https://www.pisavisionlab.org Research centre dedicated to frontier, interdisciplinary research of human perception Thu, 07 Dec 2023 17:54:16 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.10 https://www.pisavisionlab.org/2023/12/07/fast-discrimination-of-fragmentary-images-the-role-of-local-optimal-information/ Thu, 07 Dec 2023 17:07:22 +0000 https://www.pisavisionlab.org/?p=4817 Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 17 In naturalistic conditions, objects in the scene may be partly occluded and the visual system has to recognize the whole image based on the little information contained in some visible fragments. Previous studies demonstrated that humans can successfully recognize severely occluded images, but the underlying mechanisms occurring in the early stages of visual processing are still poorly understood. The main objective of this work is to investigate the contribution of local information contained in a few visible fragments to image discrimination in fast vision. It has been already shown that a specific set of features, predicted by a constrained maximum- entropy model to be optimal carriers of information (optimal features), are used to build simplified early visual representations (primal sketch) that are sufficient for fast image discrimination. These features are also considered salient by the visual system and can guide visual attention when presented isolated in artificial stimuli. Here, we explore whether these local features also play a significant role in more natural settings, where all existing features are kept, but the overall available information is drastically reduced. Indeed, the task requires discrimination of naturalistic images based on a very brief presentation (25 ms) of a few small visible image fragments. In the main experiment, we reduced the possibility to perform the task based on global- luminance positional cues by presenting randomly inverted-contrast images, and we measured how much observers’ performance relies on the local features contained in the fragments or on global information. The size and the number of fragments were determined in two preliminary experiments. Results show that observers are very skilled in fast image discrimination, even when a drastic occlusion is applied. When observers cannot rely on the position of global-luminance information, the probability of correct discrimination increases when the visible fragments contain a high number of optimal features. These results suggest that such optimal local information contributes to the successful reconstruction of naturalistic images even in challenging conditions. Serena Castellotti, Ottavia D’Agostino, & Maria Michela Del Viva https://www.pisavisionlab.org/2023/12/07/fast-discrimination-of-fragmentary-images-the-role-of-local-optimal-information/castellotti2023_patches/https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2023.1049615 https://www.pisavisionlab.org/2023/12/07/time-estimation-during-motor-activity/ Thu, 07 Dec 2023 17:39:23 +0000 https://www.pisavisionlab.org/?p=4824 Front. Hum. Neurosci. 17:1134027 Several studies on time estimation showed that the estimation of temporal intervals is related to the amount of attention devoted to time. This is explained by the scalar timing theory, which assumes that attention alters the number of pulses transferred by our internal clock to an accumulator that keeps track of the elapsed time. In a previous study, it was found that time underestimation during cognitive-demanding tasks was more pronounced while walking than while sitting, whereas no clear motor-induced effects emerged without a concurrent cognitive task. What remains unclear then is the motor interference itself on time estimation. Here we aim to clarify how the estimation of time can be influenced by demanding motor mechanisms and how different motor activities interact with concurrent cognitive tasks during time estimation. To this purpose, we manipulated simultaneously the difficulty of the cognitive task (solving arithmetic operations) and the motor task. We used an automated body movement that should require no motor or mental effort, a more difficult movement that requires some motor control, and a highly demanding movement requiring motor coordination and attention. We compared the effects of these three types of walking on time estimation accuracy and uncertainty, arithmetic performance, and reaction times. Our findings confirm that time estimation is affected by the difficulty of the cognitive task whereas we did not find any evidence that time estimation changes with the complexity of our motor task, nor an interaction between walking and the concurrent cognitive tasks. We can conclude that walking, although highly demanding, does not have the same effects as other mental tasks on time estimation. Ottavia D’Agostino, Serena Castellotti, & Maria Michela Del Viva https://www.pisavisionlab.org/2023/12/07/time-estimation-during-motor-activity/dagostino2023_tapis2/ https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2023.1134027 https://www.pisavisionlab.org/2023/12/07/psychophysiological-and-behavioral-responses-to-descriptive-labels-in-modern-art-museums/ Thu, 07 Dec 2023 17:44:40 +0000 https://www.pisavisionlab.org/?p=4828 PLoS One 18, e0284149 Educational tools in art