Perceptual latency priming and illusory line motion: Facilitation by gradients of attention?

The Effect of Emotion on Time Perception in Youth Athletes with Different Alerting Efficiencies

Purpose

Time perception plays a critical role in executing movements in various competitions. However, less research has been conducted on the alerting component of attention in the processing of time perception, and that the effects of emotion on the alerting network show inconsistent effects. This study is aimed to explore the factors that may influence time perception in youth athletes and these relationships.

Methods

A total of 225 participants were recruited to assess alerting efficiency using the Attention Network Test and were divided into high and low alerting efficiency groups based on the front and back 27% of the ranked alerting scores as a dividing metric, and subsequently participants completed Time replication task under different emotionally induced conditions.

Results

Alerting efficiency had a significant effect on time perception, with the high alerting efficiency subjects having higher time estimation accuracy [F (1106) = 6.32, p = 0.013, η2p = 0.10] and being more inclined to overestimate time perception [F (1106) = 12.64, p = 0.001, η2 p = 0.11]. An interaction was found between emotion and alerting efficiency on time replication ratio [F (2106) = 3.59, p = 0.031, η2p = 0.08], and further simple effects analyses found that the low alerting efficiency subjects tended to overestimate time in the anger state relative to the happy and neutral states [F (2106) = 5.93, p < 0.01, η2p = 0.10].

Conclusion

These findings suggest that high alerting efficiency in youth athletes is associated with greater time perception response advantage; The time perception of low alerting efficiency youth athletes was more likely to be affected by emotions. This study provides a reference for the training of time perception and specialized perceptual ability of youth athletes, enriches the index system of psychological selection of youth athletes.

Asymmetrical Pseudo-Extinction Phenomenon in the Illusory Line Motion

Illusory Line Motion (i.e., a static line, presented after a lateral cue, is perceived as movement in the opposite direction to the cue) has been used to study a phenomenon of perceptual asymmetry. We have demonstrated the presence of an illusion of leftward movement, even in the presence of bilateral symmetrical cues. We have classified this phenomenon as one of pseudo-extinction. The paradigm of the four experiments performed was always the same: a white line, briefly presented alone or preceded by one or two lateral cues (150 ms), was judged by a group of young participants to be moving either to one side or the other. The asymmetrical effect in the bilateral cue condition was observed with horizontal lines (Experiment 1 and 4), and not with vertical or oblique (Experiment 2 and 3). These results suggest that the effect is linked to the asymmetry of the horizontal spatial planum and the mechanisms of spatial attention. Experiment 4 verified whether the Illusory Line Motion involves the collicular pathway by using blue stimuli for the cues, which activate less the Superior Colliculus (SC), with negative results. We interpreted the asymmetrical pseudo-extinction phenomenon in terms of a right-space exogenous attention advantage.

Displacement of location in illusory line motion

Six experiments examined displacement in memory for the location of the line in illusory line motion (ILM; appearance or disappearance of a stationary cue is followed by appearance of a stationary line that is presented all at once, but the stationary line is perceived to "unfold" or "be drawn" from the end closest to the cue to the end most distant from the cue). If ILM was induced by having a single cue appear, then memory for the location of the line was displaced toward the cue, and displacement was larger if the line was closer to the cue. If ILM was induced by having one of two previously visible cues vanish, then memory for the location of the line was displaced away from the cue that vanished. In general, the magnitude of displacement increased and then decreased as retention interval increased from 50 to 250 ms and from 250 to 450 ms, respectively. Displacement of the line (a) is consistent with a combination of a spatial averaging of the locations of the cue and the line with a relatively weaker dynamic in the direction of illusory motion, (b) might be implemented in a spreading activation network similar to networks previously suggested to implement displacement resulting from implied or apparent motion, and (c) provides constraints and challenges for theories of ILM.

