Abstract
Detection of a target grouping is expedited when the target display is preceded by presentation of an oscillating premask that includes priming elements presented intraphasically and below detection threshold at the display locations subsequently occupied by the target. Five experiments were performed to investigate how priming is affected by both the complexity and the geometry of prime/target forms. Experiment 1 showed that the subjective complexity of different polygons was coded in accord with an objective measure of form complexity. Experiments 2 and 3 revealed oscillatory priming to increase as a function of the subjective complexity of prime/target forms when those forms were regular and predictable. However, Experiments 4 and 5 showed that this relation did not hold when the prime/target forms were irregular and unpredictable. Taken together, it is argued that both subjective complexity and the Prägnanz quality of the prime/target forms come to determine the magnitude of priming. These results are discussed with reference to current physiological hypotheses regarding perceptual organization.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
References
Arnoult, M. D. (1960). Prediction of perceptual responses from structural characteristics of the stimulus.Perceptual & Motor Skills,11, 261–268.
Becker, C., Elliott, M. A., &Lachmann, T. (2005). Evidence for impaired visuoperceptual organisation in developmental dyslexics and its relation to temporal processes.Cognitive Neuropsychology,22, 499–522.
Bell, R. A. (1970).Application note 115: Principles of cathode-ray tubes, phosphors, and high-speed oscillography. Colorado Springs: Hewlett Packard.
Box, G. E. P., &Cox, D. R. (1964). An analysis of transformations.Journal of the Royal Statistical Society: Series B,26, 211–252.
Box, G. E. P., &Cox, D. R. (1982). An analysis of transformations revisited, rebutted.Journal of the American Statistical Association,77, 209–210.
Castelo-Branco, M., Goebel, R., Neuenschwander, S., &Singer, W. (2000). Neural synchrony correlates with surface segregation rules.Nature,405, 685–689.
Chen, M., &Chen, K. C. (1982). A transformational analysis of form recognition under plane isometries.Journal of Mathematical Psychology,26, 237–251.
Chen, M., &Chen, K. C. (1987). A group model of form recognition under plane similarity transformations.Journal of Mathematical Psychology,30, 321–337.
Conci, M., Elliott, M. A., Müller, H. J., Wendt, J., &Becker, C. (2004). The dynamics of operations in visual memory: A review and new evidence for oscillatory priming.Experimental Psychology,51, 300–310.
Crick, F., &Koch, C. (1995). Are we aware of neural activity in primary visual cortex?Nature,375, 121–123.
Crick, F., &Koch, C. (1998). Consciousness and neuroscience.Cerebral Cortex,8, 97–107.
Donderi, D. C. (2006). Visual complexity: A review.Psychological Bulletin,132, 73–97.
Donnelly, N., Humphreys, G. W., &Riddoch, M. J. (1991). Parallel computation of primitive shape descriptions.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance,17, 561–570.
Dorfman, D. D., &Alf, E., Jr. (1969). Maximum-likelihood estimation of parameters of signal-detection theory and determination of confidence intervals: Rating-method data.Journal of Mathematical Psychology,6, 487–496.
Eckhorn, R., Bauer, R., Jordan, W., Brosch, M., Kruse, W., Munk, M., &Reitboeck, H. J. (1988). Coherent oscillations: A mechanism of feature linking in the visual cortex?Multiple electrode and correlation analyses in the cat. Biological Cybernetics,60, 121–130.
Elliott, M. A., Becker, C., Boucart, M., &Müller, H. J. (2000). Enhanced GABAA inhibition enhances synchrony coding in human perception.NeuroReport,11, 3403–3407.
Elliott, M. A., Conci, M., &Müller, H. J. (2003). Prefrontal cortex and the generation of oscillatory visual persistence.Behavioral & Brain Sciences,26, 733–734.
Elliott, M. A., Giersch, A., &Seifert, D. (2006). Some facilitatory effects of lorazepam on dynamic visual binding.Psychopharmacology,184, 229–238.
Elliott, M. A., Herrmann, C. S., Mecklinger, A., &Müller, H. J. (2000). The loci of oscillatory visual-object priming: A combined electroencephalographic and reaction-time study.International Journal of Psychophysiology,38, 225–241.
Elliott, M. A., &Müller, H. J. (1998). Synchronous information presented in 40-Hz flicker enhances visual feature binding.Psychological Science,9, 277–283.
Elliott, M. A., &Müller, H. J. (2000). Evidence for 40-Hz oscillatory short-term visual memory revealed by human reaction-time measurements.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition,26, 703–718.
Elliott, M. A., &Müller, H. J. (2001). Effects of stimulus synchrony on mechanisms of perceptual organization.Visual Cognition,8, 655–677.
