Temporal integration and segregation of brief visual stimuli: Patterns of correlation in time

Two brief sequential displays separated by a brief interstimulus interval (ISI) are often perceived as a temporally integrated unitary configuration. The probability of temporal integration can be decreased by increasing the ISI or (counterintuitively) by increasing stimulus duration. We tested three hypotheses of the relative contributions of stimulus duration and ISI to the breakdown of temporal integration (the storage, processing, and temporal correlation hypotheses). In the first of two experiments, stimulus duration and ISI were varied factorially, and estimates of temporal integration were obtained with a form-part integration task. The second experiment was a replication of the first at two levels of stimulus intensity. The outcomes were inconsistent with the storage and processing options, but confirmed predictions from the temporal correlation hypothesis. Whether two sequential stimuli are perceived as temporally integrated or disjoint depends not on the availability of visible persistence, but on the emergence of a neural code that is based on the temporal correlation between the two visual responses.

[1]  D. Allport.  Phenomenal simutaneity and the perceptual moment hypothesis. , 1968, British journal of psychology.

[2]  J H Hogben,et al.  Perceptual integration and perceptual segregation of brief visual stimuli. , 1974, Vision research.

[3]  David E. Irwin,et al.  Sensory registration and informational persistence. , 1986, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[4]  R. Haber,et al.  Direct Measures of Short-Term Visual Storage , 1969, The Quarterly journal of experimental psychology.

[5]  V. Lollo,et al.  Equating the brightness of brief visual stimuli of unequal durations , 1986 .

[6]  G. Loftus,et al.  The phenomenology of spatial integration: Data and models , 1989, Cognitive Psychology.

[7]  V. Lollo.  Temporal integration in visual memory. , 1980 .

[8]  D. Hood,et al.  Temporal Summation of Light by a Vertebrate Visual Receptor , 1974, Science.

[9]  William R. Uttal,et al.  An autocorrelation theory of form detection , 1975 .

[10]  Bruce Bridgeman,et al.  Distributed sensory coding applied to simulations of iconic storage and metacontrast , 1978 .

[11]  John H Hogben,et al.  Suppression of visible persistence. , 1985, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[12]  M. Coltheart,et al.  Iconic memory and visible persistence , 1980, Perception & psychophysics.

[13]  J. Pola,et al.  Visual persistence: effects of flash luminance, duration and energy. , 1974, Vision research.

[14]  B. Julesz,et al.  The existence and role of retinotopic and spatiotopic forms of visual persistence. , 1982, Acta psychologica.

[15]  Herbert E. Ives,et al.  A Theory of Intermittent Vision , 1922 .

[16]  R. Efron,et al.  Effect of stimulus duration on perceptual onset and offset latencies , 1970 .

[17]  W. Uttal.  The Psychobiology of Sensory Coding , 2014 .

[18]  J. Roufs.  Dynamic properties of vision. I. Experimental relationships between flicker and flash thresholds. , 1972, Vision research.

[19]  R. Efron,et al.  The visual persistence of a moving stroboscopically illuminated object. , 1971, The American journal of psychology.

[20]  Patrick Cavanagh,et al.  Visual persistence of figures defined by relative motion , 1992, Vision Research.

[21]  J. Roufs,et al.  Dynamic properties of vision. II. Theoretical relationships between flicker and flash thresholds. , 1972, Vision research.

[22]  N. F. Dixon,et al.  The attenuation of visual persistence. , 1972, British journal of psychology.

[23]  E. Adelson,et al.  Phenomenal coherence of moving visual patterns , 1982, Nature.

[24]  J. Duncan,et al.  On the time course of perceptual information that results from a brief visual presentation. , 1992, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[25]  D. H. Kelly.  Theory of flicker and transient responses. I. Uniform fields. , 1971, Journal of the Optical Society of America.

[26]  H. Barlow.  Temporal and spatial summation in human vision at different background intensities , 1958, The Journal of physiology.

[27]  V. Lollo,et al.  Suppression of visible persistence in apparent motion , 1985, Perception & psychophysics.

[28]  Gary Finley,et al.  A high-speed point plotter for vision research , 1985, Vision Research.

[29]  Ronald Aylmer Sir Fisher,et al.  020: The Goodness of Fit of Regression Formulae and the Distribution of Regression Coefficients. , 1922 .

[30]  Dodwell Pc,et al.  On perceptual clarity. , 1971 .

[31]  G. Sperling.  The description and luminous calibration of cathode ray oscilloscope visual displays , 1971 .

[32]  Donald C. Hood,et al.  Modeling the dynamics of light adaptation: the merging of two traditions , 1992, Vision Research.

[33]  V. Lollo,et al.  Beyond Visible Persistence: An Alternative Account of Temporal Integration and Segregation in Visual Processing , 1994, Cognitive Psychology.

[34]  Takehiro Ueno,et al.  Reaction time as a measure of temporal summation at suprathreshold levels , 1977, Vision Research.

[35]  V. di Lollo,et al.  Two forms of persistence in visual information processing. , 1988, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[36]  L. Glass.  Moiré Effect from Random Dots , 1969, Nature.

[37]  D. H. Kelly.  Visual Responses to Time-Dependent Stimuli.* II. Single-Channel Model of the Photopic Visual System , 1961 .

[38]  W Reichardt,et al.  Autocorrelation, a principle for evaluation of sensory information by the central nervous system , 1961 .