Perception of facial expressions of emotion during binocular rivalry.

Binocular rivalry is the perceptual alternation between two incompatible stimuli presented simultaneously but to each eye separately. The observer's perception switches back and forth between the two stimuli that are competing for perceptual dominance. In two studies, pictures of emotional faces (disgust and happy) were pitted against each other or against pictures of faces with neutral expressions. Study 1 demonstrated that (a) emotional facial expressions predominate over neutral expressions, and (b) positive facial expressions predominate over negative facial expression (i.e., positivity bias). Study 2 examined individual differences in emotional predominance and positivity bias during binocular rivalry. Although the positivity bias was not affected by the levels of depressive symptoms, results demonstrated that emotional predominance diminished as the level of depressive symptoms increased. These results indicate that individuals who report more depressive symptoms compared to their less depressed counterparts tend to assign more meaning to neutral faces. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Here is looking at you: Emotional faces predominate in binocular rivalry.

Two incompatible pictures compete for perceptual dominance when they are presented to one eye each. This so-called binocular rivalry results in an alternation of dominant and suppressed percepts. In accordance with current theories of emotion processing, the authors' previous research has suggested that emotionally arousing pictures predominate in this perceptual process. Three experiments were run with pictures of emotional facial expressions that are known to induce emotions while being well controlled in terms of physical characteristics. In Experiment 1, photographs of emotional and neutral facial expressions were presented of the same actor to minimize physical differences. In Experiment 2, schematic emotional expressions were presented to further eliminate low-level differences. In Experiment 3, a probe-detection task was conducted to control for possible response-biases. Together, these data clearly demonstrate that emotional facial expressions predominate over neutral expressions; they are more often the first percept and they are perceived for longer durations. This is not caused by physical stimulus properties or by response-biases. This novel approach supports that emotionally significant visual stimuli are preferentially perceived. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Rate of binocular rivalry alternation in psychotic and nonpsychotic patients.

To determine the relationship between binocular rivalry rate and the presence of psychopathology, rivalry rate measures for 2 1-min. observation periods were taken from 3 matched groups of organic, schizophrenic, and nonorganic-nonpsychotic patients. The rate of the nonorganic-nonpsychotic group increased significantly over observation periods relative to the other groups, a result consistent with other data which suggests that rate provides some measure of cognitive efficiency. Differences in rate between organic and schizophrenic groups were not found, contrary to previous report. Procedural variables which could account for the discrepancy are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A cross-cultural study of perceptual predominance in binocular rivalry.

Pairs of similar scenes, one Mexican and one from the United States, were presented stereoscopically to 12 Mexican Ss and 12 matched Ss from the United States. "Under these conditions of experimentally induced binocular rivalry,… scenes from the S's own culture tended to be perceptually predominant." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Binocular rivalry and the study of identification in asthmatic and nonasthmatic boys.

Describes a method for studying motivational properties of identification in a group of 55 8-11 yr. old asthmatic and nonasthmatic boys. Selective attention of a child toward his mother or father was measured by the child's resolution of a binocular rivalry test in which the competing stimuli were photographs of the child's own parents. Perceptual dominance scores derived from this test were then examined in relation to certain other perceptions of the child. Split-half reliability of perceptual dominance scores was .84. Perceptual dominance of the father was positively related to perceived power of the father among nonasthmatic boys (r = .37, p     

存在视场丢失的机器视觉精度补偿方法

无论Eye-in-Hand或Eye-to-Hand型式的机器视觉控制系统,均存在视场受限、丢失等情况,从而无法在一定距离、角度内对目标进行在线视觉测量,进而无法建立全闭环的伺服控制.基于Eye-in-Hand型式的机器视觉控制系统,以及最短测量距离L_min,提出一种闭环与开环相结合的伺服控制系统:即测量距离大于L_min时为位置反馈型闭环控制的原位调姿,在测量距离小于L_min时为位置给定型开环控制,机器人以相对线性运动进给到目标位置.针对该过程中的偏移问题,提出了前馈补偿模型,即利用前期运动数据对运动误差进行估计.实验证明,该方法能有效地补偿定位误差.     

Aging and the depth of binocular rivalry suppression.

Two experiments were designed to examine the effect of aging on the strength of binocular rivalry suppression. To produce rivalry, orthogonally oriented sine-wave luminance gratings were presented dichoptically. The observers were then required either to discriminate the spatial location of a probe spot presented to the dominant or suppressed eye's view or to detect the presence or absence of the probe. The observers in the younger and older age groups exhibited typical rivalry suppression for both tasks (i.e., the probe was more difficult to detect or discriminate when presented to the suppressed eye), but the magnitude of the suppression was significantly larger in the older observers. This increased suppression that accompanies aging can be explained by a reduction in the inhibition produced by the binocular matching circuitry of S. R. Lehky and R. Blake's (1991) model. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Binocular rivalry: A window into emotional processing in aging.

