on the basis of our personal needs and ever-changing interactions with the environment, and consequently to act autonomously. Three main basic cognitive processes contribute to realize this unique way of information processing: the self, attention and working memory. The self, which is primarily expressed via the central and peripheral nervous systems, maps our body, the environment, and our relations with the environment. It is the primary means by which the complexity inherent to our composite structure is reduced into the "single voice" of a unique individual. It provides a reference system that (albeit evolving) is sufficiently stable to define the variations that will be used as the raw material for the construction of conscious information. Attention allows for the selection of those variations in the state of the self that are most relevant in the given situation. Attention originates and is deployed from a single locus inside our body, which represents the center of the self, around which all our conscious experiences are organized. Whatever is focused by attention appears in our consciousness as possessing a spatial quality defined by this center and the direction toward which attention is focused. In addition, attention determines two other features of conscious experience: periodicity and phenomenal quality. Self and attention are necessary but not sufficient for conscious information to be produced. Complex forms of conscious experiences, such as the various modes of givenness of conscious experience and the stream of consciousness, need a working memory mechanism to assemble the basic pieces of information selected by attention.

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The temporal window of individuation limits visual capacity

Cited by 46 publications

References 157 publications

Different effects of aging and gender on the temporal resolution in attentional tracking

Different effects of aging and gender on the temporal resolution in attentional tracking

Is the perceived present a predictive model of the objective present?

Consciousness: a unique way of processing information

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