Perception最新文献

Visual perception of biological motion (BM) is essential in comprehending our environment. Despite the well-established contribution of cross-modal priming to our understanding of BM perception, the influence of expectations in audiovisual settings remains unexplored. The present study investigates the impact of congruent and incongruent auditory cues on detecting BMs presented in point-light displays, exploring the impact of predictive processing on BM perception in the audiovisual context. Participants viewed either congruent auditory priors, which gave the correct information about the BM, or incongruent priors. They were required to detect the BMs as fast and accurately as possible. Our findings revealed shorter reaction times in congruent trials than incongruent ones although accuracy remained unaffected by congruency. Overall, our results highlight that while prior information can facilitate faster detection of human motion, it does not necessarily enhance accuracy.

One of the most remarkable human cognitive abilities is the "sense of number," that is, the almost instantaneous perception of numerosity information in the visual environment. While numerosity perception mirrors primary sensory processing in many aspects, little is known whether and how numerosity perception is influenced by selective attention to numerosity. Here, we investigated the effects of feature-based attention on numerosity perception using the visual search paradigm and the adaptation paradigm, respectively. In the visual search experiment, participants identified the presence of a numerosity-defined outlier among an array of distractors, while in the numerosity adaptation experiment, participants attended to a random dot field whose numerosity either matched or differed from the adaptor. We found a "semiparallel" search pattern in which attention was captured by the numerosity-defined outliers in a time-consuming, rather than an instantaneous manner. Interestingly, reduced numerosity adaptation aftereffects were observed when the attended numerosity matched the numerosity of the adaptor, indicating weakened perceptual representation of numerosity induced by feature-based attention. Our findings show, for the first time, that numerosity serves as a unique unit of nonspatial feature-based attention and that numerosity perception was modulated by feature-based attention via a distinctive mechanism that differed from other primary visual features.

Wearing a mask often disrupts social interactions because it covers parts of the face. Hence, masks with a printed smiling mouth (smiling masks) were designed to overcome this problem. In this study, we examine how wearing a smiling mask evokes affective impressions. The results show that people wearing a smiling mask are evaluated more eerily than those with a typical cloth mask or without any masks (Experiments 1). Moreover, people wearing a transparent mask (i.e., a mask whose area around the mouth is transparent) are evaluated less eerily than those with a smiling mask (Experiments 2). Our findings suggest that the realism inconsistency between facial features in the upper area and the printed mouth causes devaluation effects for people with a smiling mask. Our findings can be used as a reference for future mask designs that can promote healthy social interactions in a mask-wearing society, considering the potential return of infectious diseases and pandemics in the future.

Time perception is influenced by the spatial factors of visual stimuli. When observing a moving visual stimulus, a longer moving distance is judged to be longer than a shorter moving distance, even if the moving time is the same (the kappa effect). In the present study, to examine the effect of retrospective attention on the kappa effect, two visual stimuli with different moving distances were presented simultaneously. Immediately after these stimuli disappeared, the stimulus to which attention should be directed was specified. Participants judged the time interval to be longer when the stimulus to which they directed retrospective attention moved a longer distance than when it moved a shorter one. This finding indicates that stimulus features (distance moved) affect time perception by directing attention to a specific object in the memory after the disappearance of visual stimuli.

This study examined whether preterm infants possess a predisposition to follow face-like patterns and investigated the potential consequences of limited visual exposure to faces during the first weeks of life in preterm infants who experienced temporary visual deprivation due to phototherapy. The orienting responses (i.e., eyes and head movements toward two types of stimuli [face-like vs. scrambled]) of preterm infants were compared using a visual tracking paradigm. They were divided into two groups: preterm infants who underwent phototherapy for hyperbilirubinemia (experimental group) were compared with those who did not receive phototherapy and had no hyperbilirubinemia (control group). Both groups were assessed at 7 and 14 days of life (i.e., before and after phototherapy for the experimental group). Results demonstrated that both groups presented a preference for face-like stimuli at 7 days of life, which decreased in the experimental group at 14 days. This decrease may be due to the lack of visual experience with faces from wearing safety glasses during phototherapy. The findings supported theoretical views on how visual experiences mediate changes in face preferences.

