Trends in Cognitive Sciences
Volume 12, Issue 9, September 2008, Pages 334-341
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Review
Sensory memory for ambiguous vision

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2008.05.006Get rights and content

In recent years the overlap between visual perception and memory has shed light on our understanding of both. When ambiguous images that normally cause perception to waver unpredictably are presented briefly with intervening blank periods, perception tends to freeze, locking into one interpretation. This indicates that there is a form of memory storage across the blank interval. This memory trace codes low-level characteristics of the stored stimulus. Although a trace is evident after a single perceptual instance, the trace builds over many separate stimulus presentations, indicating a flexible, variable-length time-course. This memory shares important characteristics with priming by non-ambiguous stimuli. Computational models now provide a framework to interpret many empirical observations.

Section snippets

Stabilizing unstable vision

Although most visual input produces stable vision, sometimes, when visual information is ambiguous, awareness tends to waver continuously between alternative interpretations 1, 2. For one class of ambiguous sensory stimuli, known as bistable stimuli, an observer's perception will alternate almost exclusively between only two interpretations (Figure 1a–c). During continuous viewing conditions, perceptual alternations are unavoidable, and it is impossible to predict what someone will see in the

Information held in memory

What types of information are held across these blank intervals? One way to answer this question is to physically change different characteristics of the stimulus in synchrony with the on/off presentation cycle 6, 7 (see Ref. [8] for commentary). For instance, if the color of the stimulus is changed from one presentation to the next (across the blank interruption), from blue to red, and this results in an observer experiencing an alternation (i.e. the stimulus interpretation changes), this

Structure from motion

When rotating 3D stimuli, such as a cylinder or sphere, are presented on a monitor in two dimensions, their direction of rotation can be ambiguous. This results in perceptual alternations between the two possible directions of rotation (Figure 1b). Like many other bistable patterns, such structure-from-motion stimuli are perceptually stabilized by intermittent presentation. If the color, size or rotation speed of the stimulus is changed on each presentation, perception remains stabilized [6],

Binocular rivalry

Binocular rivalry is a form of bistability that occurs when two dissimilar stimuli are presented, one to each eye, in corresponding locations of visual space (Figure 1a). Binocular rivalry memory, like memory for structure-from-motion stimuli, is local in terms of retinotopic space [6]. Another important factor is the eye of origin (the eye that sources each pattern) of the dominant stimulus. When two competing static images are exchanged between the eyes in synchrony with the on/off

Temporal characteristics of memory

Many studies of memory for ambiguous perception demonstrate correlations between current and past dominance. However, the exact causal relationship in this situation is unclear. Pearson and Clifford [14] used an experimental paradigm known as flash suppression to control perceptual dominance during binocular rivalry. During flash suppression the two rivalry images are switched on asynchronously, and as the second image appears it becomes dominant. This presentation technique enables perceptual

Modeling

Recent modeling efforts now unite many of the psychophysical findings within a plausible account of this memory for ambiguous vision 23, 24. In fact, perception during continuous and intermittent viewing can now be explained within a single framework.

Initial theories of perceptual stabilization were strongly influenced by the historical emphasis on models of continuous ambiguous perception. These models center on the concept that competing perceptual interpretations are represented in the brain

Concluding remarks

Memory for ambiguous vision is largely composed of ‘early level’ sensory information. Although a single instance of ambiguous vision can directly bias subsequent ambiguous perception, the memory trace does not only carry information from the single last perceptual event but can build over many perceptual events spread across time. The memory trace shares characteristics with various types of priming. Computational models currently account for a broad spectrum of empirical observations.

This is

Acknowledgements

We thank Tomas Knapen, Randolph Blake, Frank Tong, Bert van den Berg, André Noest, Raymond Van Ee and Jascha Swisher for helpful comments and/or discussion. We also thank JJ's for their atmosphere. J.P. holds an NHMRC (Aust.) CJ Martin Fellowship 457146. J.B. was supported by a travel grant from the IIE Fulbright program and funds from the Vanderbilt International Grant Program.

Glossary

Ambiguous stimulus
a sensory stimulus that elicits multiple distinct perceptual interpretations, which alternate in awareness while the stimulus is presented.
Binocular rivalry
a form of bistable perception in which the left and right eye each view a different image in the same region of retinotopic space. Competition between the monocular inputs causes perception to waver between the image seen by the left eye and the image seen by the right eye.
Bistable stimulus
an ambiguous stimulus that causes

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