Abstract
BACKGROUND: Visual features of objects in the peripheral region can be mistakenly perceived to possess the features of objects in the central visual field (misbinding of visual features). This misbinding seems to arise from the ambiguity of visual features in the peripheral region (Wu, Kanai, & Shimojo, Nature 2004). We asked whether increased ambiguity in the peripheral region increased the frequency of misbinding of color and motion by manipulating the color variation and solidity of visual objects. Specifically, we varied the color of objects along the L/(L+M) axis (appears roughly red and green) or along the S/(L+M) axis. We hypothesized that misbinding would occur more frequently when the color was varied along the S/(L+M) axis than along the L/(L+M) axis because the mechanism that mediates the S/(L+M) system has lower spatial acuity, leading to more ambiguity in the peripheral fields. In a separate experiment, we used solid objects and hollow objects. We expected to observe more misbinding with hollow objects than with solid objects because hollow objects will impose more ambiguity particularly in the peripheral region. METHODS: In the central field, randomly placed objects of one color (e.g., red) moved upward and of another color (e.g., green) moved downward. In the flanking peripheral fields, randomly placed red objects moved downward and green objects moved upward. The observer's tasks were to report the direction of motion of the peripheral red objects and the peripheral green objects. The wrong response was counted as the occurrence of misbinding. RESULTS & CONCLUSION: We found more frequent misbinding responses when the color was varied along the S/(L+M) axis rather than along the L/(L+M) axis, and when the objects were hollow rather than solid. Both results support our hypotheses, indicating that the ambiguity in the peripheral region indeed facilitates misbinding of color and motion.
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