Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Stability and change in perception: spatial organization in temporal context

  • Research Article
  • Published:
Experimental Brain Research Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Perceptual multistability has often been explained using the concepts of adaptation and hysteresis. In this paper we show that effects that would typically be accounted for by adaptation and hysteresis can be explained without assuming the existence of dedicated mechanisms for adaptation and hysteresis. Instead, our data suggest that perceptual multistability reveals lasting states of the visual system rather than changes in the system caused by stimulation. We presented observers with two successive multistable stimuli and found that the probability that they saw the favored organization in the first stimulus was inversely related to the probability that they saw the same organization in the second. This pattern of negative contingency is orientation-tuned and occurs no matter whether the observer had or had not seen the favored organization in the first stimulus. This adaptation-like effect of negative contingency combines multiplicatively with a hysteresis-like effect that increases the likelihood of the just-perceived organization. Both effects are consistent with a probabilistic model in which perception depends on an orientation-tuned intrinsic bias that slowly (and stochastically) changes its orientation tuning over time.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8
Fig. 9

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. We describe the experiments of Hock et al. (1996) using a convention different from theirs.

  2. For other views on why vision might “shake up” the organization of the input, and allow for solutions that are not favored by stimulation, see Carpenter (1999) and Leopold and Logothetis (1999).

References

  • Alais D, Burr D (2004) The ventriloquist effect results from near-optimal bimodal integration. Curr Biol 14:257–262

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Barlow HB (1990) A theory about the functional role and synaptic mechanism of visual after-effects. In: Blakemore C (ed) Vision: coding and efficiency. Academic Press, New York, pp 363–375

  • Blake R, Logothetis NK (2002) Visual competition. Nat Rev Neurosci 3:13–21

    Google Scholar 

  • Borsellino A, Allazetta A, Bartolini B, Rinesi S, DeMarco A (1972) Reversal time distribution in the perception of visual ambiguous stimuli. Kybernetik 10:139–144

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Carlson VR (1953) Satiation in a reversible perspective figure. J Exp Psychol 45:442–448

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Carpenter RHS (1999) A neural mechanism that randomises behavior. J Consc Studies 6:13–22

    Google Scholar 

  • Ditzinger T, Haken H (1990) The impact of fluctuations on the recognition of ambiguous patterns. Biol Cybern 63:453–456

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Ernst MO, Banks MS (2002) Humans integrate visual and haptic information in a statistically optimal fashion. Nature 415:429–433

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Estes WK (1964) Probability learning. In: Melton AW (ed) Categories of human learning. Academic Press, New York

  • Fender D, Julesz B (1967) Extension of Panum’s fusional area in binocularly stabilized vision. J Opt Soc Am A 57:819–830

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Fisher NI (1993) Statistical analysis of circular data. Cambridge University Press, New York

  • Gallistel CR (1990) The organization of learning. MIT Press, Cambridge

  • Gepshtein S, Banks MS (2003) Viewing geometry determines how vision and touch combine in size perception. Curr Biol 13:483–488

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Ghahramani Z, Wolpert DM, Jordan MI (1997) Computational models of sensorimotor integration. In: Morasso PG, Sanguineti V (eds) Self-organization, computational maps and motor control. Elsevier, New York, pp 117–147

  • Hochberg JE (1950) Figure-ground reversal as a function of visual satiation. J Exp Psychol 40:682–686

    Google Scholar 

  • Hock HS, Kelso JAS, Schöner G (1993) Bistability and hysteresis in the organization of apparent motion patterns. J Exp Psychol Hum Percept Perform 19:63–80

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hock HS, Schöner G, Giese M (2003) The dynamical foundations of motion pattern formation: stability, selective adaptation, and perceptual continuity. Percept Psychophys 65:429–457

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hock HS, Schöner G, Hochstein S (1996) Perceptual stability and the selective adaptation of perceived and unperceived motion directions. Vision Res 36:3311–3323

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hock HS, Schöner G, Voss A (1997) The influence of adaptation and stochastic fluctuations on spontaneous perceptual changes for bistable stimuli. Percept Psychophys 59:509–522

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hupé JM, Rubin N (2003) The dynamics of bi-stable alternation in ambiguous motion displays: a fresh look at plaids. Vision Res 43:531–548

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Ittelson WH (1952) The Ames demonstrations in perception. Princeton University Press, Princeton

  • Julesz B, Chang JJ (1976) Interaction between pools of binocular disparity detectors tuned to different disparities. Biol Cybern 22:107–119

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kanizsa G, Luccio R (1995) Multistability as a research tool in experimental phenomenology. In: Kruse P, Stadler M (eds) Ambiguity in mind and nature. Springer, Berlin Heidelberg New York, pp 47–68

  • Köhler W, Wallach H (1944) Figural aftereffects; an investigation of visual processes. Proc Am Phil Soc 88:269–357

    Google Scholar 

  • Kowler E, Anton S (1987) Reading twisted text—implications for the role of saccades. Vision Res 27:45–60

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kruse P, Stadler M (eds) (1995). Ambiguity in mind and nature. Springer, Berlin Heidelberg New York

  • Kruse P, Stadler M, Wehner T (1986) Direction and frequency specific processing in the perception of long-range apparent movement. Vision Res 26:327–335

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kubovy M (1994) The perceptual organization of dot lattices. Psychon Bull Rev 1:182–190

    Google Scholar 

  • Kubovy M, Cohen DJ, Hollier J (1999) Feature integration that routinely occurs without focal attention. Psychon Bull Rev 6:183–203

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kubovy M, Holcombe AO, Wagemans J (1998) On the lawfulness of grouping by proximity. Cognit Psychol 35:71–98

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kubovy M, Wagemans J (1995) Grouping by proximity and multistability in dot lattices: a quantitative gestalt theory. Psychol Sci 6:225–234

    Google Scholar 

  • Landy MS, Kojima H (2001) Ideal cue combination for localizing texture-defined edges. J Opt Soc Am A 18:2307–2320

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Leopold DA, Logothetis NK (1999) Multistable phenomena: changing views in perception. Trends Cognit Sci 3:254–264

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Marr D (1982) Vision. Freeman, New York

  • Rock I (1975) Introduction to perception. Macmillan, New York

  • Triesch J, Ballard DH, Jacobs RA (2002) Fast temporal dynamics of visual cue integration. Perception 31:421–434

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • von Helmholtz H (1867/1962). Treatise on physiological pptics, vol III. Originally published in 1867. Dover, New York

  • von Schiller P (1933) Stroboskopische Alternativversuche. Psychol Forsch 17:179–214

    Google Scholar 

  • Williams D, Phillips G, Sekuler R (1986) Hysteresis in the perception of motion direction as evidence for neural cooperativity. Nature 324:253–255

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to H. Hock and D. R. Proffitt for valuable discussions, and to W. Epstein, H. Hock, and J. Wagemans for helpful suggestions about an early version of the manuscript.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Vision Science, University of California at Berkeley, 360 Minor Hall, Berkeley, CA 94720-2020, USA

    Sergei Gepshtein

  2. Department of Psychology, University of Virginia, P.O. Box 400400, Charlottesville, VA 22904-4400, USA

    Michael Kubovy

Authors
  1. Sergei Gepshtein
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Michael Kubovy
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Sergei Gepshtein or Michael Kubovy.

Additional information

This work was supported by NEI Grant R01 EY 12926

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Gepshtein, S., Kubovy, M. Stability and change in perception: spatial organization in temporal context. Exp Brain Res 160, 487–495 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-004-2038-3

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-004-2038-3

Keywords

Search

Navigation