Quinlan Philip T, Allen Keith, Cohen Dale J
Department of Psychology, The University of York, Heslington, York YO10 5DD, UK.
Department of Philosophy, The University of York, Heslington, York YO10 5DD, UK.
Vision (Basel). 2022 Aug 19;6(3):51. doi: 10.3390/vision6030051.
This paper presents the results of a study that used a speeded counting task to adjudicate between two competing theories of how perceptual representations of visual objects are derived. Boolean map (BM) theory assumes that there are strict limits on conscious awareness, such that we only have serial access to features on the same dimension (e.g., red and green). This theory contrasts with views that emphasize the early grouping of features, and which assume that feature processing is interactive and underpins figure/ground segregation as a necessary precursor to object perception. To test between these theories, we report performance in a speeded counting task in which participants were asked to judge which of two shapes was more prevalent. Displays contained squares and circles that appeared in either of two colors, with color and shape distinctions either perfectly correlated (i.e., compatible) or not (i.e., incompatible). BM theory predicts no influence of the relative coincidence of color and shape on the identification of the more prevalent shape. In contrast, grouping theory predicts that performance will be better when the color/shape distinction is compatible than when it is incompatible. Our data strongly support the grouping theory predictions. We conclude that the primary constraints on how visual objects are accessed are the number and kind of groupings that are recovered, not the number of feature maps consulted.
本文介绍了一项研究的结果，该研究使用了一个快速计数任务来评判关于视觉对象的感知表征是如何形成的两种相互竞争的理论。布尔映射（BM）理论假定，意识觉知存在严格限制，即我们只能串行访问同一维度上的特征（例如红色和绿色）。该理论与强调特征早期分组的观点形成对比，这些观点假定特征处理是交互式的，并且作为对象感知的必要前提，支撑着图形/背景分离。为了在这些理论之间进行检验，我们报告了一个快速计数任务中的表现，在该任务中，参与者被要求判断两种形状中哪一种更常见。显示的图形包含正方形和圆形，它们以两种颜色之一呈现，颜色和形状的区分要么完全相关（即兼容），要么不相关（即不兼容）。BM理论预测，颜色和形状的相对一致性对更常见形状的识别没有影响。相比之下，分组理论预测，当颜色/形状区分兼容时，表现会比不兼容时更好。我们的数据强烈支持分组理论的预测。我们得出结论，对视觉对象访问方式的主要限制在于恢复的分组数量和种类，而非所查阅的特征图数量。
