Dividing attention across feature dimensions in statistical processing of perceptual groups

Emmanouil, Tatiana Aloi; Treisman, Anne

doi:10.3758/pp.70.6.946

Cited by 79 publications

(67 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…Equal performance in the pre- and post-cue conditions in this design suggests parallel unlimited processing of the relevant information. Indeed, in the Halberda et al (2006) study, performance was not reliably different between the pre- and post-cue conditions when two subsets of dots required enumeration (see also Emmanouil & Treisman, 2008; Im & Chong, 2014; but see Poltoratski & Xu, 2013 who obtained a pre-cue advantage for two subsets). Thus, evidence using a pre-cue/post-cue method has led to the conclusion of “unlimited-capacity” for SSRs for multiple sets of items, whereas evidence from the simultaneous–sequential method has led to the conclusion that establishing multiple sets depends on limited-capacity processes (Experiment 1).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 93%

The capacity limitations of orientation summary statistics

Attarha

Moore

2015

Atten Percept Psychophys

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The simultaneous–sequential method was used to test the processing capacity of establishing mean orientation summaries. Four clusters of oriented Gabor patches were presented in the peripheral visual field. One of the clusters had a mean orientation that was tilted either left or right while the mean orientations of the other three clusters were roughly vertical. All four clusters were presented at the same time in the simultaneous condition whereas the clusters appeared in temporal subsets of two in the sequential condition. Performance was lower when the means of all four clusters had to be processed concurrently than when only two had to be processed in the same amount of time. The advantage for establishing fewer summaries at a given time indicates that the processing of mean orientation engages limited-capacity processes (Experiment 1). This limitation cannot be attributed to crowding, low target-distractor discriminability, or a limited-capacity comparison process (Experiments 2 and 3). In contrast to the limitations of establishing multiple summary representations, establishing a single summary representation unfolds without interference (Experiment 4). When interpreted in the context of recent work on the capacity of summary statistics, these findings encourage reevaluation of the view that early visual perception consists of summary statistic representations that unfold independently across multiple areas of the visual field.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 93%

The capacity limitations of orientation summary statistics

Attarha

Moore

2015

Atten Percept Psychophys

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“…Indeed, recent work suggests that adults represent multiple different quantitative features when shown visual arrays like those used in the present experiments. Adults represent the average numerosity of ensembles (Halberda et al 2006, Ross & Burr, 2010), mean size of the items comprising ensembles (Ariely, 2001; Chong & Treisman, 2003, 2005; Chong et al, 2008), average orientation of items in ensembles (Parkes et al, 2001), density of ensembles (Ross & Burr, 2010), and the average location of ensembles (Alvarez & Oliva, 2008), and adults can represent multiple features from a single ensemble (e.g., average size and average orientation; Emmanouil & Treisman, 2008). These findings raise the possibility that infants, too, might represent multiple quantitative features of an attended ensemble.…”

Section: General Discussion Of Experiments Seriesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Memory for multiple visual ensembles in infancy.

Zosh¹,

Halberda²,

Feigenson³

2011

Journal of Experimental Psychology: General

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The number of individual items that can be maintained in working memory is limited. One solution to this problem is to store representations of ensembles that contain summary information about large numbers of items (e.g., the approximate number or cumulative area of a group of many items). Here we explored the developmental origins of ensemble representations by asking whether infants represent ensembles, and if so, how many at one time. We habituated 9-month old infants to arrays containing 2, 3, or 4 spatially intermixed colored subsets of dots, then asked whether they detected a numerical change to one of the subsets or to the superset of all dots. Experiment Series 1 showed that infants detected a numerical change to one of the subsets when the array contained 2 subsets, but not 3 or 4 subsets. Experiment Series 2 showed that infants detected a change to the superset of all dots no matter how many subsets were presented. Experiment 3 showed that infants represented both the approximate number and the cumulative surface area of these ensembles. Our results suggest that infants, like adults (Halberda, Sires & Feigenson, 2006), can store quantitative information about 2 subsets plus the superset: a total of 3 ensembles. This converges with the known limit on the number of individual objects infants and adults can store, and suggests that, throughout development, an ensemble functions much like an individual object for working memory.

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“…Our ability to extract statistical properties along basic dimensions, such as size (Ariely 2001;Chong and Treisman 2003), direction and speed of motion (Atchley and Andersen 1995;Williams and Sekuler 1984), was previously proved . More recent studies showed that an averaging process may take place along different dimensions in parallel; but this leads to a decrease in performance (Chong et al 2008;Emmanouil and Treisman 2008). Recently, averaging processes were tested with more complex stimuli as well, and it was shown that humans were able to extract information about the mean emotion and gender of a group of faces.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Neural correlates of after-effects caused by adaptation to multiple face displays

et al. 2012

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Adaptation to a given face leads to face-related, specific after-effects. Recently, this topic has attracted a lot of attention because it clearly shows that adaptation occurs even at the higher stages of visual cortical processing. However, during our every-day life, faces do not appear in isolation, rather they are usually surrounded by other stimuli. Here, we used psychophysical and fMRI adaptation methods to test whether humans adapt to the gender properties of a composite multiple face stimulus as well. As adaptors we used stimuli composed of eight different individual faces, positioned peripherally in a ring around a fixation mark. We found that the gender discrimination of a subsequent centrally presented target face is significantly biased as a result of long-term adaptation to either male or female multiple face stimuli. Similar to our previous results with single-face adaptors (Kovács et al. in Neuroimage 43(1):156-164, 2008), a concurrent functional magnetic resonance imaging adaptation experiment revealed the strongest blood oxygen level-dependent signal adaptation bilaterally in the fusiform face area. Our results suggest that humans extract the statistical features of the multiple face stimulus and this process occurs at the level of occipito-temporal face processing.

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Dividing attention across feature dimensions in statistical processing of perceptual groups

Cited by 79 publications

References 25 publications

The capacity limitations of orientation summary statistics

The capacity limitations of orientation summary statistics

Memory for multiple visual ensembles in infancy.

Neural correlates of after-effects caused by adaptation to multiple face displays

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