Previous binocular rivalry studies with younger adults have shown that emotional stimuli dominate perception over neutral stimuli. Here we investigated the effects of age on patterns of emotional dominance during binocular rivalry. Participants performed a face/house rivalry task where the emotion of the face (happy, angry, neutral) and orientation (upright, inverted) of the face and house stimuli were varied systematically. Age differences were found with younger adults showing a general emotionality effect (happy and angry faces were more dominant than neutral faces) and older adults showing inhibition of anger (neutral faces were more dominant than angry faces) and positivity effects (happy faces were more dominant than both angry and neutral faces). Age differences in dominance patterns were reflected by slower rivalry rates for both happy and angry compared to neutral face/house pairs in younger adults, and slower rivalry rates for happy compared to both angry and neutral face/house pairs in older adults. Importantly, these patterns of emotional dominance and slower rivalry rates for emotional-face/house pairs disappeared when the stimuli were inverted. This suggests that emotional valence, and not low-level image features, were responsible for the emotional bias in both age groups. Given that binocular rivalry has a limited role for voluntary control, the findings imply that anger suppression and positivity effects in older adults may extend to more automatic tasks. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Is binocular correspondence and disparity still a dominant factor in binocular depth perception?

Laws of binocular correspondence and disparity are regarded as bases for explanation of most of the phenomena of binocular depth perception in the near field of vision. Abnormal phenomena such as differences in astigmatism of the 2 eyes, differences in acuity, cases of natural aniseikonia, investigated by the author, confirm the validity of the laws of correspondence and disparity and also of the law of intersection of visual directional lines. The inadequacies of other theories of binocular depth perception are pointed out and the author concludes that they cannot supplant the laws of binocular correspondence and disparity for the great majority of cases of binocular perception of depth in the near field of vision. (46 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The medium is not the message in preattentive vision.

One of the oldest problems in visual perception is the definition of the basic elements of form, shape, and texture. In the past 20 years the question has been focused by the observation that human vision can be separated into two systems. Neisser first made popular the terms preattentive and attentive to characterize this division. The psychophysical experiments I have conducted over the past two years have probed the preattentive system to determine if it is as simple-minded as present theories suggest. One implication of this research involves rethinking theories of preattentive vision. To date this system is thought to be directly linked to what Marr called the "primal sketch" (a retinal-based image-intensity map of visual features such as blobs and blob intersections). My research suggest that it may be more closely tied to Marr's "2 1/2D sketch" (a retinally-based relief map of object-features such as surfaces slanted in depth). A second implication of this research concerns the neural implementation of detectors for slant based on shading and texture. So far we know a great deal about the tilt (two-dimensional orientation) sensitivity of single units in visual cortex, but the sensitivity of neurons to slant remains to be investigated. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Nonspatial attentional shifts between audition and vision.

This study investigated nonspatial shifts of attention between visual and auditory modalities. The authors provide evidence that the modality of a stimulus (S?) affected the processing of a subsequent stimulus (S?) depending on whether they shared the same modality. For both vision and audition, the onset of S? summoned attention exogenously to its modality, causing a delay in processing S? in a different modality. That undermines the notion that auditory stimuli have a stronger and more automatic alerting effect than visual stimuli (M. I. Posner, M. J. Nissen, & R. M. Klein, 1976). The results are consistent with other recent studies showing cross-modal attentional limitation. The authors suggest that such cross-modal limitation can be produced by simply presenting S? and S? in different modalities and that central processing mechanisms are also, at least partially, modality dependent. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Perceptual organization of moving stimuli modulates the flash-lag effect.

When a visual stimulus is flashed at a given location the moment a second moving stimulus arrives at the same location, observers report the flashed stimulus as spatially lagging behind the moving stimulus (the flash-lag effect). The authors investigated whether the global configuration (perceptual organization) of the moving stimulus influences the magnitude of the flash-lag effect. The results indicate that a flash presented near the leading portion of a moving stimulus lags significantly more than a flash presented near the trailing portion. This result also holds for objects consisting of several elements that group to form a unitary percept of an object in motion. The present study demonstrates a novel interaction between the global configuration of moving objects and the representation of their spatial position and may provide a new and useful tool for the study of perceptual organization. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The visual control of reaching and grasping: Binocular disparity and motion parallax.

The primary visual sources of depth and size information are binocular cues and motion parallax. Here, the authors determine the efficacy of these cues to control prehension by presenting them in isolation from other visual cues. When only binocular cues were available, reaches showed normal scaling of the transport and grasp components with object distance and size. However, when only motion parallax was available, only the transpont component scaled reliably. No additional increase in scaling was found when both cues were available simultaneously. Therefore, although equivalent information is available from binocular and motion parallax information, the latter may be of relatively limited use for the control of the grasp. Binocular disparity appears selectively important for the control of the grasp. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Perceptual load alters visual excitability.

