Abstract
Humans are able to predict future actions with high temporal precision, and to readily perceive interactions between agents. Previous research suggests that such high-level action inferences influence sensitivity for detecting actions in visual noise (Manera et al., 2011; Neri et al., 2006). We tested whether such top-down influences reached monocular channels to affect the visual dominance of stimuli during binocular rivalry. In Experiment 1, observers viewed point-light action sequences, followed by a blank screen (as temporal occluder) for 200ms or 800ms. Then one eye received a matched action with one color, and the other eye received a mismatched action with a different color. A matched stimlus showed a congruent action as it would have appeared had it continued during the temporal occlusion, and a mismatched stimlus showed an incongruent action that occurred earlier or later than the elapsed time. Observers reported which color was more visually dominant. matched actions were perceived more dominant than mismatched actions in the 200ms occluder condition, but not in the 800ms condition, indicating that the visual system enhances monocular visibility of actions with correct continuations, at least after short delays. In Experiment 2, subjects viewed overlapping actors (one as target and the other as distractor) shown in different colors and in different eyes for ~20s. A third actor, either presented to both eyes or absent, was interactively dancing with the target actor. Observers were asked to continuously track which colored actor (target or distracter) was more visible. When the interactive third actor was shown, the color of the target actor was overall more dominant than that of the distractor actor. This result suggests that interactive information enhances monocular visibility of the actors. Overall, our findings suggest that action inferences can exert top-down influence on low-level visibility of monocularly-presented stimuli during binocular rivalry.
Meeting abstract presented at VSS 2013