Journal of Experimental Psychology-Human Perception and Performance最新文献

In the literature on action control, it is assumed that all stimulus features that occur in an action episode are integrated together with the response features into an event file. Any ensuing repetition of a feature stored in this event file leads to the retrieval of the entire event file, causing stimulus-response (S-R) binding effects because of the relation between repeated and changed features. However, the retrieval depends on the extent to which a particular feature is actually repeated and thus touches the question of what constitutes a feature. Since not only perceptual but also conceptual features are assumed to be bound, the boundaries between feature representations might not only be fluid but also modulable. In this study, we evaluated whether a direct manipulation of feature boundaries is possible. In three experiments (cumulative n = 217), by adding additional counting tasks to a distractor-response binding task, we either merged or separated feature categories, causing a significant difference in S-R binding effects-merged feature categories caused weaker S-R binding effects compared to separated feature categories. The results indicate that merged features were actively brought to be processed as more similar to each other. We interpret our data under the broader and old question of what a feature actually is and suggest that feature boundaries are task dependent. Human agents are highly flexible in controlling the internal representation of objects they interact with. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

We tend to prioritize features and locations that have recently received our attention. Surprisingly, even irrelevant features of recently attended targets enjoy increased priority. However, such irrelevant-feature priming was found for some features and not for others. Here, we inquired whether the fact that irrelevant-feature priming is sometimes absent results from a failure of encoding or from a failure of attentional guidance. To answer this question, we relied on a finding common to the visual search and attentional-control literature: when a stimulus is responded to, the features and motor response associated with the action event are bound in a common representation and can be later retrieved. In two experiments, some participants searched for a color target and others for a shape target-with shape and color serving as the target's irrelevant feature for the former and for the latter, respectively. Responding to the target required an easy discrimination (Experiment 1) or a difficult one (Experiment 2). Repeating the target's irrelevant color speeded search, but repeating its irrelevant shape did not. However, the irrelevant feature-response binding effect was similar for the two search dimensions. These findings invalidate the no-encoding account. Additional findings indicate that irrelevant-feature priming shares the main characteristics of other intertrial priming phenomena. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

Visual attention can be controlled both by a match to known target attributes (template-based guidance) and by physical salience (saliency-driven guidance). However, it remains unclear how these mechanisms interact to determine attentional priority. Here, we contrasted two accounts of this interaction. Under a coactive mechanism, template-based and saliency-driven guidance are simultaneously integrated in a common priority signal. Under a noncoactive mechanism, the two sources of control do not converge on a common priority signal, either because they are separated architecturally (separate-activations model) or temporally (sequential model). In a redundancy-gain paradigm, search targets were defined either as a match to a shape cue (template-based), the presence of a singleton-colored item (saliency-driven), or both (redundant). We assessed whether the response time distribution in the redundant condition contained a substantial proportion of trials that were faster than could have been generated by the faster of the two individual guidance processes operating independently in parallel, that is, violation of the race model inequality (RMI). This effect can be generated only by a coactive mechanism. The results showed robust violations of the RMI when both features appeared at the same location, consistent with a coactive model. In addition, violations of the RMI were eliminated when redundant features were displayed at different locations, indicating that guidance signals combine on a spatially organized priority map. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

Attentional capture by irrelevant distractors can impede people's performance, making the cognitive control of attentional capture an important mechanism. The methodology applied in previous studies provided participants with foreknowledge of the upcoming distractor to investigate the top-down inhibitory control mechanism. However, these findings are mixed. This study further examined whether precueing the spatial location of the color-singleton or onset-singleton distractors in the upcoming search array can reduce related interference. Experiments 1A and 2A demonstrated the benefit of precueing the spatial location of the color-singleton distractors. Contrastingly, the overall performance of Experiments 1B, 1C, and 2B did not reveal a benefit of precueing when onset-singleton distractors were presented. In addition, analyses of vincentized cumulative reaction time distributions, the spatial distribution of the suppression effect in each experiment, and memory probes in Experiments 2A and 2B suggest that the effects of distractor precueing may involve the coordination of proactive and reactive control mechanisms. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

Self-monitoring seems to be crucial for regulatory behavior, but it is not clear how it influences performance in simple cognitive tasks. Some studies suggest that increased monitoring improves metacognitive regulation and enhances performance, while others suggest it impairs learning, problem solving, or perceptual processes. We investigated whether the requirement to report confidence in perceptual decisions affects metacognitive regulation and response accuracy. Participants performed a visual discrimination task in which they provided two responses: initial and final. Depending on the condition, participants reported their confidence (either together with or following the initial decision), performed an additional task, or were asked to observe a blank screen between two responses. We expected that reporting decision confidence would induce efficient regulatory activity, which would benefit final accuracy. In three experiments, we did not find evidence that rating confidence improves regulatory processing or performance in perceptual tasks. Rather, when confidence ratings were retrospective, the final response improvement was smaller compared to the condition with no additional task, and changes of mind were less frequent and less corrective. Confidence ratings given jointly with the initial response generally decreased accuracy. The results suggest that deliberate monitoring might put additional strain on cognitive resources and impair lower-order task processing. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

