Emergent features in the crowding zone: When target-flanker grouping surmounts crowding

Area of Science:

• Visual perception
• Cognitive psychology
• Neuroscience

Background:

• Crowding impairs target identification, typically worsening with proximity and grouping of flankers.
• Previous research suggests close, grouped flankers increase crowding effects.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate how target-flanker configurations influence crowding.
• To examine if strong grouping and emergent features can reduce crowding and improve performance.

Main Methods:

• Presented a chevron target with four flankers at 8° eccentricity.
• Varied the distance and orientation of a critical flanker (CF) relative to the target.
• Manipulated stimulus synchronicity and required participants to identify targets or report configurations.

Main Results:

• Target identification performance was highly dependent on CF distance and orientation.
• Close CFs that formed good configurations with the target, eliciting emergent features, improved performance.
• Asynchronous presentation abolished the performance benefits, indicating grouping is crucial.
• Performance decreased with spacing for different target-CF configurations but not for identical ones.

Conclusions:

• Emergent features from target-flanker configurations significantly modulate crowding.
• Contrary to typical findings, strong target-flanker grouping can enhance visual performance under specific conditions.
• Grouping processes have distinct spatial extents influencing crowding and performance.