I-Perception最新文献

In the hall of animal oddities, the reindeer (Rangifer tarandus) is the only mammal with a color-shifting tapetum lucidum and the only ruminant with a lichen-dominated diet. These puzzling traits coexist with yet another enigma--ocular media that transmit up to 60% of ultraviolet (UV) light, enough to excite the cones responsible for color vision. It is unclear why any day-active circum-Arctic mammal would benefit from UV visual sensitivity, but it could improve detection of UV-absorbing lichens against a background of UV-reflecting snows, especially during the extended twilight hours of winter. To explore this idea and advance our understanding of reindeer visual ecology, we recorded the reflectance spectra of several ground-growing (terricolous), shrubby (fruticose) lichens in the diets of reindeer living in Cairngorms National Park, Scotland.

We investigated participants' ability to differentiate between random and organized two-dimensional tactile tiles with embossed dots and examined how this ability varies with size and participant age. Four experiments were conducted to evaluate the effect of these variations on participants' capacity to utilize touch in identifying which of two stimuli exhibited greater randomness. Participants were instructed to explore embossed tiles using both hands. The tiles had varying levels of randomness from organized to random sets. In Experiments 1, 2, and 4, the sets were of equal size, while in Experiment 3, they differed in size. Results revealed a significant difference between the random and organized sets, with random stimuli being more easily discernible. These findings suggest that touch can be utilized to discern random patterns on tactile maps or displays. However, older participants encountered difficulties making this distinction, indicating similarities between vision and touch in perceiving randomness.

Our minds frequently wander from a task at hand. This mind-wandering reflects fluctuations in our cognitive states. The phenomenon of perceptual rivalry, in which one of the mutually exclusive percepts automatically switches to an ambiguous sensory input, is also known as fluctuations in our perceptual states. There may be possible relationships between the mind-wandering and perceptual rivalry, given that physiological responses such as fluctuations in pupil diameter, which is an index of attentional/arousal states, are related to the occurrence of both phenomena. Here, we investigate possible relationships between mind-wandering and perceptual rivalry by combining experimental and questionnaire methods in an online research protocol. In Study 1, we found no statistically significant relationships between subjective mind-wandering tendencies measured by questionnaires and frequencies of perceptual rivalry for Necker-cube or structure-from-motion stimuli. Study 2 replicated the results of Study 1 and further confirmed no statistically significant relationships between behavioral measurements of mind-wandering tendencies estimated by sustained attention to response task and frequencies of perceptual rivalry. These findings suggest that mind-wandering and perceptual rivalry would be based on different mechanisms, possibly higher-level cognitive and lower-level perceptual ones.

Prior research indicate that emotional states can alter taste perception, but the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. This study explores whether taste perception changes due to the mere evocation of emotions or the cognitive awareness of emotions. The first experiment investigated how anxiety affects taste perception when individuals are aware of their anxiety. Participants watched videos inducing relaxation or anxiety, then were divided into groups focusing on their emotions and those who did not, and the taste perception was measure. The second experiment investigated the influence of awareness directed toward emotions on taste evaluation, without manipulating emotional states. This focused on cognitive processing of taste through evaluations of visual stimuli. Results showed that sweetness perception is suppressed by the evocation of anxiety, whereas bitterness perception is enhanced only by anxiety with awareness. These findings indicate that the mechanisms by which emotional states affect taste perception may differ depending on taste quality.

Stereoscopic photographs of works in reverse perspective do not reveal their three-dimensional structure whereas pseudoscopic photographs enhance the apparent depth effects.

A major restoration of Vermeer's "Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window" revealed a painting of cupid on the back wall that had been overpainted. The uncovering of this painting within a painting changed the composition of the artwork. We performed an eye tracking study on digital representations of the painting to investigate how the restoration altered the way people perceive this artwork. We show that the painting of cupid draws visual attention from the letter and that viewing behavior depends on knowledge of the other version of the painting. Moreover, lay people prefer the version without cupid.

When participants decide whether a presented tone is loud or soft they react faster to loud tones with a top-sided response key in comparison to a bottom-sided response key and vice versa for soft tones. This effect is comparable to the well-established horizontal Spatial-Numerical Association of Response Codes (SNARC) effect and is often referred to as Spatial-Musical Association of Response Codes (SMARC) effect for loudness. The SMARC effect for loudness is typically explained by the assumption of a spatial representation or by the polarity correspondence principle. Crucially, both theories differ in the prediction of the SMARC effect when loudness is task-irrelevant. Therefore, we investigated whether the SMARC effect still occurs in a timbre discrimination task: Participants (N = 36) heard a single tone and classified its timbre with vertically arranged response keys. Additionally, the tone's loudness level varied in six levels. In case of a spatial representation, the SMARC effect should still occur while in case of polarity corresponding principle, the effect should be absent. Results showed that the SMARC effect was still present and that the differences between top-sided and bottom-sided responses were a linear function of loudness level indicating a continuous spatial representation of loudness.