Temporal binding describes an illusory compression of time between voluntary actions and their effects. In two experiments, using stable, preexisting action-effect associations, we investigated whether motor identity prediction (prediction of the effect's identity) enhances temporal binding. Touch-typists performed keystrokes and were presented with congruent (corresponding letter) or incongruent (noncorresponding letter) effects after different intervals. Touch-typists estimated the interval between keystrokes and effects. In both experiments, interval estimates were shorter with congruent than with incongruent effects, indicating that motor identity prediction contributes to temporal binding when using stable, preexisting action-effect associations. The congruency effect disappeared over the time course of Experiment 1 (in which incongruent effects were three times more likely than congruent effects), whereas it remained stable in Experiment 2 (in which congruent and incongruent effects were equally likely). Thus, the impact of motor identity prediction on temporal binding is context-sensitive. Even with highly overlearned action-effect associations, participants seem very flexible in adapting their internal predictions about an effect's identity. They may cease to use previously acquired action-effect associations in contexts in which their predictions are less reliable, thereby diminishing the influence of motor identity prediction on temporal binding. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

Humans can judge the summary statistics of various feature dimensions from multiple objects, but it remains unclear whether and how ensemble perception occurs for multifeature objects. The present study investigates how people perceive the overall variability of multifeature objects. Participants estimated the overall variability of a set of stimuli having various orientations and colors, with each feature's variability randomly determined in each trial. Across three experiments, we found that most people considered both dimensions when estimating variability. To explore how people consider both features, we manipulated the interfeature correlation to examine whether perceived variability relies on the combination of marginal distributions or a joint distribution. The interfeature correlation does not influence the marginal variability of each feature but does reduce the overall variability of a multidimensional joint distribution. Our results showed that the interfeature correlation did not influence the perceived variability, consistent with the prediction based on marginal distributions. When similar features were spatially adjacent, however, interfeature correlation reduced perceived variability, and the contribution of orientation diminished, suggesting that spatial regularity modulates how different features are combined for variability judgments. These results indicate that multiple feature information contributes to variability perception, supporting the idea of a domain-general variance processor. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

It is a widely accepted notion that visual information in the brain is processed via two parallel but separate cortical pathways, the ventral stream for visual perception and the dorsal stream for visuomotor actions. Perception-action dissociations from behavioral experiments are often cited as supportive evidence and one such example is Garner interference: It is assumed that perceptual/ventrally processed tasks suffer Garner interference, while visuomotor/dorsally processed tasks are immune to it (Ganel & Goodale, 2003). Ideally, this dissociation is demonstrated by comparing manual size estimation (assumed ventrally processed) with grasping (assumed dorsally processed). However, few studies actually made this comparison. We addressed this empirical shortage with two improved replications, yielding smaller effects of Garner interference in manual estimation than previous studies reported. In two subsequent experiments, we attempted to modulate Garner interference by manipulating the temporal profile of participants' responses, building on previous work (Hesse & Schenk, 2013) and extending it to manual estimation. We conclude with a literature review covering all relevant studies on Garner interference. Contrary to previous claims, the currently available evidence for a perception-action dissociation from Garner interference is insufficient to support a ventral-dorsal dissociation. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

A widely known result from gaze perception research is the overestimation effect where gaze direction-or more precisely gaze endpoints-is seen farther to the side than they actually are. A common gain factor reported in the literature is 1.5, that is, an overestimation of gaze endpoint by 50%. Gaze endpoint, however, must be a joint function of gaze angle and distance. Results from data collected between 2022 and 2024 show that a strong overestimation for photographed models at short distances turns into almost perfect perception at larger distances. This was equally true when gazing was done with the eyes only (head straight relative to observer) and with the head only (eyes straight relative to head). A new method measures gaze angle by triangulation from fixation points at varying distances and separates two components: (a) a slope and (b) an intercept. This triangulation indicates that the overestimation of gaze angle (slope) is very moderate and that the strong effects in gaze endpoints are mainly due to the intercept. Further experiments indicate that the intercept effects are confined to two-dimensional pictures of lookers and are not observed in physical three-dimensional lookers. The results are interpreted with reference to the distinction between picture space and physical space. Moreover, the present results do not fully comply with the classic partial-occlusion explanation for the overestimation effect. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

When we assess unknown people, we tend to be positively biased: we give them rather good assessments. However, can this positivity bias be limited or moderated? How would emotions of different origins (i.e., type of mechanisms involved in the formation of emotion: automatic vs. reflective) influence social judgments? We predicted that automatic emotions (of fast and effortless origin) would enhance the presence of positivity bias compared to reflective emotions (slow and effortful). Participants were asked to read and react to emotional words (differing in their origin: automatic, mixed, or reflective and in valence: positive and negative), process them in tasks (eliciting automatic or reflective processing), and assess the personality traits of unknown people in pictures. Participants tended to assess negative traits as less intense than positive traits; they assessed all traits as less intense in the automatic manipulation compared to the reflective task. Our results further explore the role of different emotional dimensions in the diffusion of incidental affect and show the role of the origin of emotion and the mode of processing in this phenomenon. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).