Visual and auditory object correspondence
Final Report Abstract
Object are usually embedded within meaningful and dynamic scenes that influence how we perceive them. The present project was designed to investigate the role of this scene-based information on object perception in the visual and auditory modality. For the visual modality, a series of experiments was conducted in which scene-based illumination information was contrasted with objects’ surface feature information, that is, objects’ luminance. Our results show that object correspondence as measured by the object-reviewing paradigm it is determined by lightness, as implied by scene information. We replicated this finding and moreover showed that scene context only influences the objectspecific preview benefit if the objects are perceived as part of the background scene. That is, for scene information to influence object correspondence, the object must be represented as being part of the scene and hence they have to be perceived as sharing a common illumination frame of reference. In a series of follow-up experiments, we tested the tolerance of the visual system towards violation of lightness constancy in the object-reviewing paradigm. We again demonstrated that object correspondence relies on lightness rather than luminance and in addition showed that small violations of lightness constancy are tolerated. However, if lightness constancy is vastly violated, the perception of object correspondence is not supported. These findings of the first part of the present project are of value for the object perception literature but also for the lightness/luminance-related literature. I planned and prepared several follow-up studies that aim to extend the present findings to color constancy and size constancy displays. Furthermore, I plan to further investigate the cues that prevent objects from being perceived as part of their background scene (common frame of reference), because the present work demonstrated that those cues are not always trivial but have a large influence on object and scene perception. The second goal of the present project was to transfer the object-reviewing paradigm to the auditory modality. This auditory object-specific prelisten paradigm should then be used to investigate the effects of spatiotemporal, surface feature, and scene-based information on auditory object correspondence. However, it was not possible to adapt the paradigm in a way that would address the specifics of auditory stimuli and that would lead to results that are in line with the findings in the visual modality. Participants’ accuracy was so poor that the experiment had to be adapted several times (i.e., decreasing the range of possible stimuli and increasing the distance in pitch – and thus their discriminability – between stimuli). Those adjustments finally resulted in acceptable performance but still did not result in the expected pattern of data. Since it was not possible to transfer the object-reviewing paradigm to the auditory modality, it was likewise not possible to examine the influence of scene-based context information on auditory object perception. In sum, while the investigation of auditory object perception was unsuccessful, the performed studies on visual object perception resulted in several results that even extended the scope of the present project. Specifically, we could show that scene-based context influences the perception of object correspondence in the object-reviewing paradigm. In addition, we demonstrated that a shared frame of reference between objects and scene is decisive for scene-based influences on visual object correspondence. Moreover, our recent results show that the visual system is tolerant in accepting small violations of lightness constancy when computing object correspondence. There are several follow-up experiments planned, as it seems important to transfer our results to size and/or color constancy displays and to further investigate which cues support or violate the interpretation that objects belong to their respective background scene. Identifying those cues will further help to understand how scene-based information and object information interact and influence our dynamic environment.
Publications
- (2014). Luminance Outshines Lightness. 55th annual meeting of the Psychonomic Society, Long Beach, CA
Fiedler, A., & Moore, C. M.
- (2014). Scene-based information does not disrupt visual object correspondence. 14th annual meeting of the Vision Sciences Society, Tampa, FL
Fiedler, A., & Moore, C. M.
- (2015). Illumination Frame of Reference in the Object-Reviewing Paradigm: A Case of Luminance and Lightness. 56th annual meeting of the Psychonomic Society, Chicago, IL
Fiedler, A., & Moore, C. M.
(See online at https://dx.doi.org/10.1037/xhp0000123) - Illumination Frame of Reference in the Object-Reviewing Paradigm: A Case of Luminance and Lightness. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, Vol 41(6), Dec 2015, 1709-1717 (Manuscript version: 35 S.)
Fiedler, A., & Moore, C. M.
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1037/xhp0000123)
