Earlier work on self-face processing has reported a bias in the processing of self-face result in faster response to self-face in comparison to other familiar and unfamiliar faces (termed as self-face advantage or SFA). Even though most studies agree that the SFA occurs due to an attentional bias, there is little agreement regarding the stage at which it occurs. While a large number of studies show

Chills experienced in response to music listening have been linked to both happiness and sadness expressed by music. To investigate these conflicting effects of valence on chills, we conducted a computational analysis on a corpus of 988 tracks previously reported to elicit chills, by comparing them with a control set of tracks matched by artist, duration, and popularity. We analysed track-level audio

The Colavita effect refers to the phenomenon wherein people tend to not respond to an auditory stimulus when a visual stimulus is simultaneously presented. Although previous studies have shown that endogenous modality attention influences the Colavita effect, whether the Colavita effect is influenced by endogenous spatial attention remains unknown. In the present study, we established endogenous spatial

Hermann von Helmholtz was born 200 years ago, but his influence on vision research is enduring. His legacy in vision is celebrated visually with anaglyphs that combine portraits of him with illustrations from his publications. Emphasis is directed principally to his Treatise on Physiological Optics. Among the optical instruments Helmholtz invented were the ophthalmoscope, ophthalmometer, and telestereoscope

J. J. Gibson's ground theory of space perception is contrasted with Descartes’ theory, which reduces all of space perception to the perception of distance and angular direction, relative to an abstract viewpoint. Instead, Gibson posits an embodied perceiver, grounded by gravity, in a stable layout of realistically textured, extended surfaces and more delimited objects supported by these surfaces. Gibson's

Here, we introduce and explore Scintillating Starbursts, a stimulus type made up of concentric star polygons that induce illusory scintillating rays or beams. We test experimentally which factors, such as contrast and number of vertices, modulate how observers experience this stimulus class. We explain how the illusion arises from the interplay of known visual processes, specifically central versus

Wearing a sanitary mask tended, in the main, to reduce the wearer’s sense of perceived facial attractiveness before the COVID-19 epidemic. This phenomenon, termed the sanitary-mask effect, was explained using a two-factor model involving the occlusion of cues used for the judgment of attractiveness and unhealthiness priming (e.g., presumed illness). However, these data were collected during the pre-COVID-19

Olfaction, the sense of smell, is characterized by a notable age-dependency such that aging individuals are more likely to have poor olfactory abilities. These impairments are considered to be mostly irreversible and as having potentially profound effects on quality of life and food behavior, as well as constituting warning signs of mortality, cognitive dysfunction, and dementia. Here, we review the

Corrigendum to “Smells Influence Perceived Pleasantness but Not Memorization of a Visual Virtual Environment”

For centuries, if not millennia, people have associated the basic tastes (e.g., sweet, bitter, salty, and sour) with specific colours. While the range of tastes may have changed, and the reasons for wanting to connect the senses in this rather surprising way have undoubtedly differed, there would nevertheless appear to be a surprisingly high degree of consistency regarding this crossmodal mapping among

The experience in virtual reality (VR) is unique, in that observers are in a real-world location while browsing through a virtual scene. Previous studies have investigated the effect of the virtual environment on distance estimation. However, it is unclear how the real-world environment influences distance estimation in VR. Here, we measured the distance estimation using a bisection (Experiment 1)

There are currently few ways to reliably and objectively assess olfaction outside of the research laboratory or clinic. The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the need for remote olfactory assessment; in particular, smell training at home is a promising method for olfactory rehabilitation, but further methodological advances might enhance its effectiveness and range of use. Here, we present Exerscent

We report a novel visual illusion we call the Ring Rotation Illusion (RRI). When a ring of stationary points replaces a circular outline, the ring of points appears to rotate to a halt, although no actual motion has been displayed. Three experiments evaluate the clarity of the illusory rotation. Clarity decreased as the diameter of the circle and ring increased and increased as the number of points

Wearing face masks in times of COVID-19 is one of the essential keystones for effectively decreasing the rate of new infections and thus for mitigating the negative consequences for individuals as well as for society. Acceptance of wearing masks is still low in many countries, making it extremely difficult to keep the pandemic at bay. In an experimental study, participants (N = 88) had to assess how

Pictorial art is typically viewed with two eyes, but it is not binocular in the sense that it requires two eyes to appreciate the art. Two-dimensional representational art works allude to depth that they do not contain, and a variety of stratagems is enlisted to convey the impression that surfaces on the picture plane are at different distances from the viewer. With the invention of the stereoscope

