Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance

Flexible use of facial features supports face identity processing.
People prioritize diagnostic features in classification tasks. However, it is not clear whether this priority is fixed or is flexibly applied depending on the specific classification decision, or how feature use behavior contributes to individual differences in performance. Here we examined whether flexibility in features used in a face identification task supports face recognition ability. In Experiment 1, we show that the facial features most useful for identification vary—to a surprising degree—depending on the specific face identity comparison at hand. While the ears and eyes were the most diagnostic for face identification in general, they were the most diagnostic feature for just 22% and 14% of identity decisions, respectively. In three subsequent experiments, we find that flexibility in feature use contributes to an individual’s face identity matching ability. Higher face identification accuracy was associated with being aware of (Experiments 2 and 4) and attending to (Experiments 3 and 4) the most diagnostic features for a specific facial comparison. This conferred an enhanced benefit relative to focusing on features that were diagnostic of face identity decisions in general (Experiment 4). We conclude that adaptability in information sampling supports face recognition ability and discuss theoretical and applied implications. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved)
Integrated encoding of relations and objects in visual working memory.
Comprehensive understanding of visual scenes necessitates grasping the relations among visual objects. Given the potentially pivotal role of visual working memory (VWM) in processing visual relations, it is important to investigate the representation of relations in VWM. In our previous study, we proposed the integrated storage hypothesis, postulating that relations and objects are stored together as an integrated structured representation in VWM. The present study aimed to test this hypothesis against the alternative separate encoding hypothesis by probing the irrelevant-distracting effect. Across three experiments, where participants memorized object shapes/colors while disregarding relations, an irrelevant-distracting effect was consistently observed across varying types of changes in relation and set sizes. Critically, recombining the probe with irrelevant relation from another memory item (Experiment 2) or reversing the relational roles of probed objects relative to the memory item (Experiment 3) were perceived as inconsistency with stored representations and impaired change detection. These findings supported the integrated storage hypothesis, indicating that the dynamic relations between the objects are automatically encoded alongside object identities to form an integrated structured representation. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved)
Approach versus avoidance and the polarity principle—On an unrecognized ambiguity of the approach/avoidance paradigm.
The present study examined the role of polarity correspondence (Proctor & Cho, 2006) in the approach/avoidance task. It was hypothesized that the typically found approach/avoidance effect could (at least in part) be explained by matching polarities of the stimuli and the response alternatives. To test this hypothesis, polarity of the stimuli was manipulated in three experiments. Experiment 1 showed that two neutral categories elicited an approach/avoidance asymmetry similar to that typically found for positive and negative stimuli when the categorization of stimuli was framed as “yes (Category A)” versus “no (not Category A).” This pattern is explained by assuming a polarity match between the “yes” category and the approach response. Experiment 2 used positive (flowers) versus negative (insects) categories. In a control condition, a typical compatibility effect was found (i.e., positive [negative] items relatively facilitated approach [avoidance]). However, when the task consisted of categorizing insects as the + polarity (“yes, insect” vs. “no, no insect”), the compatibility effect reversed; it was significantly increased when flowers were the “yes” category. In Experiment 3, polarity of positive/negative stimuli (flowers/insects) was manipulated prior to completion of a standard approach/avoidance task with flowers and insects as stimuli. Approximately the same pattern of results (albeit less pronounced) was found as in Experiment 2. The results suggest that results with the approach/avoidance task interpreted in terms of valence or motivational relevance may be (partly) due to polarity differences. This should be taken into account if these effects are routinely interpreted in terms of valence or motivational relevance. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved)
My turn or yours? Me-you-distinction in feature-based action planning.
Binding accounts propose that action planning involves temporarily binding codes of the action’s unique features, such as its location and duration. Such binding becomes evident when another action (B) is initiated while maintaining the Action Plan A. Action B is usually impaired if it partially overlaps with the planned Action A (as opposed to full or no feature overlap). In Experiment 1, in which participants bimanually operated two keys, we replicated these partial overlap costs. In Experiment 2, two participants sat side by side, each handling one key. We tested whether Action B would be affected by duration overlap with the planned Action A of another person similarly as by duration overlap with a planned Action A of the participant’s other hand. Here, we found no partial overlap costs. However, in Experiment 3, proposing a common reward yielded partial overlap costs. This suggests that in joint action planning, another person’s action plan can impact own actions through feature binding, but only with sufficient incentives to corepresent the other’s actions (i.e., when goal achievement depends on both participants’ performance). This furthers the understanding of how we represent other people’s yet-to-be-executed action plans alongside our own. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved)
No need to execute: Omitted responses still yield response–response binding effects.
