An official website of the United States government
Human visual grouping processes consolidate independent visual objects into grouped visual features on the basis of shared characteristics; these visual features can themselves be grouped, resulting in a hierarchical representation of visual grouping information. This “grouping hierarchy“ promotes ef- ficient attention in the support of goal-directed behavior, but improper grouping of elements of a visual scene can also re- sult in critical behavioral errors. Understanding of how visual object/features characteristics such as size and form influences perception of hierarchical visual groups can further theory of human visual grouping behavior and contribute to effective in- terface design. In the present study, participants provided free- response groupings of a set of stimuli that contained consistent structural relationships between a limited set of visual features. These grouping patterns were evaluated for relationships be- tween specific characteristics of the constituent visual features and the distribution of features across levels of the indicated grouping hierarchy. We observed that while the relative size of the visual features differentiated groupings across levels of the grouping hierarchy, the form of visual objects and features was more likely to distinguish separate groups within a partic- ular level of hierarchy. These consistent relationships between visual feature characteristics and placement within a grouping hierarchy can be leveraged to advance computational theories of human visual grouping behavior, which can in turn be ap- plied to effective design for interfaces such as voter ballots.
more »
« less
Task-Irrelevant Semantic Properties of Objects Impinge on Sensory Representations within the Early Visual Cortex
Abstract Objects can be described in terms of low-level (e.g., boundaries) and high-level properties (e.g., object semantics). While recent behavioral findings suggest that the influence of semantic relatedness between objects on attentional allocation can be independent of task-relevance, the underlying neural substrate of semantic influences on attention remains ill-defined. Here, we employ behavioral and functional magnetic resonance imaging measures to uncover the mechanism by which semantic information increases visual processing efficiency. We demonstrate that the strength of the semantic relatedness signal decoded from the left inferior frontal gyrus: 1) influences attention, producing behavioral semantic benefits; 2) biases spatial attention maps in the intraparietal sulcus, subsequently modulating early visual cortex activity; and 3) directly predicts the magnitude of behavioral semantic benefit. Altogether, these results identify a specific mechanism driving task-independent semantic influences on attention.
more »
« less
- PAR ID:
- 10349086
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Cerebral Cortex Communications
- Volume:
- 2
- Issue:
- 3
- ISSN:
- 2632-7376
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
More Like this
-
-
Human visual grouping processes consolidate independent visual objects into grouped visual features on the basis of shared characteristics; these visual features can themselves be grouped, resulting in a hierarchical representation of visual grouping information. This “grouping hierarchy“ promotes ef- ficient attention in the support of goal-directed behavior, but improper grouping of elements of a visual scene can also re- sult in critical behavioral errors. Understanding of how visual object/features characteristics such as size and form influences perception of hierarchical visual groups can further theory of human visual grouping behavior and contribute to effective in- terface design. In the present study, participants provided free- response groupings of a set of stimuli that contained consistent structural relationships between a limited set of visual features. These grouping patterns were evaluated for relationships be- tween specific characteristics of the constituent visual features and the distribution of features across levels of the indicated grouping hierarchy. We observed that while the relative size of the visual features differentiated groupings across levels of the grouping hierarchy, the form of visual objects and features was more likely to distinguish separate groups within a partic- ular level of hierarchy. These consistent relationships between visual feature characteristics and placement within a grouping hierarchy can be leveraged to advance computational theories of human visual grouping behavior, which can in turn be ap- plied to effective design for interfaces such as voter ballots.more » « less
-
The lateralized ERP N2pc component has been shown to be an effective marker of attentional object selection when elicited in a visual search task, specifically reflecting the selection of a target item among distractors. Moreover, when targets are known in advance, the visual search process is guided by representations of target features held in working memory at the time of search, thus guiding attention to objects with target-matching features. Previous studies have shown that manipulating working memory availability via concurrent tasks or within task manipulations influences visual search performance and the N2pc. Other studies have indicated that visual (non-spatial) vs. spatial working memory manipulations have differential contributions to visual search. To investigate this the current study assesses participants' visual and spatial working memory ability independent of the visual search task to determine whether such individual differences in working memory affect task performance and the N2pc. Participants ( n = 205) completed a visual search task to elicit the N2pc and separate visual working memory (VWM) and spatial working memory (SPWM) assessments. Greater SPWM, but not VWM, ability is correlated with and predicts higher visual search accuracy and greater N2pc amplitudes. Neither VWM nor SPWM was related to N2pc latency. These results provide additional support to prior behavioral and neural visual search findings that spatial WM availability, whether as an ability of the participant's processing system or based on task demands, plays an important role in efficient visual search.more » « less
-
Feature-based attention is known to enhance visual processing globally across the visual field, even at task-irrelevant locations. Here, we asked whether attention to object categories, in particular faces, shows similar location-independent tuning. Using EEG, we measured the face-selective N170 component of the EEG signal to examine neural responses to faces at task-irrelevant locations while participants attended to faces at another task-relevant location. Across two experiments, we found that visual processing of faces was amplified at task-irrelevant locations when participants attended to faces relative to when participants attended to either buildings or scrambled face parts. The fact that we see this enhancement with the N170 suggests that these attentional effects occur at the earliest stage of face processing. Two additional behavioral experiments showed that it is easier to attend to the same object category across the visual field relative to two distinct categories, consistent with object-based attention spreading globally. Together, these results suggest that attention to high-level object categories shows similar spatially global effects on visual processing as attention to simple, individual, low-level features.more » « less
-
Abstract Visual working memory (VWM) refers to the temporary storage and manipulation of visual information. Although visually different, objects we view and remember can share the same higher‐level category information, such as an apple, orange, and banana all being classified as fruit. We study the influence of category information on VWM, focusing on the question of whether stimulus category coherence (i.e., whether all to‐be‐remembered items belong to the same semantic category) influences VWM performance. This question is addressed in two behavioral experiments using a change‐detection paradigm and a rational analysis using an ideal observer based on a Bayesian model. Both experimental participants and the ideal observer often, but not always, performed numerically better on coherent trials (i.e., when all stimuli belonged to the same category). We hypothesize that the influence of category coherence information on VWM may be task‐dependent and/or stimulus‐dependent. In conditions when category coherence information is highly valuable for task performance, as indicated by the ideal observer, then participants tended to make use of it. However, when the ideal observer suggested this information was not crucial to performance, participants did not. In addition, both participants and the ideal observer showed a bias toward responding “same,” and often showed a stronger influence of category coherence on change trials. The consistencies between participant and ideal observer responses suggest participants often behaved as they did because these behaviors are optimal (or approximately so) for maximizing task performance. This may help explain conflicting results reported in the scientific literature.more » « less
- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
-
Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.1093/texcom/tgab049
