When the Perception of a Synchronous World Is—Mostly—Just an Illusion

Paraskevoudi, Nadia; Vatakis, Argiro

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-22048-8_13

Cited by 4 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 141 publications

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“…Differences in transmission and processing speed across modalities present a well-known challenge to the perceptual system, and translate into misperceptions of simultaneity (for reviews, see Paraskevoudi & Vatakis, 2019; Spence & Squire, 2003; Vroomen & Keetels, 2010). For instance, sound waves propagate much slower than light.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Eccentricity advances arrival to visual perception.

Upadhyayula¹,

Phillips²,

Flombaum³

2023

Journal of Experimental Psychology: General

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We investigated temporal properties of visual perception as a function of eccentricity, that is, spatial position relative to the fovea. Our experiments were motivated by well-characterized non-uniformities in neuron distribution in the human eye and early visual pathways. These non-uniformities have been extensively studied in the context of spatial perception, while largely neglected in relation to temporal perception. In Experiment 1, participants fixated the rapid serial visual presentation letter stream and were instructed to report the letter which appeared simultaneously with a brief cue presented at different locations along the horizontal meridian. Participants exhibited a tendency to report earlier letters with more peripheral as compared to central cues, indicating that they misperceived differently located stimuli as simultaneous even though they were never presented together. Experiment 2 conceptually replicated the findings of Experiment 1. Experiment 3 further demonstrated that the effect is specifically due to eccentricity, and not the relative distance between the stimuli. We argue that such location-based misperceptions of simultaneity arise because transient stimuli at more eccentric locations advance to perception faster than stimuli at or near the fovea. Collectively, these experiments show, for the first time, how processing speed differences across the visual field translate into differences in perceived simultaneity. They also demonstrate, for the first time, location-based misperceptions of simultaneity for stimuli never presented together. Finally, Experiment 4 showed that greater eccentricity also increased the perceived duration of a stimulus compared to fovea. These results reveal the breadth of perceptual effects driven by temporal processing differences across the visual field. Public Significance StatementHow are events occurring at different times and places integrated into a unified experience of what is happening now? We report experiments that sequester and dissect the visual now, our sense of a present moment in visual experience. In particular, we consider how a moment of visual experience combines events that occur at different times and locations. The results suggest that space and time dissociate as events are stitched into a moment of experience, that a perceived moment can combine stimuli that did not necessarily share an overlapping moment in reality. We explain these results in relation to how neurons in the eye and the brain are distributed to process visual space.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Eccentricity advances arrival to visual perception.

Upadhyayula¹,

Phillips²,

Flombaum³

2023

Journal of Experimental Psychology: General

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“…Generally, PSS is defined as the limit of distinguishability of a given stimuli (Paraskevoudi and Vatakis, 2019 ); however, some researchers relate this value to TBW, which is equivalent to the PSS ± JND (Vatakis et al, 2008 ; Keetels and Vroomen, 2012 ; Benedetto et al, 2018 ). PSS represents the mean TBW, and JND represents its standard deviation from PSS.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The effect of group size and task involvement on temporal binding window in clap perception

Niizato,

Nishiyama,

Zempo

et al. 2024

Front. Psychol.

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We collect various types of information from our environment and organise it to create a coherent representation. Several researchers have suggested that multiple signals within the temporal binding window (TBW) can be integrated into a single coherent experience, such as flashes, beeps, and the McGurk effect. However, there is no evidence that TBW distortion also occurs in group interactions. This study investigates the influence of group size (i.e. the group size effect) and the degree of task involvement in temporal perception using computer-generated clap sound experiments. Participants listened to the randomly generated clap sounds and evaluated whether they were synchronised. We established three conditions based on different levels of task involvement: low (L), middle (M), and high (H) conditions. The varying task involvements reflect how participants interact with the clap sounds, ranging from passive listening in the L condition to actively generating sounds by pressing a key in the M condition, or attempting to synchronise key pressing sounds with the sounds in the H condition. Our experiments show a robust group size effect on TBW, regardless of the different conditions. In other words, as the group size increases, participants perceive the group clap as a single event. Furthermore, we found that the uncertain cause–effect relationship condition (H condition) shows the highest TBW. Interestingly, the TBW in the rigid cause–effect relationship (M condition) is the same as that in the no involvement condition (L condition). Our results suggest that a widened TBW in collective behaviour may facilitate cohesive action, enabling individuals to adapt to the group in relatively uncertain contexts.

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“…People can automatically integrate asynchronous audio-visual signals to form an audio-visual synchrony perception if a visual stimulus and an auditory stimulus are presented in a certain temporal window (Poeppel, 2005 ; Vatakis and Spence, 2006 ; Keetels and Vroomen, 2012 ; Vatakis, 2013 ). Based on previous studies, the temporal window of integration (TWI) could be calculated according to the point of subjective simultaneity (PSS) and the just noticeable difference (JND), that is, TWI = [PSS − JND, PSS + JND] (Kostaki and Vatakis, 2018 ; Paraskevoudi and Vatakis, 2019 ). Different JNDs of audio-visual cross-modal integration have been reported in previous studies (Vroomen and Keetels, 2010 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Audio-Visual Causality and Stimulus Reliability Affect Audio-Visual Synchrony Perception

et al. 2021

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People can discriminate the synchrony between audio-visual scenes. However, the sensitivity of audio-visual synchrony perception can be affected by many factors. Using a simultaneity judgment task, the present study investigated whether the synchrony perception of complex audio-visual stimuli was affected by audio-visual causality and stimulus reliability. In Experiment 1, the results showed that audio-visual causality could increase one's sensitivity to audio-visual onset asynchrony (AVOA) of both action stimuli and speech stimuli. Moreover, participants were more tolerant of AVOA of speech stimuli than that of action stimuli in the high causality condition, whereas no significant difference between these two kinds of stimuli was found in the low causality condition. In Experiment 2, the speech stimuli were manipulated with either high or low stimulus reliability. The results revealed a significant interaction between audio-visual causality and stimulus reliability. Under the low causality condition, the percentage of “synchronous” responses of audio-visual intact stimuli was significantly higher than that of visual_intact/auditory_blurred stimuli and audio-visual blurred stimuli. In contrast, no significant difference among all levels of stimulus reliability was observed under the high causality condition. Our study supported the synergistic effect of top-down processing and bottom-up processing in audio-visual synchrony perception.

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When the Perception of a Synchronous World Is—Mostly—Just an Illusion

Cited by 4 publications

References 141 publications

Eccentricity advances arrival to visual perception.

Eccentricity advances arrival to visual perception.

The effect of group size and task involvement on temporal binding window in clap perception

Audio-Visual Causality and Stimulus Reliability Affect Audio-Visual Synchrony Perception

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