There are several studies that compare perception for written words and faces. However, many draw conclusions from different experimental paradigms, complicating direct comparison between these stimuli. Such comparisons are of interest because of hypotheses based on neuroimaging and neuropsychological data that face and word processing may have common underlying mechanisms and neural substrates. To facilitate such comparisons, we created a novel paradigm studying face recognition that closely resembles the word-superiority test, in which a letter is more easily identified when it is embedded in a whole word than when seen in isolation or in an unpronounceable random string of letters. Forty subjects each completed both of our tests. In the traditional word-superiority test, they briefly saw a word, a pseudoword, or a nonword, then a single test letter, and were asked if the letter had been part of the initial stimulus. In the face-superiority test, they briefly saw a learned, new, or scrambled face initially, then a test facial feature in isolation, and were asked to respond whether the feature had been part of the initial stimulus. For both categories of stimuli, there were similar differences between real, pseudo-, and non-stimuli. Accuracy was lower for non-stimuli compared to pseudo- and real stimuli, which in turn did not differ from each other. Response latency was greater for non-stimuli compared to pseudo-stimuli, which in turn was greater than real stimuli. Bivariate analyses revealed significant correlations between interstimulus trials for reaction times. Our study replicated a face superiority effect utilizing a similar methodology to the word-superiority test. Additionally, response latencies follows similar patterns in the recognition of written words and faces.

Psychological studies have revealed that people can easily draw inferences regarding others' personal traits from their faces, which has a considerable impact on social decisions. Impressions from faces can be summarized into two orthogonal dimensions: valence and dominance. Owing to their prominence in social relationships, faces appear in paintings across all ages and cultures. These observations lead to the question of whether the structure of trait impressions from illustrated portraits is similar to that of real faces. To examine this issue, we collected trait ratings of illustrated portraits of historical individuals from old Japanese artwork. In the Study 1 section, we applied a principal component analysis to 13 traits by Japanese raters and observed two orthogonal dimensions consistent with the valence and dominance model; the first component was correlated with trustworthiness but not with dominance, while the second component was correlated with dominance but not with trustworthiness. In the Study 2 section, we collected the trait ratings of real faces by Japanese raters and directly assessed the similarity between the two components. Highly similar structures were observed for the illustrated and real faces. Our findings provide evidence that portraits of historical individuals were painted to convey distinctive impressions of trustworthiness and dominance. This suggests that these traits were fundamental dimensions of people's perception in medieval Japan similar to today's society.

Searching for a target amongst distractors is faster when moving an aperture over the search display than when moving the search display beneath an aperture. Is this because when moving the aperture, each item is sampled at a different position, while when moving the search display, all items are sampled at the same position? When moving the aperture, it might therefore be easier to keep track of where one has already searched. Experiment 1 showed that, when the extent of the search display is visible to provide an additional reference frame, participants still found targets faster when moving the aperture. Experiment 2 showed that, even when the aperture and search display constantly moved around the screen together so that remembering where on the screen one had already searched is less useful, participants still found targets faster when moving the aperture. Experiment 3 showed that inverting the mapping between movements of the mouse and the item they were toggled to reversed the outcome: for the inverted mapping, search was faster when moving the search display than when moving the aperture. We conclude that the congruency between the user's movements and the spatial region of the search display that they are sampling from is critical for speeding up search.

Impulsivity is consistently linked to various problematic behaviors, including aggression, substance abuse, pathological gambling, risky driving, and numerous psychopathological disorders such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and personality disorders. This study aims to investigate the relationship between self-reported impulsivity, measured by the Behavioral Inhibition/Behavioral Activation Scales, and emotional states (pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral), in the context of time estimation deviations. A time estimation task was administered to 129 adult participants (88 females) from the community to assess this deviation. The findings reveal that participants underestimated time across all emotional conditions, enhancing our understanding of how impulsivity relates to time perception. Therefore, it is crucial to continue neuropsychophysiological research on impulsivity to explore its causes, manifestations, and connections with other aspects of cognitive and affective functioning. This research will lead to a more precise definition and comprehensive understanding of impulsive behavior.