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Flicker flutter: is an illusory event as good as the real thing?
Tracey D Berger1, Marialuisa Martelli, Denis G Pelli
1Psychology and Neural Science, New York University, New York, NY, USA. t-berger2006@law.northwestern.edu
Journal of Vision
|August 7, 2003
Summary
Perceptual events, not actual stimuli, dictate performance. Objective task results depend on how many events are perceived, regardless of sensory input.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive psychology
- Visual perception
- Auditory perception
Background:
- Grouping objects can reduce perceived quantity and objective performance.
- Auditory stimuli can influence visual perception, making one flash appear as multiple.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate if objective performance in orientation discrimination tasks is influenced by the perceived number of flashes.
- To determine if the unit of perceptual analysis is a perceived event, irrespective of its sensory origin.
Main Methods:
- An orientation-discrimination task was employed.
- Stimuli involved varying numbers of actual flashes and beeps.
- Participants' performance was measured objectively.
Main Results:
- Objective orientation-discrimination performance was directly correlated with the perceived number of flashes.
- Performance was independent of the actual number of beeps presented.
- Performance was independent of the actual number of flashes presented when perceived number differed.
Conclusions:
- The findings suggest that the perceived number of events, rather than the objective count of stimuli, governs perceptual performance.
- The unit of perceptual analysis appears to be a perceived event, regardless of whether it is induced by visual or auditory stimuli.
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