Assessing perceptual change with an ambiguous figures task: Normative data for 40 standard picture sets

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Neuroscience
• Computer Vision

Background:

• Gradually morphing pictures are valuable tools for studying perceptual ambiguity in various research fields.
• Existing stimulus sets are limited in number and vary significantly in quality and perceptual complexity.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce a novel set of 40 morphing picture series with accompanying normative data.
• To provide researchers with high-quality, perceptually complex visual stimuli for studying object recognition and decision-making.

Main Methods:

• Generated 40 series of morphing pictures, each progressing through 15 iterations.
• Line drawings of common objects were morphed into different objects within or across animate/inanimate categories.
• Collected normative naming data for each morphing picture series.

Main Results:

• Successfully created 40 distinct morphing picture series.
• The series include transformations both within and between animate and inanimate object categories.
• Normative naming data provides a baseline for perceptual interpretation.

Conclusions:

• The presented morphing picture sets and normative data offer a valuable resource for cognitive and neuroscience research.
• These stimuli can be applied to investigate a wide array of research questions, including perceptual processing and decision-making.
• The dataset enhances the toolkit for studying visual perception under conditions of ambiguity.