{"title":"Ambiguity and Reentrant Processing in Object Detection","authors":"Mary A. Peterson","doi":"10.1177/09637214251314755","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Many scientists continue to conceive of object detection as occurring in stages that map onto levels in the visual hierarchy. This article reviews experiments suggesting that multiple interpretations and their semantics are activated at high levels before conscious object detection. That more than one interpretation is activated before object detection implies that ambiguity (and not just uncertainty) exists before conscious object detection. This is so even when displays seem unambiguous after detection. Converging evidence from a variety of methods indicates that inhibitory competition resolves the unconscious ambiguity. Experiments in my laboratory suggest that reentrant processes—both cortico-cortical and cortico-subcortical—determine conscious perception. I conclude that object detection entails global dynamic interactive Bayesian processes. Stage terminology is outdated.","PeriodicalId":10802,"journal":{"name":"Current Directions in Psychological Science","volume":"54 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":7.4000,"publicationDate":"2025-03-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Current Directions in Psychological Science","FirstCategoryId":"102","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09637214251314755","RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"PSYCHOLOGY, MULTIDISCIPLINARY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Many scientists continue to conceive of object detection as occurring in stages that map onto levels in the visual hierarchy. This article reviews experiments suggesting that multiple interpretations and their semantics are activated at high levels before conscious object detection. That more than one interpretation is activated before object detection implies that ambiguity (and not just uncertainty) exists before conscious object detection. This is so even when displays seem unambiguous after detection. Converging evidence from a variety of methods indicates that inhibitory competition resolves the unconscious ambiguity. Experiments in my laboratory suggest that reentrant processes—both cortico-cortical and cortico-subcortical—determine conscious perception. I conclude that object detection entails global dynamic interactive Bayesian processes. Stage terminology is outdated.
期刊介绍:
Current Directions in Psychological Science publishes reviews by leading experts covering all of scientific psychology and its applications. Each issue of Current Directions features a diverse mix of reports on various topics such as language, memory and cognition, development, the neural basis of behavior and emotions, various aspects of psychopathology, and theory of mind. These articles allow readers to stay apprised of important developments across subfields beyond their areas of expertise and bodies of research they might not otherwise be aware of. The articles in Current Directions are also written to be accessible to non-experts, making them ideally suited for use in the classroom as teaching supplements.