Neuro-cognitive mechanisms of conscious and unconscious visual perception: From a plethora of phenomena to general principles

Psychological and neuroscience approaches have promoted much progress in elucidating the cognitive and neural mechanisms that underlie phenomenal visual awareness during the last decades. In this article, we provide an overview of the latest research investigating important phenomena in conscious and unconscious vision. We identify general principles to characterize conscious and unconscious visual perception, which may serve as important building blocks for a unified model to explain the plethora of findings. We argue that in particular the integration of principles from both conscious and unconscious vision is advantageous and provides critical constraints for developing adequate theoretical models. Based on the principles identified in our review, we outline essential components of a unified model of conscious and unconscious visual perception. We propose that awareness refers to consolidated visual representations, which are accessible to the entire brain and therefore globally available. However, visual awareness not only depends on consolidation within the visual system, but is additionally the result of a post-sensory gating process, which is mediated by higher-level cognitive control mechanisms. We further propose that amplification of visual representations by attentional sensitization is not exclusive to the domain of conscious perception, but also applies to visual stimuli, which remain unconscious. Conscious and unconscious processing modes are highly interdependent with influences in both directions. We therefore argue that exactly this interdependence renders a unified model of conscious and unconscious visual perception valuable. Computational modeling jointly with focused experimental research could lead to a better understanding of the plethora of empirical phenomena in consciousness research.

Effects of temporal and spatial separation on velocity and strength of illusory line motion

The effects of line length and of spatial or temporal distance on illusory line motion (i.e., on the perception that a stationary line unfolds or expands away from a previously presented stationary cue) were examined in five experiments. Ratings of relative velocity decreased with increases in stimulus onset asynchrony between appearance of the cue and appearance of the line (from 50 to 450 ms), whereas the extremity of ratings of direction (i.e., strength of the ratings of illusory line motion) increased with increases in stimulus onset asynchrony (from 50 to either 250 or 450 ms). Ratings of relative velocity increased with increases in line length, whereas ratings of direction were not influenced by increases in line length. Ratings of relative velocity and direction were not influenced by increases in the distance of the near or the far end of the line from the cue. Implications of these data for attentional theories and apparent-motion theories of illusory line motion are discussed.

Simultaneity and temporal order perception: Different sides of the same coin? Evidence from a visual prior-entry study

Attended stimuli are perceived as occurring earlier than unattended stimuli. This phenomenon of prior entry is usually identified by a shift in the point of subjective simultaneity (PSS) in temporal order judgements (TOJs). According to its traditional psychophysical interpretation, the PSS coincides with the perception of simultaneity. This assumption is, however, questionable. Technically, the PSS represents the temporal interval between two stimuli at which the two alternative TOJs are equally likely. Thus it also seems possible that observers perceive not simultaneity, but uncertainty of temporal order. This possibility is supported by prior-entry studies, which find that perception of simultaneity is not very likely at the PSS. The present study tested the percept at the PSS in prior entry, using peripheral cues to orient attention. We found that manipulating attention caused varying temporal perceptions around the PSS. On some occasions observers perceived the two stimuli as simultaneous, but on others they were simply uncertain about the order in which they had been presented. This finding contradicts the implicit assumption of most models of temporal order perception, that perception of simultaneity inevitably results if temporal order cannot be discriminated.

Voluntary visual attention and phenomenal line length

In 1956, Fraisse, et al. reported subjects judged that lines were longer when voluntary attention was focused on the lines than when attention was distracted from the lines. In the many attempts to repeat these results, none has ascertained whether attention on reported line length was a phenomenal effect. In the present study, 46 subjects were shown as stimuli pairs of horizontal or vertical briefly flashed lines with a fixation cross placed equidistant between the lines but far from each one. A change in color of one arm of the cross was used as a cue to focus subjects' voluntary attention on one line. Analysis showed attention increased the judged length of attended lines. Since this effect of attention also occurred when subjects were absolutely certain they saw the stimulus lines differed in length, this effect indicates that attention increased the phenomenal length of the attended lines. This lengthening was quite small: it involved a maximum mean increase of about .15 in the probability of the comparative response that the attended line was longer. This effect occurred in the horizontal dimension and was almost absent in the vertical dimension. In agreement with data indicating that flashed lines expand phenomenally by activating motion detectors and that focused attention makes neural motion responses increase in amplitude, the present results suggest that focused attention makes attended lines look longer because it makes these lines expand phenomenally more rapidly.

Perceptual latency priming: A measure of attentional facilitation

The present paper reviews recent research on perceptual latency priming (PLP). PLP is the relative latency advantage-earlier perception-of a visual stimulus that is preceded by another, masked stimulus at its location. The first stimulus attracts attention which accelerates perception of the second stimulus. This facilitation arises even if the first stimulus is visually backward-masked by the second one. The paper summarises research on temporal and spatial properties of PLP and the question whether intentions mediate shifts of attention to external events. Possible sources of PLP besides visuo-spatial attention are discussed. Finally, I give a review of feedforward and reentrant models of PLP and compare them to the empirical evidence.