Previous studies have demonstrated that exogenous attention decreases audiovisual integration (AVI); however, whether the AVI is different when exogenous attention is elicited by bimodal and unimodal cues and its aging effect remain unclear. To clarify this matter, 20 older adults and 20 younger adults were recruited to conduct an auditory/visual discrimination task following bimodal audiovisual cues

A moving frame can dramatically displace the perceived location of stimuli flashed before and after the motion. Here, we use a moving frame to rearrange flashed elements into the form of classic illusions. Without the moving frame, the initial arrangement of the flashed elements has no illusory effect. The question is whether the frame-induced displacement of position precedes or follows the processes

We investigated the neural mechanism of the processing of three-dimensional (3D) shapes defined by disparity and perspective. We measured blood oxygenation level-dependent signals as participants viewed and classified 3D images of convex–concave shapes. According to the cue (disparity or perspective) and element type (random dots or black and white dotted lines), three types of stimuli were used: random

When observers view a perceptually bistable stimulus, their perception changes stochastically. Various studies have shown across-observer correlations in the percept durations for different bistable stimuli including binocular rivalry stimuli and bistable moving plaids. Previous work on binocular rivalry posits that neural inhibition in the visual hierarchy is a factor involved in the perceptual fluctuations

When drawing faces, people show a systematic bias of placing the eyes higher up the head than they are placed in reality. This study investigated the development of this phenomenon while removing the potential confound of drawing ability. Participants (N = 124) in three age groups (3–5 yo, 10–11 yo, and adults) reconstructed two foam faces: one from observation and one from memory. The high eye placement

Olfactory perception is malleable and easily modulated by top-down processes such as those induced by visual and verbal information. A classic example of this is olfactory illusions where the perceived pleasantness of an odor is manipulated by the valence of a verbal label that is either visually or auditorily presented together with the odor. The mechanism behind this illusion is still unknown, and

Glass patterns (GPs) have been widely employed to investigate the mechanisms underlying processing of global form from locally oriented cues. The current study aimed to psychophysically investigate the level at which global orientation is extracted from translational GPs using the tilt after-effect (TAE) and manipulating the spatiotemporal properties of the adapting pattern. We adapted participants

How do valenced odors affect the perception and evaluation of facial expressions? We reviewed 25 studies published from 1989 to 2020 on cross-modal behavioral effects of odors on the perception of faces. The results indicate that odors may influence facial evaluations and classifications in several ways. Faces are rated as more arousing during simultaneous odor exposure, and the rated valence of faces

Visual crowding, the impairment of object recognition in peripheral vision due to flanking objects, has generally been studied using simple stimuli on blank backgrounds. While crowding is widely assumed to occur in natural scenes, it has not been shown rigorously yet. Given that scene contexts can facilitate object recognition, crowding effects may be dampened in real-world scenes. Therefore, this

What makes a great bird photo? To examine this question, we collected over 20,000 photos of birds from the photo-sharing platform Instagram with their corresponding liking data. We standardized the total numbers of Likes and extracted information from the image captions. With this database, we investigated content-related image properties to see how they affect the ubiquitous online behavior of pressing

Idiopathic olfactory loss (IOL) is thought as an early marker for neurodegenerative disease. This study investigated the effect of olfactory training (OT) on regional gray matter volume (GMV) among patients with IOL. A total of 24 patients (mean age 64.6 years, 11 male) with IOL and 30 control participants with normal olfaction (mean age 62.6 years, 13 males) were included in the study. Voxel-based

Importance Olfactory deficits are common in aging and associated with several conditions linked to inflammation. A few studies suggest that increased concentration of pro-inflammatory biomarkers may be related to olfactory deficits, but these associations are understudied in population-based samples. Objective To investigate the association between serum concentrations of C-reactive protein (CRP) and

Several lines of evidence point to the existence of a visual processing advantage for horizontal over vertical orientations. We investigated whether such a horizontal advantage exists in the context of top-down visual search. Inspired by change detection studies, we created displays where a dynamic target -- a horizontal or a vertical group of five dots that changed contrast synchronously -- was embedded

When a Möbius loop is cut along the middle of the band, the result is a single connected loop, yet anecdotal evidence from science demonstrations and the use of this effect in magic tricks suggest that most people are thoroughly surprised by this because they strongly believe that the result should be two separate loops. Here, we present results from a behavioral experiment confirming this anecdotal

The present study aimed to investigate whether the perception of still scenes in a virtual environment in congruent versus incongruent condition can be influenced by odors. Ninety healthy participants were divided into three groups, including two experimental virtual reality (VR) environments: a rose garden, an orange basket, and a control condition. In each VR condition, participants were exposed

