The working memory Ponzo illusion: Involuntary integration of visuospatial information stored in visual working memory

Shen, Mowei; Xu, Haokui; Zhang, Haihang; Shui, Rende; Zhang, Meng; Zhou, Jifan

doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2015.04.010

Cited by 21 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…Furthermore, short-term memory maintenance also induced a visual aftereffect similar to sensory adaption from prolonged viewing of a visual stimulus[16]. Similarly, Shen et al (2015) investigated the Ponzo illusion in visual WM[17]. In their study, separate components of a Ponzo figure that were encoded in visual WM sequentially were involuntarily integrated, leading to distorted length perception of the two same-length horizontal lines.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Working memory operates over the same representations as attention

Chen

Xie

et al. 2017

PLoS ONE

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A recent study observed a working memory (WM) Stroop effect with a magnitude equivalent to that of the classic Stroop effect, indicating that WM operates over the same representations as attention. However, more research is needed to examine this proposal. One unanswered question is whether the WM Stroop effect occurs when the WM item and the perceptual task do not have an overlapping response set. We addressed this question in Experiment 1 by conducting an attentional word-color task and a WM word-color task. The results showed that a WM Stroop effect also occurred in that condition, as a word that only indirectly evoked a color representation could interfere with the color judgement in both the attentional task and WM task. In Experiment 2, we used a classic Simon task and a WM Simon task to examine whether holding visuo-spatial information rather than verbal information in WM could interfere with perceptual judgment as well. We observed a WM Simon effect of equivalent magnitude to that of the classic Simon effect. The well-known stimulus-response compatibility effect also existed in the WM domain. The two experiments together demonstrated that WM operates over the same representations as attention, which sheds new light on the hypothesis that working memory is internally directed attention.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Working memory operates over the same representations as attention

Chen

Xie

et al. 2017

PLoS ONE

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“…Converging evidence has indicated that the processing of the Ebbinghaus illusion emerges at a relatively early processing stage compared with the Ponzo illusion (Chen et al, 2018;Shen et al, 2015;Song et al, 2011;Jaeger & Pollack, 1977;Cooper & Weintraub, 1970). Two cognitive mechanisms have been proposed to account for the production of the Ebbinghaus illusion.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Anodal Occipital Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation Enhances Perceived Visual Size Illusions

Wang

Jiang

2021

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience

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Human early visual cortex has long been suggested to play a crucial role in context-dependent visual size perception through either lateral interaction or feedback projections from higher to lower visual areas. We investigated the causal contribution of early visual cortex to context-dependent visual size perception using the technique of transcranial direct current stimulation and two well-known size illusions (i.e., the Ebbinghaus and Ponzo illusions) and further elucidated the underlying mechanism that mediates the effect of transcranial direct current stimulation over early visual cortex. The results showed that the magnitudes of both size illusions were significantly increased by anodal stimulation relative to sham stimulation but left unaltered by cathodal stimulation. Moreover, the anodal effect persisted even when the central target and surrounding inducers of the Ebbinghaus configuration were presented to different eyes, with the effect lasting no more than 15 min. These findings provide compelling evidence that anodal occipital stimulation enhances the perceived visual size illusions, which is possibly mediated by weakening the suppressive function of the feedback connections from higher to lower visual areas. Moreover, the current study provides further support for the causal role of early visual cortex in the neural processing of context-dependent visual size perception.

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“…Another possible explanation is that the image of the test bars was involuntarily integrated with the memory of the previously viewed inducing depth cues, which resulted in the illusion. Study showed that when the Ponzo illusion figure was divided into its individual components and sequentially encoded into visual working memory (VWM), the temporally separated components were involuntarily integrated and therefore triggered the illusion [ 31 ]. The study found an illusory effect of about 5%—6%.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Illusory Distance Modulates Perceived Size of Afterimage despite the Disappearance of Depth Cues

2016

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It is known that the perceived size of an afterimage is modulated by the perceived distance between the observer and the depth plane on which the afterimage is projected (Emmert’s law). Illusions like Ponzo demonstrate that illusory distance induced by depth cues can also affect the perceived size of an object. In this study, we report that the illusory distance not only modulates the perceived size of object’s afterimage during the presence of the depth cues, but the modulation persists after the disappearance of the depth cues. We used an adapted version of the classic Ponzo illusion. Illusory depth perception was induced by linear perspective cues with two tilted lines converging at the upper boundary of the display. Two horizontal bars were placed between the two lines, resulting in a percept of the upper bar to be farther away than the lower bar. Observers were instructed to make judgment about the relative size of the afterimage of the lower and the upper bars after adaptation. When the perspective cues and the bars were static, the illusory effect of the Ponzo afterimage is consistent with that of the traditional size-distance illusion. When the perspective cues were flickering and the bars were static, only the afterimage of the latter was perceived, yet still a considerable amount of the illusory effect was perceived. The results could not be explained by memory of a prejudgment of the bar length during the adaptation phase. The findings suggest that cooccurrences of depth cues and object may link a depth marker for the object, so that the perceived size of the object or its afterimage is modulated by feedback of depth information from higher-level visual cortex even when there is no depth cues directly available on the retinal level.

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The working memory Ponzo illusion: Involuntary integration of visuospatial information stored in visual working memory

Cited by 21 publications

References 36 publications

Working memory operates over the same representations as attention

Working memory operates over the same representations as attention

Anodal Occipital Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation Enhances Perceived Visual Size Illusions

Illusory Distance Modulates Perceived Size of Afterimage despite the Disappearance of Depth Cues

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