Department of Psychology, Northeastern University, Boston, USA.
Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.
Sci Rep. 2019 Feb 18;9(1):2227. doi: 10.1038/s41598-018-37084-7.
The visual system is required to compute objects from partial image structure so that figures can be segmented from their backgrounds. Although early clinical, behavioral, and modeling data suggested that such computations are performed pre-attentively, recent neurophysiological evidence suggests that surface filling-in is influenced by attention. In the present study we developed a variant of the classical Kanizsa illusory triangle to investigate whether voluntary attention modulates perceptual filling-in. Our figure consists of "pacmen" positioned at the tips of an illusory 6-point star and alternating in polarity such that two illusory triangles are implied to compete with one another within the figure. On each trial, observers were cued to attend to only one triangle, and then compared its lightness with a matching texture-defined triangle. We found that perceived lightness of the illusory shape depended on the polarity of pacmen framing the attended triangle. Our findings thus reveal that, for overlapping illusory surfaces, lightness judgements can depend on voluntary attention. Our novel stimulus may prove useful in future attempts to link neurophysiological effects to phenomenology.
视觉系统需要从局部图像结构中计算出物体，以便将图像从背景中分割出来。尽管早期的临床、行为和建模数据表明这些计算是在非注意状态下进行的，但最近的神经生理学证据表明，表面填充受到注意的影响。在本研究中，我们开发了一种经典的 Kanizsa 错觉三角形的变体，以研究自愿注意是否会调节感知填充。我们的图形由位于虚幻 6 角星尖端的“小精灵”组成，并在极性上交替，使得两个虚幻三角形在图形内相互竞争。在每次试验中，观察者都会被提示只注意一个三角形，然后将其亮度与匹配的纹理定义的三角形进行比较。我们发现，虚幻形状的感知亮度取决于构成注视三角形的小精灵的极性。因此，我们的发现表明，对于重叠的虚幻表面，亮度判断可能取决于自愿注意。我们的新刺激可能有助于未来尝试将神经生理学效应与现象学联系起来。
