Trends in Cognitive Sciences
ReviewSensory memory for ambiguous vision
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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