Mean orientation discrimination based on proximal stimuli.

Ensemble perception refers to the ability to accurately and rapidly perceive summary statistical representations of specific features from a group of similar objects. However, the specific type of representation involved in this perception within a three-dimensional (3-D) environment remains unclear. In the context of perspective viewing with stereopsis, distal stimuli can be projected onto the retina as different forms of proximal stimuli based on their distances, despite sharing similar properties, such as object size and spatial frequency.

Consciousness influences the enhancement of visual statistical learning in Zipfian distributions.

It has been reported that visual statistical learning (VSL) is facilitated in skewed distributions. However, it remains unclear whether enhancement of VSL in Zipfian distributions is due to consciousness of the regularities presented at high frequency. This study addressed this issue.

Restriction of orientation variability and spatial frequency on the perception of average orientation.

During the observation of a single object, orientation and spatial frequency are jointly coded in an early stage of visual processing, as is evident from studies on the aftereffects of specific combinations of both these features. However, they become independent in the decision-making stage because observers can identify one feature while ignoring the other. Does this separability expand into the perception of ensemble representations? This study investigated the effect of the spatial frequencies of Gabor patches on orientation averaging.

Diversity in Psychological Research Activities: Quantitative Approach With Topic Modeling.

Recent cultural studies have discussed universality and diversity in human behavior using numerous samples investigated worldwide. We aimed to quantitatively extend this discussion to various research activities in psychology in terms of geographic regions and time trends. Most psychology departments have specialists in various fields of psychology.

The effect of visual distractors on visual working memory for surface roughness in the human brain.

Research has confirmed that the visual working memory representation of objects' roughness is robust against illumination changes in the human ventral visual cortex and intraparietal sulcus, but not yet against visual distractors during memory maintenance. Thus, this study investigated the effects of visual distractors on roughness-related brain regions during the maintenance phase using multi-voxel pattern analysis (MVPA). We conducted an fMRI experiment in which participants were asked to memorize a sphere's roughness against visual distractors, presented during the delay period in random trials.

Wisdom of crowds and collective decision-making in a survival situation with complex information integration.

Background: The wisdom of crowds and collective decision-making are important tools for integrating information between individuals, which can exceed the capacity of individual judgments. They are based on different forms of information integration. The wisdom of crowds refers to the aggregation of many independent judgments without deliberation and consensus, while collective decision-making is aggregation with deliberation and consensus.

Functional difference between the ventral visual cortex and the intraparietal sulcus in visual working memory of material properties.

A recent study showed that objects' roughness (smooth or rough) was held in visual working memory (VWM) in the ventral visual cortex and the intraparietal sulcus (IPS). Here, we investigated the functional differences between these areas in the context of VWM of material properties. We focused on the process in which participants accurately extracted and maintained in their memories the glossiness and roughness of a sphere.

The limited contribution of early visual cortex in visual working memory for surface roughness.

Are visual representations in the human early visual cortex necessary for visual working memory (VWM)? Previous studies suggest that VWM is underpinned by distributed representations across several brain regions, including the early visual cortex. Notably, in these studies, participants had to memorize images under consistent visual conditions. However, in our daily lives, we must retain the essential visual properties of objects despite changes in illumination or viewpoint.

Association between synesthetic colors and sensitivity to physical colors changed by type of synesthetic experience in grapheme-color synesthesia.

Grapheme-color synesthesia is a condition in which visual perception of letters induces simultaneous perception of a specific color. Previous studies indicate that grapheme-color synesthetes are more sensitive to physical colors than non-synesthetes. Synesthetic colors are found to be concentrated in multiple regions of the color space, forming "synesthetic color clusters".

Neural Mechanisms of Memory Enhancement and Impairment Induced by Visual Statistical Learning.

Prior research has reported that the medial temporal, parietal, and frontal brain regions are associated with visual statistical learning (VSL). However, the neural mechanisms involved in both memory enhancement and impairment induced by VSL remain unknown. In this study, we examined this issue using event-related fMRI.

Neural correlates of visual short-term memory for objects with material categories.

Behavioral and neuroscience studies have shown that we can easily identify material categories, such as metal and fabric. Not only the early visual areas but also higher-order visual areas including the fusiform gyrus are known to be engaged in material perception. However, the brain mechanisms underlying visual short-term memory (VSTM) for material categories are unknown.

Robust color-shape binding representations for multiple objects in visual working memory.

The nature of feature-bound object representations in visual working memory (VWM) remains unclear. Many studies claim that they are held by a resource-limited system and are fragile. Using a novel paradigm called the redundant feature reviewing task, the current study showed that color-shape binding representations for multiple objects are maintained and matched with perceptual representation in a robust fashion in VWM.