In the literature on human action control, the binding and retrieval of responses are assumed to shape the coordination of more complex actions. Specifically, the consecutive execution of two responses is assumed to result in their integration into cognitive representations (so-called event files) and can be retrieved from that upon later response repetition, thereby influencing behavior. Against the background of ideomotor theory and more recent theorizing in the binding and retrieval in action control framework (Frings et al., 2020), we investigated whether response execution is necessary for binding and retrieval of responses. We manipulated whether the retrieving response (Experiment 1), as well as the to-be-bound response (Experiment 2), is executed or omitted. The results showed that responses do not need to be executed to retrieve other responses or to be bound to other responses. Apparently, activating the cognitive representation of a response sufficed for this response to trigger event file binding and retrieval. Our results are the first to show that response–response binding is not dependent on executing responses. Together, the results support the core assumptions of ideomotor theory and the binding and retrieval in action control framework, namely a common coding of action and perception. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved)
Perceived duration of visual stimuli contracts due to crowding.
Recent research on duration perception suggests that duration encoding is not a single general process but involves several separate processes, some of which are specific to visual modality. Moreover, different functional aspects of visual processing can influence duration perception in distinct ways. One of the most important functions of the visual system is to identify and recognize features, shapes, and objects. However, it is still unclear whether and how computations related to these processes affect duration perception. To clarify this issue, we used a spatial crowding phenomenon, which allows the dissociation of low-level feature extraction from high-level processes such as object recognition. We created letter and vernier stimuli matched for their low-level properties but different in their discriminability due to spatial crowding. Here, we show that stimuli that became more difficult to discriminate appeared shorter in duration (data collected in 2019–2023). This difference in perceived duration could not be explained by low-level stimulus properties, cognitive bias due to discriminability, or perceived stimulus onsets or offsets. These results suggest the existence of time-sensitive structures specific to visual processing of features, shapes, and objects that is affected by crowding. These findings support the notion of distributed timing mechanisms in the visual system. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved)
Double training reveals an interval-invariant subsecond temporal structure in the brain.
Subsecond temporal perception is critical for understanding time-varying events. Many studies suggest that subsecond timing is an intrinsic property of neural dynamics, distributed across sensory modalities and brain areas. However, our recent finding of the transfer of temporal interval discrimination (TID) learning across sensory modalities supports the existence of a more abstract and conceptual representation of subsecond time that guides the temporal processing of distributed mechanisms. One major challenge to this hypothesis is that TID learning consistently fails to transfer from trained intervals to untrained intervals. To address this issue, here, we examined whether this interval specificity can be removed with double training, a procedure originally developed to eliminate various specificities in visual perceptual learning. Specifically, participants practiced the primary TID task, the learning of which per se was specific to the trained interval (e.g., 100 ms). In addition, they also received exposure to a new interval (e.g., 200 ms) through a secondary and functionally independent tone–frequency discrimination task. This double training successfully enabled complete transfer of TID learning to the new interval, indicating that training improved an interval-invariant component of temporal interval perception, which supports our proposal of an abstract and conceptual representation of subsecond time in the brain. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved)
Task-irrelevant inputs alter ensemble representations of faces within the spatial focus of attention.
Spatial attention enhances processing of information, but how does unattended and task-irrelevant information influence visual processing within the spatial focus of attention? We tested this by asking participants to extract the average emotional expression of a set of sequentially presented faces while simultaneously presenting task-irrelevant faces at a spatially unattended and task-irrelevant location. Across several experiments, we found that participants’ reports of the emotional expression of faces at the attended location were biased toward the task-irrelevant faces. For example, when happier faces were presented at the unattended location, participants were biased to perceive the attended faces as happier. A control experiment in which participants were asked to also detect probes at cued and uncued locations showed that spatial attention was directed towards the cued location as instructed. Together, these results reveal that unattended and task-irrelevant inputs do not only affect the efficiency of target processing, for example by slowing responses or lowering accuracies, but that they can systematically bias ensemble representations within the spatial focus of attention. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved)

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance - Vol 50, Iss 12