Broad attention uncovers benefits of stimulus uniformity in visual crowding.

Rummens, K.; Sayim, Bilge

Document type :

Article dans une revue scientifique: Article original

DOI :

10.1038/s41598-021-03258-z

Permalink :

http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12210/103113

Title :

Broad attention uncovers benefits of stimulus uniformity in visual crowding.

Author(s) :

Rummens, K. [Auteur]
Universität Bern = University of Bern = Université de Berne [UNIBE]
Sayim, Bilge [Auteur]
Laboratoire Sciences Cognitives et Sciences Affectives - UMR 9193 [SCALab]

Journal title :

Scientific Reports

Abbreviated title :

Sci Rep

Volume number :

Publisher :

Nature Publishing Group

Publication date :

2021-12

ISSN :

2045-2322

HAL domain(s) :

Sciences cognitives

English abstract : [en]

Crowding is the interference by surrounding objects (flankers) with target perception. Low target-flanker similarity usually yields weaker crowding than high similarity (‘similarity rule’) with less interference, e.g., by ...
Show more >Crowding is the interference by surrounding objects (flankers) with target perception. Low target-flanker similarity usually yields weaker crowding than high similarity (‘similarity rule’) with less interference, e.g., by opposite- than same-contrast polarity flankers. The advantage of low target-flanker similarity has typically been shown with attentional selection of a single target object. Here, we investigated the validity of the similarity rule when broadening attention to multiple objects. In three experiments, we measured identification for crowded letters (Experiment 1), tumbling Ts (Experiment 2), and tilted lines (Experiment 3). Stimuli consisted of three items that were uniform or alternating in contrast polarity and were briefly presented at ten degrees eccentricity. Observers reported all items (full report) or only the left, central, or right item (single-item report). In Experiments 1 and 2, consistent with the similarity rule, single central item performance was superior with opposite- compared to same-contrast polarity flankers. With full report, the similarity rule was inverted: performance was better for uniform compared to alternating stimuli. In Experiment 3, contrast polarity did not affect performance. We demonstrated a reversal of the similarity rule under broadened attention, suggesting that stimulus uniformity benefits crowded object recognition when intentionally directing attention towards all stimulus elements. We propose that key properties of crowding have only limited validity as they may require a-priori differentiation of target and context.Show less >

Language :

Anglais

Audience :

Internationale

Popular science :

Non

Administrative institution(s) :

Université de Lille
CNRS
CHU Lille

Collections :

Sciences Cognitives et Sciences Affectives (SCALab) - UMR 9193

Research team(s) :

Équipe Action, Vision et Apprentissage (AVA)

Submission date :

2024-01-18T08:10:34Z
2024-02-02T07:48:54Z

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Except where otherwise noted, this item's license is described as Attribution 3.0 United States

Version	Link	Modification date
2	20.500.12210/103113*	2024-02-02T07:42:13Z
1	20.500.12210/103113.1	2024-01-18T08:10:34Z

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