Probability Shapes Perceptual Precision: A Study in Orientation Estimation.

Probability is known to affect perceptual estimations, but an understanding of mechanisms is lacking. Moving beyond binary classification tasks, we had naive participants report the orientation of briefly viewed gratings where we systematically manipulated contingent probability. Participants rapidl...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Publicado en:Journal of Experimental Psychology. Human Perception & Performance Vol. 41; no. 6; pp. 1666 - 1680
Autores principales: Jabar, Syaheed B., Anderson, Britt
Formato: Artículo
Publicado: American Psychological Association Dec2015
Materias:
Acceso en línea:Ver este registro en EBSCOhost
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      dt: Dec2015
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      pub: American Psychological Association
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        111213707
        10.1037/xhp0000121
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        atl: Probability Shapes Perceptual Precision: A Study in Orientation Estimation.
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          Jabar, Syaheed B.
          Anderson, Britt
        affil: University of Waterloo
      su:
        Attention
        Stimulus & response (Psychology)
        Spatial orientation
        Kurtosis
        Sampling errors
      sug:
        subj:
          Attention
          Stimulus & response (Psychology)
          Spatial orientation
          Kurtosis
          Sampling errors
      keyword:
        attention
        kurtosis
        orientation estimation
        probability
        visual perception
        attention
        kurtosis
        orientation estimation
        probability
        visual perception
      ab: Probability is known to affect perceptual estimations, but an understanding of mechanisms is lacking. Moving beyond binary classification tasks, we had naive participants report the orientation of briefly viewed gratings where we systematically manipulated contingent probability. Participants rapidly developed faster and more precise estimations for high-probability tilts. The shapes of their error distributions, as indexed by a kurtosis measure, also showed a distortion from Gaussian. This kurtosis metric was robust, capturing probability effects that were graded, contextual, and varying as a function of stimulus orientation. Our data can be understood as a probability-induced reduction in the variability or "shape" of estimation errors, as would be expected if probability affects the perceptual representations. As probability manipulations are an implicit component of many endogenous cuing paradigms, changes at the perceptual level could account for changes in performance that might have traditionally been ascribed to "attention".
      pubtype: Academic Journal
      doctype: Article
      src: R
    language: English
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