Abstract
The underlying mechanisms used to process 2D information to form a unified 3D percept remain largely unknown. Previous work in our lab has shown that accurate 3D perception of textured surfaces depends on the presence of specific patterns of orientation flows in the image. Recent research has shown that other neural processes such as affective state may influence the visual perception of oriented patterns. For example, Bocanegra and Zeelenberg (2009) found that relative to neutral face stimuli, fearful face stimuli can augment sensitivity to orientation of low spatial frequency gratings and decrease sensitivity to orientation of high spatial frequency gratings. The current study aims to extend these results by investigating 1) how the effects of affect on orientation perception might generalize across face databases, and 2) how affect might alter the perception of orientation in more complex patterns and ultimately, patterns containing orientation flows that convey 3D shape. Using the Radboud face database, we presented affective fear versus neutral face primes before grating and plaid stimuli and measured orientation sensitivity to both low (2cpd) and high (4cpd) spatial frequency patterns. Preliminary results suggest that fearful primes, relative to neutral primes, may increase orientation sensitivity to low frequency stimuli and reduce orientation sensitivity to high frequency stimuli, as was found in Bocanegra and Zeelenberg (2009), and that these results appear to generalize to the Radboud face database. However, this pattern of results appears to occur only for vertical grating stimuli. Fearful primes do not appear to affect orientation sensitivity to horizontal gratings or horizontal-vertical plaids. Implications for the perception of orientation flows required for 3D shape perception will be discussed.
Meeting abstract presented at VSS 2013