Engel, A. K., Kreiter, A. K., König, P., &Singer, W. (1991). Synchronization of oscillatory neuronal responses between striate and extrastriate visual cortical areas of the cat.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,88, 6048–6052.
Fahle, M., &Koch, C. (1995). Spatial displacement, but not temporal asynchrony, destroys figural binding.Vision Research,35, 491–494.
Feldman, J. (2000). Bias toward regular form in mental shape spaces.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance,26, 152–165.
Freiwald, W. A., Kreiter, A. K., &Singer, W. (1995). Stimulus dependent intercolumnar synchronization of single unit responses in cat area 17.NeuroReport,6, 2348–2352.
Gail, A., Brinksmeyer, H. J., &Eckhorn, R. (2000). Contour decouples gamma activity across texture representation in monkey striate cortex.Cerebral Cortex,10, 840–850.
Garner, W. R. (1970). Good patterns have few alternatives.American Scientist,58, 34–42.
Garner, W. R. (1974).The processing of information and structure. Potomac, MD: Erlbaum.
Gray, C. M., König, P., Engel, A. K., &Singer, W. (1989). Oscillatory responses in cat visual cortex exhibit columnar synchronization which reflects global stimulus properties.Nature,338, 334–337.
Gur, M., Beylin, A., &Snodderly, D. M. (1997). Response variability of neurons in primary visual cortex (V1) of alert monkeys.Journal of Neuroscience,17, 2914–2920.
He, S., Cavanagh, P., &Intriligator, J. (1996). Attentional resolution and the locus of visual awareness.Nature,383, 334–337.
Huynh, H., &Feldt, L. S. (1976). Estimation of the Box correction for degrees of freedom from sample data in randomized block and splitplot designs.Journal of Educational Statistics,1, 69–82.
Kandil, F. I., &Fahle, M. (2001). Purely temporal figure—ground segregation.European Journal of Neuroscience,13, 2004–2008.
Koffka, K. (1922). Perception: An introduction to the Gestalt-Theorie.Psychological Bulletin,19, 531–585.
Koffka, K. (1935).Principles of Gestalt psychology. New York: Harcourt, Brace.
Köhler, W. (1947).Gestalt psychology: An introduction to new concepts in modern psychology. New York: Liveright.
Lee, S.-H., &Blake, R. (1999). Visual form created solely from temporal structure.Science,284, 1165–1168.
Leeuwenberg, E. L. J. (1968).Structural information of visual patterns: An efficient coding system in perception. The Hague: Mouton de Gruyter.
Livingstone, M. S. (1996). Oscillatory firing and interneuronal correlations in squirrel monkey striate cortex.Journal of Neurophysiology,75, 2467–2485.
Mavrides, C. M., &Brown, D. R. (1969). Discrimination and reproduction of patterns: Feature measures and constraint redundancy as predictors.Perception & Psychophysics,6, 276–280.
Neisser, U. (1967).Cognitive psychology. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts.
Palmer, S. E. (1991). Goodness, gestalt, groups, and Garner: Local symmetry subgroups as a theory of figural goodness. In G. Lockhead & J. Pomerantz (Eds.),The perception of structure: Essays in honor of Wendell R. Garner (pp. 23–40). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Parton, A., Donnelly, N., &Usher, M. (2001). The effects of temporal synchrony on the perceived organization of elements in spatially symmetric and asymmetric grids.Visual Cognition,8, 637–654.
Pomerantz, J. R., &Pristach, E. A. (1989). Emergent features, attention, and perceptual glue in visual form perception.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance,15, 635–649.
Rager, G., &Singer, W. (1998). The response of cat visual cortex to flicker stimuli of variable frequency.European Journal of Neuroscience,10, 1856–1877.
Ts’o, D. Y., &Gilbert, C. D. (1988). The organization of chromatic and spatial interactions in the primate striate cortex.Journal of Neuroscience,8, 1712–1727.
Ts’o, D. Y., Gilbert, C. D., &Wiesel, T. N. (1986). Relationships between horizontal interactions and functional architecture in cat striate cortex as revealed by cross-correlation analysis.Journal of Neuroscience,6, 1160–1170.
Usher, M., &Donnelly, N. (1998). Visual synchrony affects binding and segmentation in perception.Nature,394, 179–182.
van der Helm, P. A., &Leeuwenberg, E. L. J. (1991). Accessibility: A criterion for regularity and hierarchy in visual pattern codes.Journal of Mathematical Psychology,35, 151–213.
Wertheimer, M. (1912). Experimentelle Studien über das Sehen von Bewegung.Zeitschrift für Psychologie,61, 161–265.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
This research was supported by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft Grant EL248/1 to M.A.E.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Shi, Z., Elliott, M.A. Oscillatory priming and form complexity. Perception & Psychophysics 69, 193–208 (2007). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03193742
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03193742