Seeing and attending

Problems in this collection

11 problems

Visual crowding

A visible object can become hard to recognize when surrounded by other objects. Why does the arrangement of the whole scene change that interference?

Amodal completion

We perceive whole objects even when part is hidden. How does the brain combine visible geometry with knowledge of what the object might be?

Color constancy

An object can look similarly colored under different lighting. How do visual circuits separate surface color from illumination?

Binocular rivalry

When the eyes receive incompatible images, perception can alternate between them. How do eye and pattern competition produce those switches?

Attentional blink

A second target can be missed when it follows another by a few hundred milliseconds. How do processing and response competition create that brief limit?

Perceptual binding

Vision assigns colors, shapes, and movements to objects. How do distributed neural representations support those assignments without mixing features from different objects?

Motion-induced blindness

A dot can disappear from view while it remains on the screen. A moving pattern around it changes whether it reaches awareness.

Visual stability across saccades

Each glance sweeps an image across the retina. How do prediction, masking and learned omission hide that sweep while leaving external motion visible?

Visual serial dependence

A judgment can lean toward what was seen or reported a moment ago. Which lingering process produces attraction rather than repulsion?

Learned distractor suppression

A bright irrelevant item first attracts the eyes, then becomes easier to ignore. Must attention visit it before suppression can be learned?

Mental rotation

Comparing turned objects often takes longer at larger angles. Do people rotate continuously, use discrete view changes, or recognize shape more directly?

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