General Psychology, Faculty of Engineering, Computer Science and Psychology, Ulm University, Albert-Einstein-Allee 47, 89069, Ulm, Germany.
Experimental Psychology, Helmholtz Institute, Utrecht University, Utrecht, the Netherlands.
Atten Percept Psychophys. 2022 Jan;84(1):138-149. doi: 10.3758/s13414-021-02388-w. Epub 2021 Nov 24.
Visible light enters our body via the pupil. By changing its size, the pupil shapes visual input. Small apertures increase the resolution of high spatial frequencies, thus allowing discrimination of fine details. Large apertures, in contrast, provide a better signal-to-noise ratio, because more light can enter the eye. This should lead to better detection performance of peripheral stimuli. Experiment 1 shows that the effect can reliably be demonstrated even in a less controlled online setting. In Experiment 2, pupil size was measured in a laboratory using an eye tracker. The findings replicate findings showing that large pupils provide an advantage for peripheral detection of faint stimuli. Moreover, not only pupil size during information intake in the current trial n, but also its interaction with pupil size preceding information intake, i.e., in trial n-1, predicted performance. This suggests that in addition to absolute pupil size, the extent of pupillary change provides a mechanism to modulate perceptual functions. The results are discussed in terms of low-level sensory as well as higher-level arousal-driven changes in stimulus processing.
可见光通过瞳孔进入我们的身体。瞳孔通过改变大小来调整视觉输入的形状。小的瞳孔可以提高高空间频率的分辨率，从而能够分辨出更细微的细节。相比之下，大的瞳孔可以提供更好的信噪比，因为更多的光线可以进入眼睛。这应该会导致对外周刺激的检测性能更好。实验 1 表明，即使在控制程度较低的在线环境中，这种效果也能可靠地证明。在实验 2 中，使用眼动追踪仪在实验室中测量瞳孔大小。研究结果复制了先前的发现，即大瞳孔有利于对外围微弱刺激的检测。此外，不仅是当前试次 n 中的瞳孔大小，而且其与前一试次 n-1 中信息摄入时的瞳孔大小的相互作用，都可以预测表现。这表明，除了瞳孔的绝对大小外，瞳孔变化的程度还提供了一种调节感知功能的机制。该结果从低水平的感觉以及更高水平的由唤醒驱动的刺激处理变化两个方面进行了讨论。