exhibitions seem crucial to improve the cultural and aesthetic experi- ence, particularly of non-expert visitors, thus becoming a strategic goal for museums. How- ever, there has not been much research regarding the impact of labels on the quality of visitors’ aesthetic experience. Therefore, here we compared the impact on the cognitive and emotional experience of naïve visitors between essential and descriptive labels, through multiple objective and subjective measurements, focusing on the controversial modern art museum context. We found that, after detailed descriptions, observers spend more time inspecting artworks, their eyes wander more looking for the described elements, their skin conductance and pupil size increase, and overall, they find the content less complex and more arousing. Our findings show that people do receive important benefits from reading detailed information about artworks. This suggests that elaborating effective labels should be a primary goal for museums interested in attracting a non-expert public. Serena Castellotti, Ottavia D’Agostino, Angelica Mencarini, Martina Fabozzi, Raimondo Varano, Stefano Mastandrea, Irene Baldriga, & Maria Michela Del Viva https://www.pisavisionlab.org/2023/12/07/psychophysiological-and-behavioral-responses-to-descriptive-labels-in-modern-art-museums/castellotti2023_museo/https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0284149 https://www.pisavisionlab.org/2023/12/07/saccadic-trajectories-deviate-toward-or-away-from-optimally-informative-visual-features/ Thu, 07 Dec 2023 17:50:17 +0000 https://www.pisavisionlab.org/?p=4832 IScience, 107282 The saccades’ path is influenced by visual distractors, making their trajectory curve away or toward them. Previous research suggested that the more salient the distractor, the more pronounced is the curvature. We investigate the saliency of spatial visual features, predicted by a constrained maximum entropy model to be optimal or non-optimal information carriers in fast vision, by using them as distractors in a saccadic task. Their effect was compared to that of luminance- based control distractors. Optimal features evoke a larger saccadic curvature compared to non-optimal features, and the magnitude and direction of deviation change as a function of the delay between distractor and saccade onset. Effects were similar to those found with high-luminance versus low-luminance distrac- tors. Therefore, model-predicted information optimal features interfere with target-oriented saccades, following a dynamic attraction–repulsion pattern. This suggests that the visuo-oculomotor system rapidly and automatically processes optimally informative features while programming visually guided eye movements. Serena Castellotti, Martin Szinte, Maria Michela Del Viva, & Anna Montagnini https://www.pisavisionlab.org/2023/12/07/saccadic-trajectories-deviate-toward-or-away-from-optimally-informative-visual-features/castellotti2023_curvature/https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2023.107282 https://www.pisavisionlab.org/2023/12/07/the-italian-colour-lexicon-in-tuscany-elicited-lists-cognitive-salience-and-semantic-maps-of-colour-terms/ Thu, 07 Dec 2023 17:54:13 +0000 https://www.pisavisionlab.org/?p=4836 Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, 10(1), 900 We investigated the Tuscan Italian colour inventory, with the aim of establishing the cog- nitive salience of the basic colour terms (BCTs) and most frequent non-BCTs. Native speakers from Tuscany (N = 89) completed a colour-term elicitation task lasting for 5 min. In total, 337 unique terms were elicited, with an average list length of 30.06. The frequency of each term, its mean list position and cognitive salience index (S) were calculated. The CTs with the highest S (ranked 1–13) included 10 counterparts of the Berlin and Kay BCTs listed in their 1969 seminal work and three basic ‘blue’ terms, blu, azzurro, celeste, estimated for Tuscan respondents by Del Viva et al. in 2022. S-index and Zipf-function (the terms’ “popularity”) indicated that fucsia (rank 14) is conceivably an emerging BCT in (Tuscan) Italian. Other cognitively salient non-BCTs are lilla, magenta, ocra and beige. The terms’ 3D semantic map (conceptual closeness), assessed using multidimensional scaling and cluster analysis, revealed that in the lists, closely associated CTs were arranged along three com- peting criteria: the term’s salience gradient; word length; and clustering of fully chromatic concepts with those defined primarily by lightness or desaturation. We also consider salient Italian non-BCTs as indicators of the ongoing process of lexical refinement in certain areas of the colour space. In conclusion, measures of elicitation productivity, as well as the augmented BCT inventory, including the Tuscan ‘triple blues’, and abundant hyponyms and derived forms all indicate (Tuscan) Italian speakers’ “cultural competence” in the colour domain and the need to communicate nuanced information about colour shades. Maria Michela Del Viva, Serena Castellotti, & Galina V. Paramei https://www.pisavisionlab.org/2023/12/07/the-italian-colour-lexicon-in-tuscany-elicited-lists-cognitive-salience-and-semantic-maps-of-colour-terms/delviva2023_color/https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-023-02393-4