Sagol School of Neuroscience, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel.
Coller School of Management, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel.
PLoS One. 2020 Oct 28;15(10):e0240937. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0240937. eCollection 2020.
Previous studies have suggested that there are common mechanisms between perceptual and value-based processes. For instance, both perceptual and value-based choices are highly influenced by the context in which the choices are made. However, the mechanisms which allow context to influence our choice process as well as the extent of the similarity between the perceptual and preferential processes are still unclear. In this study, we examine a within-subject relation between the attraction effect, which is a well-known effect of context on preferential choice, and the Gestalt law of proximity. Then, we aim to use this link to better understand the mechanisms underlying the attraction effect. We conducted one study followed by an additional pre-registered replication study, where subjects performed a Gestalt-psychophysical task and a decoy task. Comparing the behavioral sensitivity of each subject in both tasks, we found that the more susceptible a subject is to the proximity law, the more she displayed the attraction effect. These results demonstrate a within-subject relation between a perceptual phenomenon (proximity law) and a value-based bias (attraction effect) which further strengthens the notion of common rules between perceptual and value-based processing. Moreover, this suggests that the mechanism underlying the attraction effect is related to grouping by proximity with attention as a mediator.
先前的研究表明，在知觉和基于价值的过程之间存在共同的机制。例如，基于知觉和基于价值的选择都受到选择所发生的环境的高度影响。然而，允许环境影响我们的选择过程的机制以及知觉和偏好过程之间的相似程度仍然不清楚。在这项研究中，我们在一个被试内的关系中检验了吸引效应，这是环境对偏好选择的一个众所周知的影响，以及格式塔接近律。然后，我们旨在利用这种联系来更好地理解吸引效应的机制。我们进行了一项研究，随后又进行了一项预先注册的复制研究，在这项研究中，被试执行了一项格式塔心理物理任务和一项诱饵任务。通过比较每个被试在两个任务中的行为敏感性，我们发现，一个被试越容易受到接近律的影响，她就越会表现出吸引效应。这些结果表明，一种知觉现象（接近律）和一种基于价值的偏见（吸引效应）之间存在一种被试内关系，这进一步强化了知觉和基于价值的加工之间存在共同规则的概念。此外，这表明吸引效应的机制与通过接近来分组有关，而注意力是其中介。
