Rideaux Reuben, Badcock David R, Johnston Alan, Edwards Mark
Research School of Psychology, The Australian National University, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory,
School of Psychology, The University of Western Australia, Crawley, Western Australia,
J Vis. 2016 Sep 1;16(11):23. doi: 10.1167/16.11.23.
The synchronous change of a feature across multiple discrete elements, i.e., temporal synchrony, has been shown to be a powerful cue for grouping and segmentation. This has been demonstrated with both static and dynamic stimuli for a range of tasks. However, in addition to temporal synchrony, stimuli in previous research have included other cues which can also facilitate grouping and segmentation, such as good continuation and coherent spatial configuration. To evaluate the effectiveness of temporal synchrony for grouping and segmentation in isolation, here we measure signal detection thresholds using a global-Gabor stimulus in the presence/absence of a synchronous event. We also examine the impact of the spatial proximity of the to-be-grouped elements on the effectiveness of temporal synchrony, and the duration for which elements are bound together following a synchronous event in the absence of further segmentation cues. The results show that temporal synchrony (in isolation) is an effective cue for grouping local elements together to extract a global signal. Further, we find that the effectiveness of temporal synchrony as a cue for segmentation is modulated by the spatial proximity of signal elements. Finally, we demonstrate that following a synchronous event, elements are perceptually bound together for an average duration of 200 ms.
一个特征在多个离散元素间的同步变化，即时间同步，已被证明是用于分组和分割的有力线索。这在一系列任务的静态和动态刺激中都得到了证实。然而，除了时间同步，以往研究中的刺激还包括其他也能促进分组和分割的线索，如良好延续性和连贯的空间构型。为了单独评估时间同步对分组和分割的有效性，我们在此使用全局Gabor刺激，在有/无同步事件的情况下测量信号检测阈值。我们还研究了待分组元素的空间 proximity 对时间同步有效性的影响，以及在没有进一步分割线索的情况下，同步事件后元素绑定在一起的持续时间。结果表明，时间同步（单独而言）是将局部元素分组在一起以提取全局信号的有效线索。此外，我们发现时间同步作为分割线索的有效性受信号元素的空间 proximity 调节。最后，我们证明在同步事件之后，元素在感知上会绑定在一起，平均持续时间为200毫秒。