Motion detection is a fundamental sensory function for multiple modalities, including touch, but the mechanisms underlying tactile motion detection are not well understood. While previous findings supported the existence of high-level feature tracking, it remains unclear whether there also exist low-level motion sensing that directly detects a local spatio-temporal correlation in the skin-stimulation

Texts on visual perception typically begin with the following premise: Vision is an ill-posed problem, and perception is underdetermined by the available information. If this were really the case, however, it is hard to see how vision could ever get off the ground. James Gibson’s signal contribution was his hypothesis that for every perceivable property of the environment, however subtle, there must

An exception to the rule that only one color is seen at every retinotopic location happens when a bounded colored transparency or spotlight is seen on a differently colored surface. Despite the spectrum of the light from each retinotopic location being an inextricable multiplication of illumination, transmission, and reflectance spectra, we seem to be able to scission the information into background

This study explores perceptual organisation and shape perception when viewing a tetragon and an additional element (a dot) that is located at varying positions and distances next to the tetragon. The aim of the study is to determine the factors that can alter the interpretation of object configuration and impact whether the presented tetragon is perceived as a diamond or a square. Methods used in this

Interactions with talkers wearing face masks have become part of our daily routine since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Using an on-line experiment resembling a video conference, we examined the impact of face masks on speech comprehension. Typical-hearing listeners performed a speech-in-noise task while seeing talkers with visible lips, talkers wearing a surgical mask, or just the name of

The glare effect is a brightness illusion that has captured the attention of the vision community since its discovery. However, its photometrical reversal, which we refer to here as photometrical reversed glare (PRG) stimuli, remained relatively unexplored. We presented three experiments that sought to examine the perceived brightness of a target area surrounded by luminance gradients in PRG stimuli

Vision with two eyes has been commented upon for many centuries, and the principal concern has been with binocular single vision. The terminology we apply to binocular vision developed rapidly after the invention of the stereoscope in the early 19th century. The origins of terms such as anaglyph, binocular lustre, chromatic stereoscope, cyclopean eye, dichoptic, horopter, pseudoscope, rivalry, stereoscope

In nature, sensory and physical characteristics of the environment tend to match; for example, a surface that looks bumpy is bumpy. In human-built environments, they often don’t. Here, we report observations from people exploring if mismatch between visual and physical characteristics affected their perceived walking experience. Participants walked across four flat floors, each comprising of a visual

The popularity of watching movies and videos on handheld devices is rising, yet little attention has been paid to its impact on viewer behaviour. Smartphone spectatorship is characterized by the small handheld screen as well as the viewing environment where various unrelated stimuli can occur, providing possible distractions from viewing. Previous research suggests that screen size, handheld control

Sometimes, we do not notice big changes in our environment, if these changes occur while we perform eye movements or external events interrupt our perception. This striking phenomenon is known as “change blindness.” Research on chimpanzees, macaques, and pigeons suggests that change blindness may not be unique to humans, but our understanding is limited by the difficulty of carrying out change blindness

The temporal binding window (TBW), which reflects the range of temporal offsets in which audiovisual stimuli are combined to form a singular percept, can be reduced through training. Our research aimed to investigate whether training-induced reductions in TBW size transfer across stimulus intensities. A total of 32 observers performed simultaneity judgements at two visual intensities with a fixed auditory

A number of virtual reality head-mounted displays (HMDs) with integrated eye trackers have recently become commercially available. If their eye tracking latency is low and reliable enough for gaze-contingent rendering, this may open up many interesting opportunities for researchers. We measured eye tracking latencies for the Fove-0, the Varjo VR-1, and the High Tech Computer Corporation (HTC) Vive

Ambient smell has long been a feature of live performance, no matter whether its presence was intentional or not. While, once upon a time, the incidental presence of malodour was an inevitable feature of proceedings, the deliberate use of scent can actually be traced all the way back to the earliest rituals. This review attempts to trace the long history of scent’s use in processions, pageants, and

In 1979, James Gibson completed his third and final book “The Ecological Approach to Visual Perception”. That book can be seen as the synthesis of the many radical ideas he proposed over the previous 30 years – the concept of information and its sufficiency, the necessary link between perception and action, the need to see perception in relation to an animal's particular ecological niche and the meanings

The use of oral contraceptives (OC) in the form of a hormonal pill has been widespread for decades. Despite its popularity and long-time use, there is still much ambiguity and anecdotal reports about a range of potential side effects. Here, we addressed the potential effect of OC use on chemosensory perception. Previous research has almost exclusively focused on olfaction, but we expanded this to the

The square–diamond illusion is often referred to as a type of size illusion. However, the 45-degree tilting of a square remarkably affects perceived corner angles when a cube version of the figure is used. This illusion is measured and discussed in relation to anisotropy in shape interpretation.

