Clarity, A Simple Perception
Although our stimuli were different in terms of the noise structure and, importantly, the random location of the face within the image frame [ 13 , 20 , 97 ], the idea of internal expectation both in terms of frequency and particular spatial structure having an influence on the decision is consistent with the current data. This activity outside visual cortex is also correlated to the degree of delusional belief in the particular stimulus properties which in turn affect the percept of an otherwise ambiguous rotating stimulus [ 20 ].
These results further support the suggestion that personality may well have an opportunity to alter or enhance the resultant percept, particularly when the stimulus itself does not facilitate a clear decision. The principal result of this work is that the likelihood of a given individual to see meaning in a noisy image is measurably related to their personality.
The particular novelty of the current result is that we have shown that this individual difference is a not a product of suggestibility, but a genuine and consistent bias in some people toward saying a stimulus is present when there is only noise. This bias is correlated to a reduced sensitivity to the actual presence of a noisy stimulus leading to the suggestion that this mistaken perception of meaning is the product of a noisier system and the measurable consequence of a false correlation of that noise at an early stage in the system.
We further suggest that this may provide the basis for the development of an hallucination, and may also explain why some abstract art can be so compelling for some, and yet leave others cold. National Center for Biotechnology Information , U. Published online Mar 8. The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
Received Jan 10; Accepted Feb This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. This article has been cited by other articles in PMC. Introduction Like all human abilities and traits, there are individual differences in visual perception. Individual differences in perception The visual system is predisposed to extract meaning, often from stimuli containing substantial amounts of uncertainty; indeed one could argue that is its primary role.
Schizotypy and perception From a more generalised perspective, psychometric scales of personality have long been thought to influence aspects of perception which, in turn, influences behaviour [ 32 ]. The current study From a task-driven perspective, while much previous work used artificial stimuli and subjective judgements open to suggestibility [ 58 , 59 ], the two experiments presented here outline the development and use of a more ecologically valid and controlled visual stimulus in a signal-detection task paradigm, allowing us to more confidently attribute performance to perceptual differences between individuals see also [ 28 , 31 , 48 ].
General Methods Two experiments will be reported here, both examine the interaction between personality and perception. Psychophysical tasks and equipment All image manipulation, coding, and presentation of experiments was carried out using the Matlab computer language [ 71 ] and the Psychophysics Toolbox [ 72 ]. Image generation—general Monochrome pictures were combined with artificially generated two-dimensional noise to create visually degraded images. Open in a separate window. Approach to the data and analysis In this work we are interested in how different aspects of personality affect performance on the psychophysical tasks.
Focus on the facts
Image generation specifics Eight photographs of natural scenes e. Signal detection theory specifics Detailed responses to the RDT e. Results and Interim Discussion Descriptive statistics Scores on the questionnaire measures are summarised in Table 1 , and are all comparable to reported norms for these psychometrics [ 69 , 70 , 84 , 85 ]. Table 1 Summary statistics untransformed for the questionnaire measures used in Experiment 1. Table 2 Correlations between questionnaire measures and performance on the two visual tasks used in Experiment 1.
The effect of personality on visual false alarms Four blockwise hierarchical linear regression analyses, predicting the complex and simple false alarm rates on the RDT and the POM , were conducted. The effect of spatial frequency-band on visual false alarms The final analysis was concerned with investigating the effect of positive-psychotic schizotypy on the complex false alarm rates on the POM across the different spatial frequency bands. Schematic diagram of the presentation sequence for a single trial during the Perception Of Meaning task used in Experiment 2.
Results and Interim Discussion Descriptive statistics Brief demographics and schizotypy scores for the three experimental expectation groups are summarised in Table 4. Reaction times to respond to the Perception Of Meaning task in Experiment 2. The effect of personality on POM performance To assess the effects of schizotypy and expectations on POM performance, four blockwise hierarchical linear regression analyses were conducted.
