Even while viewing a constant visual scene, different objects and organizations come to dominate visual awareness, often spontaneously. These """"""""perceptual switches"""""""" that spontaneously activate alternative scene interpretations are important because they allow detection of behaviorally significant information which may not be predictable or initially salient and may exist at any level of organization. The literature on binocular rivalry (a paradigm commonly used to study perceptual switches) suggests that perceptual switches are mediated by multi-stage neural competition involving component processes such as signal transduction, adaptation, inhibitory interactions, stochastic noise, non-linearity (e.g., a threshold), and response synchronization. Collective action of these processes controls perceptual switches, and the current dynamic models provide a plausible computational framework for integrating the component processes. However, research has overlooked some key aspects of perceptual switches. Prominently, no attempts have been made to experimentally measure the component processes to determine how their actual (as opposed to hypothesized) properties predict the dynamics of perceptual switches. Without this knowledge, it would be impossible to specify the sources of the substantial individual differences and plasticity observed in the dynamics of perceptual switches. Further, in spite of growing evidence that multi-level processes are involved, little data exist regarding how neural competition at multiple processing stages interactively controls perceptual switches. Our basic strategy will be to psychophysically and electrophysiologically measure the component processes operating at different processing stages, determine how each component process contributes to perceptual switches, and use this information to revise the current models. The advanced models will predict the dynamics of perceptual switches for each individual on the basis of his or her measured component processes. The results will also specify the sources of the unexplained variability in the dynamics of perceptual switches, including individual differences, plasticity, percept-to-percept variability, and effects of intention. Unusually slow or fast perceptual switches may be associated with disorders characterized by perseveration or distractability. Our results may thus facilitate development of effective treatments by tracing the sources of unusual perceptual dynamics to specific component processes.
| Skogsberg, KatieAnn; Grabowecky, Marcia; Wilt, Joshua et al. (2015) A relational structure of voluntary visual-attention abilities. J Exp Psychol Hum Percept Perform 41:761-89 |
| List, Alexandra; Iordanescu, Lucica; Grabowecky, Marcia et al. (2014) Haptic guidance of overt visual attention. Atten Percept Psychophys 76:2221-8 |
| Plass, John; Guzman-Martinez, Emmanuel; Ortega, Laura et al. (2014) Lip reading without awareness. Psychol Sci 25:1835-7 |
| Ortega, Laura; Guzman-Martinez, Emmanuel; Grabowecky, Marcia et al. (2014) Audition dominates vision in duration perception irrespective of salience, attention, and temporal discriminability. Atten Percept Psychophys 76:1485-502 |
| Mossbridge, Julia A; Grabowecky, Marcia; Paller, Ken A et al. (2013) Neural activity tied to reading predicts individual differences in extended-text comprehension. Front Hum Neurosci 7:655 |
| Mossbridge, Julia A; Grabowecky, Marcia; Suzuki, Satoru (2013) Seeing the song: left auditory structures may track auditory-visual dynamic alignment. PLoS One 8:e77201 |
| List, Alexandra; Grabowecky, Marcia; Suzuki, Satoru (2013) Local and global level-priming occurs for hierarchical stimuli composed of outlined, but not filled-in, elements. J Vis 13: |
| Iordanescu, Lucica; Grabowecky, Marcia; Suzuki, Satoru (2013) Action enhances auditory but not visual temporal sensitivity. Psychon Bull Rev 20:108-14 |
| Sherman, Aleksandra; Grabowecky, Marcia; Suzuki, Satoru (2013) Auditory rhythms are systemically associated with spatial-frequency and density information in visual scenes. Psychon Bull Rev 20:740-6 |
| Guzman-Martinez, Emmanuel; Ortega, Laura; Grabowecky, Marcia et al. (2012) Interactive coding of visual spatial frequency and auditory amplitude-modulation rate. Curr Biol 22:383-8 |
Showing the most recent 10 out of 28 publications