Increasing perceptual load reduces the processing of visual stimuli outside the focus of attention, but the mechanism underlying these effects remains unclear. Here we tested an account attributing the effects of perceptual load to modulations of visual cortex excitability. In contrast to stimulus competition accounts, which propose that load should affect simultaneous, but not sequential, stimulus presentations, the visual excitability account makes the novel prediction that load should affect detection sensitivity for both simultaneous and sequential presentations. Participants fixated a stimulus stream, responding to targets defined by either a color (low load) or color and orientation conjunctions (high load). Additionally, detection sensitivity was measured for a peripheral critical stimulus (CS) presented occasionally. Increasing load at fixation reduced sensitivity to the peripheral CSs; this effect was similar regardless of whether CSs were presented simultaneously with central stimuli or during the (otherwise empty) interval between them. Controls ruled out explanations of the results in terms of strategic task prioritization. These findings support a cortical excitability account for perceptual load, challenging stimulus competition accounts. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Genetic influences on the organization and development of personality.

Analyzed data from a longitudinal twin study of personality using Wilson's repeated measures analysis of variance for twin data obtained from 42 pairs of twins. Average age of Ss in adolescence was 15.9 yrs, and at follow-up 27.9 yrs. Genetic influences on the MMPI and the California Psychological Inventory (CPI) profile contour and profile elevation at adolescence and at adulthood, and on the age-to-age changes in profile contour and profile elevation, were examined. Results provide evidence of significant genetic variance in the organization of personality as reflected by the CPI profile contour and in the global facets of personality reflected by the MMPI and CPI profile elevations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Color vision research and trichromatic theory: A historical review.

"After more than a century of scientific research in color vision the trichromatic theory continues to face theoretical contradictions and unexplained facts. Trichromatic theories everywhere should rigorously examine the theory's basic assumptions, provide much more experimental data on the basic visual functions, and honestly ask themselves the question: should the theory be subject to drastic revision or should it be replaced by some other theory?" (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The magnitude of binocular disparity modulates search time for targets defined by a conjunction of depth and colour.

Nakayama and Silverman (1986) proposed that, when searching for a target defined by a conjunction of color and stereoscopic depth, observers partition 3D space into separate depth planes and then rapidly search each such plane in turn, thereby turning a conjunctive search into a "feature" search. In their study, they found, consistent with their hypothesis, shallow search slopes when searching depth planes separated by large binocular disparities. Here, the authors investigated whether the search slope depends upon the extent of the stereoscopically induced separation between the planes to be searched (i.e., upon the magnitude of the binocular disparity. The obtained slope shows that (1) a rapid search only occurs with disparities greater than 6 min of arc, a value that vastly exceeds the stereo threshold, and that (2) the steepness of this slope increases in a major way at lower disparities. The ability to implement the search mode envisaged by Nakayama and Silverman is thus clearly limited to large disparities; less efficient search strategies are mandated by lower disparity values, as under such conditions items from one depth plane may be more likely to "intrude" upon the other. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cross-modal illusory conjunctions between vision and touch.

Cross-modal illusory conjunctions (ICs) happen when, under conditions of divided attention, felt textures are reported as being seen or vice versa. Experiments provided evidence for these errors, demonstrated that ICs are more frequent if tactile and visual stimuli are in the same hemispace, and showed that ICs still occur under forced-choice conditions but do not occur when attention to the felt texture is increased. Cross-modal ICs were also found in a patient with parietal damage even with relatively long presentations of visual stimuli. The data are consistent with there being cross-modal integration of sensory information, with the modality of origin sometimes being misattributed when attention is constrained. The empirical conclusions from the experiments are supported by formal models. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

An alternative hierarchical organization of the mental disorders of the DSM-IV.

With the approaching publication of the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), alternative organizations of the DSM (4th ed.; DSM-IV; American Psychiatric Association, 1994) categories have been proposed. This article compares several published alternative organizations to clinicians' organization of the DSM-IV categories. As demonstrations of their organization of DSM-IV categories, psychologists and psychiatrists sorted 66 DSM-IV diagnostic categories into groups of similar diagnoses and then made progressively larger and smaller groups of diagnoses or placed similar groups next to each other on a table. Hierarchical agglomerative data analysis of clinicians' individual sortings showed that clinicians retained many lower level DSM-IV categories (e.g., anxiety disorders, mood disorders), but not the higher level DSM-IV categories (e.g., Axis I vs. Axis II). Instead, at the highest hierarchical level, clinicians' categories resembled the structure of the first edition of the DSM (American Psychiatric Association, 1952), which followed clinicians' diagnostic decision-making scheme, dividing mental disorders into organic versus nonorganic and then psychotic versus neurotic disorders. At minimum, these data suggest a DSM organization that makes sense to clinicians. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)