Loading...
Conceptual size ensembles cannot be predicted by individual item size representations
Suresh, Sneha B.
Suresh, Sneha B.
Citations
Altmetric:
Contributor
Photographer
Author
Artist
Editor
Advisor
Keywords
URCAS, Symposiums, Student research, Class of 2019, 2018 Spring, Psychology, Department of
Local ID
Abstract
The visual system compresses redundant information into efficient, ensemble representations by
averaging features across items. Ensemble perception operates with remarkable flexibility, even
integrating object information at a conceptual level. For example, given a sufficiently strong
depth cue, the visual system represents the perceived size of a set of triangles as opposed to their
physical size (i.e., it accounts for size constancy; Suresh, Thomasson, & Haberman, VSS, 2017).
In the current set of experiments, we explored whether conceptual ensemble size representation may be predicted by the size representation of the individual items composing the group. In
every trial, observers viewed an individual triangle with and without linear perspective cues and
judged whether a subsequently presented test triangle was larger or smaller than the preceding
triangle. Whereas observers were biased to perceive the average size of multiple triangles as
larger when presented in the context of linear perspective cues (i.e., conceptual size averaging),
they did not take those cues into account when estimating the size of a single triangle. That is,
observers perceived a single triangle in the context of linear perspective cues as the same size as
a single triangle without linear perspective cues. These results suggest the generation of a
conceptual size ensemble cannot be predicted by the individual item representations, which
points to an emergent calculus that depends on judgments at the group level.
Description
Presentation by Sneha Suresh ('19) delivered at the Rhodes College Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity Symposium (URCAS).