Detecting meaning in RSVP at 13 ms per picture

Abstract

The visual system is exquisitely adapted to the task of extracting conceptual information from visual input with every new eye fixation, three or four times a second. Here we assess the minimum viewing time needed for visual comprehension, using rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) of a series of six or 12 pictures presented at between 13 and 80 ms per picture, with no interstimulus interval. Participants were to detect a picture specified by a name (e.g., smiling couple) that was given just before or immediately after the sequence. Detection improved with increasing duration and was better when the name was presented before the sequence, but performance was significantly above chance at all durations, whether the target was named before or only after the sequence. The results are consistent with feedforward models, in which an initial wave of neural activity through the ventral stream is sufficient to allow identification of a complex visual stimulus in a single forward pass. Although we discuss other explanations, the results suggest that neither reentrant processing from higher to lower levels nor advance information about the stimulus is necessary for the conscious detection of rapidly presented, complex visual information.

Getting It Together: Psychological Unity and Deflationary Accounts of Animal Metacognition

“…Macaques and humans can subconsciously identify objects after seeing pictures of them for as little as 13 ms (Potter et al 2014). We will call these sorts of beliefs proximal.…”

Failure to detect meaning in RSVP at 27 ms per picture

“…However, the findings of Potter et al (2014) may have been confounded due to inadequate masking. Masking occurs when the visual perception of a stimulus is impaired by the presentation of a temporally adjacent and (usually) spatially overlapping stimulus; forward masking occurs when the target picture is preceded by the mask; backward masking occurs when the target picture is followed by a mask (Breitmeyer & Öğmen, 2006;Keysers & Perrett, 2002).…”

“…Masking occurs when the visual perception of a stimulus is impaired by the presentation of a temporally adjacent and (usually) spatially overlapping stimulus; forward masking occurs when the target picture is preceded by the mask; backward masking occurs when the target picture is followed by a mask (Breitmeyer & Öğmen, 2006;Keysers & Perrett, 2002). In Potter et al (2014), the target picture was never the first or last picture in the RSVP sequence. Consequently, it was both forward and backward masked by the other pictures in the sequence.…”

“…It is highly unlikely that this feedback process can occur within 13 ms. Indeed, Potter et al (2014) argued that it would take a minimum of 50 ms for feedback to occur. This estimate is consistent with the findings of Lamme and Roelfsema (2000), who reported that the response latencies at any hierarchical level of the visual system are about 10 ms after those at the previous level.…”

“…The human visual system naturally processes images at this presentation rate; however, it can detect meaning from images presented at far shorter durations (Keysers, Xiao, Foldiak, & Perrett, 2001;Potter, 1975Potter, , 1976. Potter, Wyble, Hagmann, and McCourt (2014) showed observers a series of single pictures in a rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) sequence. They found that observers could determine the presence or absence of a specific picture even when the pictures in the sequence were presented for just 13 ms each.…”