Although most people are not aware of it, bias can occur when interpreting graphs. Within-the-bar bias describes a misinterpretation of the distribution of data underlying bar graphs that indicate an average or where the average estimation point moves inside the bar when the average of several graphs is estimated. This study proposes and tests two methods based on information processing to reduce within-the-bar

Attentional processes play a complex and multifaceted role in the integration of input from different sensory modalities. However, whether increased attentional load disrupts the audiovisual (AV) integration of common objects that involve semantic content remains unclear. Furthermore, knowledge regarding how semantic congruency interacts with attentional load to influence the AV integration of common

We describe a new illusory speed effect arising in visual events developed by Michotte (1946/1963) in studies of causal perception and, more specifically, within the so-called intentional reaction effect: When an Object B is seen intentionally escaping from another Object A, its perceived speed is overestimated. In Experiment 1, we used two-alternative forced choice comparisons to estimate perceived

This study examined the effect of character sample density on legibility. As the spatial frequency component important for character recognition is said to be 1 to 3 cycles/letter (cpl), six dots in each direction should be sufficient to represent a character; however, some studies have reported that high-density characters are more legible. Considering that these seemingly contradictory findings could

Perceiving the shape of three-dimensional objects is essential for interacting with them in daily life. If objects are constructed from different materials, can the human visual system accurately estimate their three-dimensional shape? We varied the thickness, motion, opacity, and specularity of globally convex objects rendered in a photorealistic environment. These objects were presented under either

It is well known that the perceived duration for a given time period decreases with the reduction of the number of perceived events. We examined whether target detection failures in viewing Rapid Serial Visual Presentation (RSVP) sequence, caused by attentional blink, affect this reduction of perceived duration. In two experiments, trials consisted of displays of two series of RSVP sequences; in the

A gray target can appear lighter or darker depending on its surrounding spatial context. We examined the effect of exposure time on three such examples (simultaneous lightness contrast, dungeon illusion, and the two-room arrangement), finding very different results with exposure time as brief as 15 ms: the simultaneous lightness contrast was much stronger, the effect of the dungeon illusion was reversed

In this Methods article, we discuss and illustrate a unifying, principled way to analyze response time data from psychological experiments—and all other types of time-to-event data. We advocate the general application of discrete-time event history analysis (EHA) which is a well-established, intuitive longitudinal approach to statistically describe and model the shape of time-to-event distributions

Investigations of the “fat-face” illusion have unanimously agreed that the illusion is face-specific. Here, we offer several manipulations to highlight that the fat-face illusion is not restricted to the bottom image, isn’t a property of internal features, facial contour/texture, and in general isn’t even specific to faces. We propose the axis of horizontal asymmetry account to contextualize fat-face

We investigated perceived timing in auditory rate perception using a reproduction task. The study aimed to test (a) whether central tendency occurs in rate perception, as shown for interval timing, and (b) whether rate is perceived independently on each trial or shows a serial dependence, as shown for other perceptual attributes. Participants were well able to indicate perceived rate as reproduced

Chemical intolerance is a surprisingly prevalent condition or affliction characterized by adverse reactions to low levels of chemical, often odorous stimulation. Sufferers often assume that their plight is due to an uncommon sensory acuteness, yet studies repeatedly fail to reveal altered detection thresholds. Here, we investigated whether self-reported chemical intolerance is associated with altered

Age-related audio-visual integration (AVI) has been investigated extensively; however, AVI ability is either enhanced or reduced with ageing, and this matter is still controversial because of the lack of systematic investigations. To remove possible variates, 26 older adults and 26 younger adults were recruited to conduct meaningless and semantic audio-visual discrimination tasks to assess the ageing

In the human visual environment, the ability to perceive only relevant duration is important for various activities. However, a relatively small number of studies have investigated how humans process multiple durations, in comparison with the processing of one or two durations. We investigated the effects of multiple irrelevant durations on the perception of relevant duration. In four behavioral experiments

Eye contact is essential for social cognition, acting as an important tool for social communication. While differences in face scanning patterns concerning familiarity have been thoroughly investigated, the impact of facial similarity on gaze behavior has not been examined yet. We addressed this topic by recording subjects’ eye-directed gazing while looking at faces that were individually created systematically