Mean performance on the Perception Of Meaning task in Experiment 2. Performance across the different expectation conditions, collapsed across spatial frequency, in the Perception Of Meaning task. The effect of spatial frequency-band on POM performance Finally, the role of spatial frequency on POM performance for individuals scoring below and above the median on positive-psychotic schizotypy collapsed across the three expectation conditions was examined.
Performance across the different spatial frequency brackets, collapsed across expectation, of the Perception Of Meaning task. Conclusions The principal result of this work is that the likelihood of a given individual to see meaning in a noisy image is measurably related to their personality. Supporting Information S1 Appendix File containing details for the 2x2 Anova illustrated in Fig 2 , and Bayesian Analysis of the critical data presented in the manuscript. DOCX Click here for additional data file.
S1 Dataset Raw data and figures in manuscript.
XLSX Click here for additional data file. Funding Statement The authors received no specific funding for this work. Data Availability All relevant data are within the paper and its Supporting Information files. Cropper SJ Nature makes abstract art more captivating.
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Visual Perception Theory
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Personality and Individual Differences 7: Effects of lateral stimulation and the observer's belief in ESP. Tsakanikos E and Reed P Seeing words that are not there: Br J Clin Psychol McCullough C Color adaptation of edge-detectors in the human visual system. Behrendt R and Young C Hallucinations in schizophrenia, sensory impairment, and brain disease: Behavioral and Brain Sciences A review of structural and functional neuroimaging studies of hallucinations.
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Radiation in a Cloudy Atmosphere. Field DJ Relations between the statistics of natural images and the response properties of cortical cells. Olshausen B and Field D Sparse coding with an overcomplete basis set: Annu Rev Neurosci Simoncelli EP Seeing patterns in the noise. Trends Cogn Sci 7: Field DJ and Brady N Visual sensitivity, blur and the sources of variability in the amplitude spectra of natural scenes. It launched worldwide on Saturday, January 10th to rave reviews. To support the launch I wanted to address a key Principle from the book: Simple Clarity is the ability to describe your business and what makes it unique in ten words or less.
Innovation is the great disrupter of Simple Clarity. It wreaks havoc on marketing messages and brand positioning, because innovation at its very core is disruptive. This is the dilemma that many growing companies face. They are challenging the status quo. They are finding new and better ways to serve their customers.
But packaging that story is a daunting challenge. Simple Clarity is often easier for mature services and commodities to establish, because their industry has already been defined. Try to explain your innovations and what makes them unique as directly as possible. Avoid the desire to be creative or catchy.
In , Thomas Sanocki and Noah Sulman conducted an experiment on color relations in order to gauge the impact of color on the visual short-term memory. Four sets of trials were carried out using both harmonious and disharmonious color palettes. In each trial, observers were presented with two sets of color patterns and asked to compare them. Observers were also expected to rate whether the pattern was harmonious.
Binocular rivalry occurs when our eyes see two different images in the same location. One image dominates while the other is suppressed. The dominance alternates periodically, so rather than seeing a single combination of both visuals at all times, we experience the alternation of the images over time as the two visuals compete for visual dominance. Thomas Vaughan, and Nancy Kanwisher observed this phenomenon first-hand. In their experiment, four participants were shown, through red-green filter glasses, an image of a face and a house in an organized set. Each eye was set to see one specific image at a time.
The visual-selective responses of observers were monitored using functional magnetic resonance imaging fMRI. In two different studies, participants were divided into separate groups and given 20 minutes to read a typeset issue of a magazine The New Yorker on a tablet device.
One of the groups was presented with a badly typeset version, while the other group was presented with a properly typeset version. During the session, participants were interrupted and asked to estimate the amount of time they thought had passed since experiment began. Why are we able to understand visuals more thoroughly than text? As humans, we have the ability to gather context based on what we see. When we fix our eyes on something, we have the ability to form an understanding of the environment and recognize the meaning of a scene.
According to Ronald A. It includes not only the perception of individual objects, but also things like their relative locations and expectations about what other kinds of objects might be encountered. In , Monica S.