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Color diversity judgments in peripheral vision: Evidence against "cost-free" representations.
Brylee Hawkins1, Dee Evans1, Anya Preston1
1Department of Psychology, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, United States of America.
Plos One
|December 30, 2022
Summary
Visual perception of color diversity is not always "cost-free" in peripheral vision. Attention significantly impacts color perception in the visual periphery, challenging the "rich" visual perception hypothesis.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Neuroscience
- Visual Perception
Background:
- The debate on whether visual perception is
- rich
- or
- sparse
- continues.
- Previous research suggested color diversity is perceived
- cost-free
- outside focal attention in central vision.
- This challenges the
- sparse
- view, implying richer peripheral representations.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate if
- cost-free
- color diversity perception extends to peripheral vision.
- To determine the role of attention in peripheral color perception.
- To assess metacognitive awareness of performance in peripheral vision.
Main Methods:
- Replicated previous findings on central vision color diversity perception.
- Conducted two experiments extending the paradigm to peripheral vision.
- Incorporated confidence judgments to assess metacognitive awareness.
Main Results:
- Color diversity perception was impaired in minimally-attended peripheral regions.
- Participants showed high metacognitive awareness of impaired peripheral performance.
- Central vision color diversity perception was confirmed as
- cost-free
- .
Conclusions:
- Color perception in peripheral vision appears partially attention-dependent.
- Findings challenge the universality of
- cost-free
- representations in peripheral vision.
- The study contributes nuanced evidence to the
- rich
- vs.
- sparse
- perception debate.
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