Choi Hoon, Scholl Brian J
Department of Psychology, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut 06520-8205, USA.
Percept Psychophys. 2004 Aug;66(6):926-42. doi: 10.3758/bf03194985.
Beyond perceiving patterns of motion in simple dynamic displays, we can also perceive higher level properties, such as causality, as when we see one object collide with another object. Although causality is a seemingly high-level property, its perception--like the perception of faces or speech--often appears to be automatic, irresistible, and driven by highly constrained and stimulus-driven rules. Here, in an exploration of such rules, we demonstrate that perceptual grouping and attention can influence the both perception of causality in ambiguous displays. We first report several types of grouping effects, based on connectedness, proximity, and common motion. We further suggest that such grouping effects are mediated by the allocation of attention, and we directly demonstrate that causal perception can be strengthened or attenuated on the basis of where observers are attending, independent of fixation. Like Michotte, we find that the perception of causality is mediated by strict visual rules. Beyond Michotte, we find that these rules operate not only over discrete objects, but also over perceptual groups, constrained by the allocation of attention.
除了能在简单动态显示中感知运动模式外，我们还能感知更高层次的属性，比如因果关系，就像我们看到一个物体与另一个物体碰撞时那样。尽管因果关系看似是一种高层次的属性，但其感知——就像对面孔或言语的感知一样——通常似乎是自动的、不可抗拒的，并且由高度受限且受刺激驱动的规则所驱动。在此，在对这类规则的探索中，我们证明了知觉分组和注意力会影响对模糊显示中因果关系的感知。我们首先报告了基于连通性、接近性和共同运动的几种分组效应。我们进一步表明，这种分组效应是由注意力分配介导的，并且我们直接证明了因果感知可以根据观察者的注意力所在而得到增强或减弱，与注视点无关。和米肖特一样，我们发现因果感知是由严格的视觉规则介导的。与米肖特不同的是，我们发现这些规则不仅作用于离散物体，还作用于知觉组，受注意力分配的限制。