Gradual formation of visual working memory representations of motion directions.

Although it is well accepted that the formation of visual working memory (VWM) representations from simple static features is a rapid and effortless process that completes within several hundred milliseconds, the storage of motion information in VWM within that time scale can be challenging due to the limited processing capacity of the visual system. Memory formation can also be demanding especially when motion stimuli are visually complex. Here, we investigated whether the formation of VWM representations of motion direction is more gradual than that of static orientation and examined the effects of stimulus complexity on that process.

Constancy of visual working memory of glossiness under real-world illuminations.

Glossiness is a surface property of material that is useful for recognizing objects and spaces. For glossiness to be effective across situations, our visual system must be unaffected by viewing contexts, such as lighting conditions. Although glossiness perception has constancy across changes in illumination, whether visual working memory also realizes glossiness constancy is not known.

[Feature Integration in Visual Working Memory].

This article reviews studies on feature integration in visual working memory, which is critical for various cognitive activities using visual information. Studies involving change detection and multiple object tracking tasks reported that feature-integrated object representations are successfully maintained, and that the parietal cortex plays a major role. Subsequent studies that involved explicit tasks on feature combination, such as feature swap detection and multiple object permanence tracking, revealed the role of the prefrontal cortex, but it remains equivocal whether visual working memory holds feature-integrated object representations.

Open monitoring meditation reduces the involvement of brain regions related to memory function.

Mindfulness meditation consists of focused attention meditation (FAM) and open monitoring meditation (OMM), both of which reduce activation of the default mode network (DMN) and mind-wandering. Although it is known that FAM requires intentional focused attention, the mechanisms of OMM remain largely unknown. To investigate this, we examined striatal functional connectivity in 17 experienced meditators (mean total practice hours = 920.

Pavlovian reward learning elicits attentional capture by reward-associated stimuli.

Feature-reward association elicits value-driven attentional capture (VDAC) regardless of the task relevance of associated features. What are the necessary conditions for feature-reward associations in VDAC? Recent studies claim that VDAC is based on Pavlovian conditioning. In this study, we manipulated the temporal relationships among feature, response, and reward in reward learning to elucidate the necessary components of VDAC.

Beyond the subjective experience of colour: An experimental case study of grapheme-texture synesthesia.

This study was a case investigation of grapheme-texture synestheste TH, a female who subjectively reported experiencing a visual association between grapheme and colour/texture. First, we validated the existence of a synesthetic association in an objective manner. Involuntarily elicited experience is a major hallmark that is common to different types of synesthetes.

Neural correlates of implicit knowledge about statistical regularities.

In this study, we examined the neural correlates of implicit knowledge about statistical regularities of temporal order and item chunks using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). In a familiarization scan, participants viewed a stream of scenes consisting of structured (i.e.

Multilevel analysis of individual differences in regularities of grapheme-color associations in synesthesia.

Grapheme-color synesthesia is a neurological phenomenon where visual perception of letters and numbers stimulates perception of a specific color. Grapheme-color correspondences have been shown to be systematically associated with grapheme properties, including visual shape difference, ordinality, and frequency. However, the contributions of grapheme factors differ across individuals.

Cultural Differences in Visual Search for Geometric Figures.

While some studies suggest cultural differences in visual processing, others do not, possibly because the complexity of their tasks draws upon high-level factors that could obscure such effects. To control for this, we examined cultural differences in visual search for geometric figures, a relatively simple task for which the underlying mechanisms are reasonably well known. We replicated earlier results showing that North Americans had a reliable search asymmetry for line length: Search for long among short lines was faster than vice versa.

Task-relevant information is prioritized in spatiotemporal contextual cueing.

Implicit learning of visual contexts facilitates search performance-a phenomenon known as contextual cueing; however, little is known about contextual cueing under situations in which multidimensional regularities exist simultaneously. In everyday vision, different information, such as object identity and location, appears simultaneously and interacts with each other. We tested the hypothesis that, in contextual cueing, when multiple regularities are present, the regularities that are most relevant to our behavioral goals would be prioritized.

Database of synesthetic color associations for Japanese kanji.

Synesthesia is a neurological phenomenon in which certain types of stimuli elicit involuntary perceptions in an unrelated pathway. A common type of synesthesia is grapheme-color synesthesia, in which the visual perception of letters and numbers stimulates the perception of a specific color. Previous studies have often collected relatively small numbers of grapheme-color associations per synesthete, but the accumulation of a large quantity of data has greater promise for uncovering the mechanisms underlying synesthetic association.