To Smooth or not to Smooth: Investigating the Role of Serial Dependence in Stabilizing Visual Perception
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2016-01-25
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en
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Visual input is often noisy and discontinuous due to blinks, saccades, movements and many
other factors. Yet visual perception is characterized by remarkable stability. A mechanism
that has been proposed to mediate such perceptual stability is serial dependence (Fischer
& Whitney, 2014). By using both previous and current input to generate a percept at the
current moment, the brain could capitalize on the stability of the physical environment
in order to stabilize perception. In the current study, we investigated two potential
properties of serial dependence, which would further support its proposed role in mediating
perceptual stability. First, we investigated whether serial dependence selectively stabilizes
percepts of the same object and ceases when a di erent object is perceived. Second, we
investigated whether the degree to which the visual system leverages previous input to
stabilize perception depends on the sensory uncertainty associated with previous and
current input. Probing serial dependence in orientation perception, we found no evidence
for object selectivity and only partial evidence for a sensible weighting of previous and
current input according to sensory uncertainty { serial dependence was stronger when the
uncertainty associated with the current stimulus was high, especially when the uncertainty
associated with the previous stimulus was also high. Unexpectedly, we discovered an
intriguing temporal dynamic of serial dependence: while the current percept was biased
towards very recent input ( 4 seconds ago), it was biased away from more remote input
(15 to 40 seconds ago), possibly mirroring temporal dynamics of the physical environment.
We conclude, that serial dependence could in principle serve to stabilize perception, but
appears to lack properties which would allow to do so in an optimal manner.
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Faculteit der Sociale Wetenschappen