Limits for Binding Visual Information

Ceja, Cristina Renee

doi:https://doi.org/10.21985/n2-vca9-sd82

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Limits for Binding Visual Information

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Visual processing often requires the coordination of different neurophysiological regions in the visual system to independently represent and then re-integrate the different features of an object to gain an accurate and coherent representation of that object. Yet, under certain circumstances, this process can go awry and result in illusory misbindings, where features are inaccurately bound to their respective objects. Through a psychophysical approach, I conducted a series of studies exploring which factors and mechanisms can limit the visual system in accurately representing object features and their locations in space during this binding process. In other words, when and why might these features be incorrectly bound together as illusory misbindings? Study 1 explored the potential role of selective spatial attention in influencing the bindings of even simple color-and-location information. I used a novel paradigm that showcases a robust color-location misbinding illusion where colors are consistently misperceived at locations closer to fovea (Experiment 1.1), potentially due to a lack of focal attention to the relevant objects (Experiment 1.2). In Study 2, I then investigated two mechanisms, foveal processing and attentional noise, that might work in tandem to promote this directional misbinding (Experiment 2.1) and determined that these mechanisms can even function independently of one another to bias the localization of object features (Experiment 2.2). This work promotes the importance of studying why and when illusory misbindings occur as it can allow us to make inferences about how the visual system filters through the extraneous information in our environment and combines features of an object, as these illusory misbindings are a necessary consequence of the structure of our visual system.

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