Serial dependence is related to the task and not the stimulus

Ceylan, Gizay; Herzog, Michael H.; Pascucci, David

doi:10.1167/jov.21.9.2495

Cited by 4 publications

(10 citation statements)

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“…Both attraction and repulsion effects are documented in previous studies on static orientation judgments. For example, when stimuli such as Gabor orientations or gratings are used, small orientation differences between trials (under 20°) typically yield attraction biases, while larger differences elicit repulsion biases (Alais et al, 2017; Bliss et al, 2017; Ceylan & Pascucci, 2023; Fritsche et al, 2017; Fritsche & de Lange, 2019a). Contrastingly, studies using coherent motion predominantly report a repulsion effect (e.g., Bae & Luck, 2020), aligning with our findings.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As a result, buffering two tasks in working memory using the post-cue paradigm amplified the attraction effect in duration reproduction. This suggests that the attractive sequential effect may involve active recall of memory traces (Bliss et al, 2017; Ceylan & Pascucci, 2023; Fornaciai & Park, 2020; Fritsche & de Lange, 2019a; Ranieri et al, 2022). The lingering memory trace from a preceding stimulus in working memory likely contributes to sequential biases, as the brain employs recent experiences to shape our perception of the sensory environment in the present moment.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…An alternative perspective links sequential effects to decision-related post-perceptual factors (Bae & Luck, 2020; Ceylan et al, 2021; Ceylan & Pascucci, 2023; Pascucci et al, 2019). Take, for example, a study involving either orientation or color judgments with a post-cue (Bae & Luck, 2020), sequential dependence emerged only when both the preceding and current trials were the orientation task, diminishing when tasks differed.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Opposing Sequential Biases in Direction and Time Reproduction: Influences of Task Relevance and Working Memory

Cheng,

Chen,

Shi

2024

Preprint

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Our current perception and decision-making are continuously shaped by recent experiences, a phenomenon known as sequential dependence. While it is well-documented in spatial perception and has been recently explored in time perception, their functional similarities across space and time remain elusive, particularly in relation to tasks and working memory loads. To address these questions, we designed a unified experimental paradigm, employing coherent motion stimulus, for both spatial direction and time reproduction tasks. Experiment 1 involved a pre-cue setting where participants were informed about the task before the stimulus presentation, while Experiment 2 used a post-cue setting, informing participants of the task after the stimulus presentation. Our findings reveal a consistent attraction bias in time reproduction and a dominant repulsion in spatial direction estimation. Notably, the temporal attraction was more pronounced when the preceding task was also time-related, compared to a direction task. In contrast, the direction repulsion in spatial tasks remained unaffected by the nature of the preceding task. Additionally, both attraction and repulsion biases were intensified by the post-cue compared to the pre-cue. These findings underscore distinct sequential effects in spatial and temporal tasks, suggesting that while sensory processing and adaptation primarily shape spatial repulsion biases, temporal attraction biases are more influenced by working memory load at the post-perceptual processing.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Opposing Sequential Biases in Direction and Time Reproduction: Influences of Task Relevance and Working Memory

Cheng,

Chen,

Shi

2024

Preprint

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“…This novel finding clearly demonstrates that internal states of the observer are a key factor in serial dependence, beyond the uncertainty in the stimulus itself. Evidence of modulatory effects of confidence 43 , attention 20 , memory load 44 , time-on-task 45 , task demand 36,46–49 , and stimulus predictability 50 , may all reflect the significant contribution of internal states in determining the tendency to integrate or disregard prior stimuli in current decisions.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

It’s not the spoon that bends: Internal states of the observer determine serial dependence

Ozkirli,

Pascucci

2023

Preprint

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According to traditional views, perception deals with uncertainty using optimal strategies. For instance, when prior stimuli are more reliable than current ones, perception tends to give greater weight to the past, resulting in stronger serial dependence in perceptual decisions. Here, we challenge this view and reveal a systematic deviation from this strategy. We asked participants to reproduce the average orientation of an ensemble of stimuli, with the level of uncertainty manipulated by varying the ensemble variability. Surprisingly, we found that observers exhibited stronger serial dependence when prior stimuli were uncertain rather than reliable. To explain this pattern, we present an extension of the ideal observer model. In this model, uncertain events trigger internal states of the observer, such as expectations about moments of degraded sensory input, thereby modulating the tendency to integrate prior and current stimuli. The striking finding is that manipulation of these internal states through external feedback can lead to clear effects on serial dependence, even when the level of uncertainty in the stimulus remains constant. We propose that serial dependence reflects a 'state-dependent' mechanism that the brain amplifies to cope with moments of expected uncertainty.

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“…Serial dependence in reporting motion directions was highest between trials for stimuli with a matching context feature but only when that feature was important for the task at hand (e.g., for stimuli with the same color when color was the relevant feature cued on consecutive trials). Similarly, Ceylan et al (2021b) presented observers with two overlayed features, a cloud of moving dots and an oriented Gabor, and found that only the feature cued and reported on the previous trial induced serial dependence on the following trial. Moreover, there is extensive evidence that attention to the previous stimulus, due to its relevance for the task, is a prerequisite of many forms of serial dependence reported in the literature ( Fischer & Whitney, 2014 ; see Pascucci et al, 2023 , for a review).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Attractive and repulsive serial dependence: The role of task relevance, the passage of time, and the number of stimuli

Ceylan

Pascucci

2023

Journal of Vision

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Visual decisions are attracted toward features of previous stimuli. This phenomenon, termed serial dependence , has been related to a mechanism that integrates present visual input with stimuli seen up to 10 to 15 s in the past. It is believed that this mechanism is “temporally tuned” and the effect of prior stimuli fades with time. Here, we investigated whether the temporal window of serial dependence is influenced by the number of stimuli shown. Observers performed an orientation adjustment task where the interval between the past and present stimulus and the number of intervening stimuli varied. First, we found that the direction—repulsive or attractive—and duration of the effect of a past stimulus depends on whether the past stimulus was relevant to behavior. Second, we show that the number of stimuli, and not only the passage of time, plays a role: The effect of a stimulus at a fixed interval depends on the number of other stimuli shown after. Our results demonstrate that neither a single mechanism nor a general tuning window can fully capture the complexity of serial dependence.

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Serial dependence is related to the task and not the stimulus

Cited by 4 publications

References 0 publications

Opposing Sequential Biases in Direction and Time Reproduction: Influences of Task Relevance and Working Memory

Opposing Sequential Biases in Direction and Time Reproduction: Influences of Task Relevance and Working Memory

It’s not the spoon that bends: Internal states of the observer determine serial dependence

Attractive and repulsive serial dependence: The role of task relevance, the passage of time, and the number of stimuli

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