13:30 - 15:00
Mon-A6-Talk II-
Mon-Talk II-
Room: A6
Chair/s:
Simon Merz
Spatial changes of an object over time are usually perceived as motion. Over the years, various perceptual errors have been identified for dynamic, moving objects. These include, but are not limited to, spatial over- or underestimation of the initial or final position (e.g. Fröhlich Effect, Onset-Repulsion Effect, Representational-Momentum Effect, Offset-Repulsion Effect), spatio-temporal discrepancies between moving and stationary objects (Flash-Lag Effect, Flash-Drag Effect) or the interaction between spatial and temporal properties of a dynamic display (e.g. Kappa Effect, Tau Effect). Given the vast amount of different perceptual errors reported over the decades, many theoretical explanations have been proposed. With the common goal of understanding spatio-temporal perception of dynamic objects, the symposium aims to bring together researchers working on the different perceptual biases to enable cross-paradigm perspectives and discussion. The speakers will present experimental work using different experimental procedures, analytical approaches and theoretical background to show current developments in the field, with the final talk in the session allowing general, talk overarching discussions about human spatio-temporal perception and the possible mechanisms underlying these processes.
Prediction in the visual perception of moving objects: the role of attention
Mon-A6-Talk II-04
Presented by: Jane Yook
Jane Yook 1, 2, 3, William Turner 1, Shivakumar Viswanathan 2, Philippa Johnson 1, Ralph Weidner 2, Simone Vossel 2, 3, Hinze Hogendoorn 1
1 Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences, The University of Melbourne, 2 Cognitive Neuroscience, Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine (INM-3), Forschungszentrum Jülich, 3 Department of Psychology, Faculty of Human Sciences, University of Cologne
Prediction plays an important role in the visual perception of moving objects. Prior studies using multivariate pattern analyses have shown that the neural representation of an object’s position is updated based on predictions about its current and future positions along its motion trajectory. Thus far, this evidence for extrapolation has only been reported for explicitly tracked objects, i.e., that are the target of attention. However, it is unknown whether extrapolation also occurs for visible but unattended moving objects, i.e., not explicitly tracked. To investigate this possibility, we used a novel paradigm that could enable spatial positions of tracked and non-tracked moving objects to be independently decoded from time-resolved EEG activity. Participants simultaneously viewed two objects, distinguished by color, and were instructed to track one while ignoring the other. The objects moved in apparent motion around a circle, appearing every 100ms along unrelated trajectories. At each timepoint, there was a superposition of neural activity from both objects with information about their current and prior spatial positions and, putatively, their future, extrapolated positions. Using time-resolved position classifiers, it was possible to decode the current and prior positions of the non-tracked (and tracked) object from 2ms snapshots of neural activity. Crucially, the future position of the non-tracked object was not decodable. This was, however, not the case for the tracked object. Our findings suggest that top-down attention might be necessary for motion prediction. Accounting for how attention and prediction influence each other is an important priority for future studies of visual motion tracking.
Keywords: visual motion perception, prediction, extrapolation, MVPA, EEG, spatial positions, top-down attention