Dynamics of individual perceptual decisions

Merfeld, Daniel M.; Clark, Torin K.; Lu, Yue M.; Karmali, Faisal

doi:10.1152/jn.00225.2015

Cited by 24 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 138 publications

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“…For the experimental investigations herein, the stimulus is angular velocity (), which is transduced and processed via pertinent perceptual mechanisms to yield a perceptual representation of angular velocity (); these representations could readily be generalized to any perceptual process. This perceptual signal may be further filtered (e.g., Merfeld et al 2016) to yield a decision-variable (d) used both to make the binary decision, by comparing the decision variable to the decision boundary, and via additional neural manipulations to yield confidence (c) in the decision. The latter confidence calculations may be performed…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A quantitative confidence signal detection model: 1. Fitting psychometric functions

Merfeld

2016

Journal of Neurophysiology

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Yi Y, Merfeld DM. A quantitative confidence signal detection model: 1. Fitting psychometric functions. J Neurophysiol 115: 1932J Neurophysiol 115: -1945J Neurophysiol 115: , 2016. First published January 13, 2016; doi:10.1152/jn.00318.2015.-Perceptual thresholds are commonly assayed in the laboratory and clinic. When precision and accuracy are required, thresholds are quantified by fitting a psychometric function to forced-choice data. The primary shortcoming of this approach is that it typically requires 100 trials or more to yield accurate (i.e., small bias) and precise (i.e., small variance) psychometric parameter estimates. We show that confidence probability judgments combined with a model of confidence can yield psychometric parameter estimates that are markedly more precise and/or markedly more efficient than conventional methods. Specifically, both human data and simulations show that including confidence probability judgments for just 20 trials can yield psychometric parameter estimates that match the precision of those obtained from 100 trials using conventional analyses. Such an efficiency advantage would be especially beneficial for tasks (e.g., taste, smell, and vestibular assays) that require more than a few seconds for each trial, but this potential benefit could accrue for many other tasks.thresholds; decision-making; confidence rating; confidence calibration MEASURING THRESHOLDS IS PROBABLY the most common psychophysical procedure in use today; applications range from experimental psychology to neuroscience to economics to engineering. Fitting psychometric functions using categorical data analyses (Agresti 1996) that describe the relationship between a stimulus characteristic (e.g., amplitude) and a subject's forced-choice categorical responses provides a standard approach used to estimate thresholds (Green and Swets 1966; Macmillan and Creelman 2005).A recent comprehensive analysis (Garcia-Perez and AlcalaQuintana 2005) concluded that only maximum likelihood methods should be used when accuracy and precision of psychometric function fit parameters is important and, furthermore, showed that more than 100 forced-choice trials are generally required to yield acceptable fit parameter estimates. Because such perceptual threshold tests are common and because many trials are needed to yield accurate and precise psychometric fits, studies spanning 50 yr (Garcia

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A quantitative confidence signal detection model: 1. Fitting psychometric functions

Merfeld

2016

Journal of Neurophysiology

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“…Higher-level decision-making processes have been rather neglected in vestibular psychophysics for a long time. However, in the last few years several studies have acknowledged the importance of such higher-level aspects in self-motion perception and have started to investigate the underlying processes in vestibular (Clark et al, 2018;Ellis, Klaus, & Mast, 2017;Merfeld, Clark, Lu, & Karmali, 2016;Wertheim, Mesland, & Bles, 2001) and multisensory (Drugowitsch, DeAngelis, Angelaki, & Pouget, 2015;Drugowitsch, DeAngelis, Klier, Angelaki, & Pouget, 2014;Lim, Wang, & Merfeld, 2017) perceptual decision-making. Yet, they have important theoretical and practical implications regarding the complex nature of biological self-motion perception.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Canal–otolith interactions alter the perception of self-motion direction

Macauda

Ellis

Grabherr

et al. 2019

Atten Percept Psychophys

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Few studies have investigated the perception of vestibular stimuli when they occur in sequences. Here, three experiments (n total = 33) are presented that focus on intravestibular motion sequences and the underlying perceptual decision-making process. Natural vestibular stimulation (yaw rotation or translation) was used to investigate the discrimination process of the direction of a subsequent spatially congruent or incongruent translation or rotation. The few existing studies focusing on unimodal motion sequences have uncovered self-motion aftereffects, similar to the visual motion aftereffect, possibly due to altered processing of sensory stimuli. An alternative hypothesis predicts a shift of spatial attention due to the cue motion influencing perception of the subsequent motion stimulus. The results show that participants systematically misjudged the direction of motion stimuli well above the detection threshold if the direction of the preceding cue motion stimulus was congruent with the direction of the target (a motion aftereffect). Hierarchical drift diffusion models were used to analyze the data. The results suggest that altered perceptual decision-making and the resulting misperceptions are likely to originate in altered processing of sensory vestibular information.

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“…In comparison with other sensory systems, however, the vestibular system is comparatively well understood in terms of the sensory dynamics, making it an ideal candidate for furthering our understanding of perceptual decision making and, in particular, cognitive effects on decision making. Recently, Merfeld and colleagues [2] discussed perceptual decision making in the context of Bayesian processing of dynamic sensory information, and proposed a high-pass filtering mechanism. Furthermore, detailed computational models of vestibular sensory processing exist [18,19], and this will allow that the investigation of how decision making may be incorporated in Bayesian models of sensory inference.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…There are differences in how participants incorporated a bias into their decision making (see main text for details) relationship between a Bayesian model of evidence accumulation and the drift diffusion model has been discussed elsewhere [20], and the authors point out that the two are equivalent under certain assumptions. As pointed out by Merfeld et al [2], however, the standard drift diffusion model may be inappropriate for the type of evidence accumulation required for the real-time processing of dynamic sensory information.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…While earlier studies on motion thresholds focused on sensory transduction processes [1], it became clear that perceptual thresholds do not reflect low-level sensory processes alone. Perception involves non-sensory components, and recently, Merfeld and colleagues [2] introduced a high-pass filtering mechanism as an important feature of decision making. Based on computational modeling studies, it has become clear that the vestibular system performs sophisticated processing based on internal models [3].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Vestibular cognition: the effect of prior belief on vestibular perceptual decision making

2017

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Vestibular cognition is a growing field of interest and relatively little is known about the underlying mechanisms. We tested the effect of prior beliefs about the relative probability (50:50 vs. 80:20) of motion direction (yaw rotation) using a direction discrimination task. We analyzed choices individually with a logistic regression model and together with response times using a cognitive process model. The results show that self-motion perception is altered by prior belief, leading to a shift of the psychometric function, without a loss of sensitivity. Hierarchical drift diffusion analysis showed that at the group level, prior belief manifests itself as an offset to the drift criterion. However, individual model fits revealed that participants vary in how they use cognitive information in perceptual decision making. At the individual level, the response bias induced by a prior belief resulted either in a change in starting point (prior to evidence accumulation) or drift rate (during evidence accumulation). Participants incorporate prior belief in a self-motion discrimination task, albeit in different ways.

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Dynamics of individual perceptual decisions

Cited by 24 publications

References 138 publications

A quantitative confidence signal detection model: 1. Fitting psychometric functions

A quantitative confidence signal detection model: 1. Fitting psychometric functions

Canal–otolith interactions alter the perception of self-motion direction

Vestibular cognition: the effect of prior belief on vestibular perceptual decision making

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