Trustees of Indiana University
Grant: $269,562 - National Science Foundation - Aug. 19, 2009
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Award Description: The human perceptual system receives a constant stream of continually changing information. For example, the eyes move several times each second, providing different views of different objects or words. The proposed work investigates the dynamic process of separating in time and space information pertaining to previous sources (e.g., a previously viewed word) from information pertaining to the current source (e.g., the currently viewed word). Because perception is not instantaneous and requires time to identify a perceptual object, there is a tendency to confuse the source of information, particularly with rapidly viewed objects. Behavioral studies will examine this perceptual source confusion and address the process of discounting that serves to reduce perceptual errors due to source confusion. This discounting process can be understood at multiple levels of description and the proposed experiments test complimentary and related mathematical models at the causal and neural levels of analysis. The causal models (ROUSE and bROUSE) use Bayesian techniques and focus on optimizing perception in a noisy world perceived with a limited capacity processing system; discounting is implemented as 'explaining away between competing sources. The neural model (nROUSE) implements discounting through habituation that arises with the transient depletion of synaptic resources. In combination, these models demonstrate why perceptual discounting exists and the particular manner that it is implemented. A wide variety of experimental paradigms involve the rapid presentation of visual objects and the proposed studies use these models to investigate whether perceptual source confusion and discounting may provide a unified account of these phenomena. Besides visual short-term priming with words, the proposed studies examine ‘repetition blindness’, flanker effects, the attentional blink, ‘negative priming’, semantic satiation, and affective priming. The intellectual merit of this endeavor is to provide a unified account of these perceptual phenomena that are currently considered in isolation, largely existing in separate literatures. This work will result in journal article publications that address each of these phenomena separately, yet provide the theory of source confusion and discounting that specifies the relationship to other paradigms. The broader impact of this work extends beyond each of these experimental paradigms and includes implications for artificial intelligence and machine vision; cognitive neuroscience studies that use repetition suppression; and clinical disorders that involve perceptual deficits, such as autism, schizophrenia, and dyslexia.
Project Description: This project investigates the process of separating in time and space information pertaining to previous sources from information pertaining to the current source. Because perception is not instantaneous and requires time to identify a perceptual object, there is a tendency to confuse the source of information. Behavioral studies will examine this perceptual source confusion and address the process of discounting that serves to reduce perceptual errors due to source confusion. This discounting process can be understood at multiple levels of description and the proposed experiments test complimentary and related mathematical models at the causal and neural levels of analysis. The causal models (ROUSE and bROUSE) use Bayesian techniques and focus on optimizing perception in a noisy world perceived with a limited capacity processing system; discounting is implemented as 'explaining away between competing sources. The neural model (nROUSE) implements discounting through habituation that arises with the transient depletion of synaptic resources. These models demonstrate why perceptual discounting exists and the particular manner that it is implemented. A wide variety of experimental paradigms involve the rapid presentation of visual objects and the proposed studies use these models to investigate whether perceptual source confusion and discounting may provide a unified account of these phenomena. Besides visual short-term priming with words, the proposed studies examine ‘repetition blindness’, flanker effects, the attentional blink, ‘negative priming’, semantic satiation, and affective priming. This work will result in publications that address each of these phenomena separately, yet provide the theory of source confusion and discounting that specifies the relationship to other paradigms.
Jobs Summary: Temp Visiting Faculty/Scholar (Total jobs reported: 0)
Project Status: Less Than 50% Completed
This award's data was last updated on Aug. 19, 2009. Help expand these official descriptions using the wiki below.
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