Visual Scene Analysis

Name the independent and dependent variables used in the first experiment; include the levels of each independent variable

The independent variables are the red and green dots used in the first experiment each having two levels of color and motion. The dependent variables are the cue-combined features of local ambiguities in color and motion features which use definite surrounding pairings (Noguchi et al, 2011).

Are there any methodological flaws or limitations in the experimental design? Explain.

Subjects, subject variables as well as the number of trials of the analysis differed in both experiments which might have altered the overall results. In the first experiment, there were six participants consisting of 5 males and 1 female aged from 21 to 30 years, while in the second experiment, there were seven participants: 2 males and 5 females aged 20-30 years. Experiment 1 consisted of 2 trial types of the overall 72 trials and a control experiment, while experiment 2 consisted of four trial types with no control experiment (Noguchi et al, 2011).

 How did the experimenters control for possible confounding variables in experiment 1?

In experiment 1, the experimenters used a control experiment of 24 non-surround trials to control anything that would affect the results (confounding variables). To control the difficulty in the tasks, the speed of the dots was adjusted to a considerable pace. To also maintain the fixation of observations, the subjects’ eyes were monitored by using EyeLink II system (Noguchi et al, 2011).

Explain how Gestalt grouping rules work in general. List the most important grouping rules that are at play in experiment 1, and explain why.

Gestalt psychologists came up with the rules of the grouping phenomenon in human vision. The rule of proximity entails that the objects close to one another belong to the same group while similarity grouping is when objects are of the same color, shape or direction. The rule of enclosure and closure consists of a visual border while the rule of continuity is naturally perceived. The rule of connection shows that objects are connected in some way like in the graphs used to explain the results in the experiment 1 interconnected with lines. The rule of similarity is also used by using same colors and directions in the experiment.

What are the implications of the authors’ findings? Relate your answer to a sensation or perception topic that you have learned about in this class

The findings of the analysis show that the mechanism of forced motion based on logical signals of motion force a perceived movement of the static stimuli in an opposite direction. The results also showed a limited function of attention in the cue-combined scenario giving support to the likelihood of pre-attentive mixture of motion and color cues during the identification of a scene (Noguchi et al, 2011). This relates to the perception topic of visual recognition where recognition involves pre-attentive identification of a physical scene using features that have been represented before.

Design an experiment that will look at perceptual grouping using another Gestalt principle of grouping. What is your research question? (e.g., describe the goal or purpose of your experiment)

The experiment is designed to analyze the influence of the change of environment on visual recognition of infants’ memory. Does age affect visual recognition?

What methods would you use? (For example describe you stimuli, your task, etc.)

The participants in the experiment are 2, 4, 6 month old infants and 18 month old infants.  The experiments are to be conducted in two laboratory rooms unfamiliar to the infants to enhance the closure and enclosure grouping which involves a visual border. One room is red and brightly lit while the other room is blue and dimly lit. The infants are tested while sitting on their mother’s lap. The stimuli in the first room is a computer monitor 50cm from the infant while in the second room the stimuli is a screen projected from the back also 50cm from the infant. The lights in both rooms are then switched off, and eye movements were monitored through a camera positioned at the centre of both rooms. Photographs of faces are then presented to the infants on the screens, and the eye movements of the infants are recorded. The infants in both contexts are then to exchange rooms.

 What do you expect to find?

The tests are expected to show that the 18 months showed considerably smaller image preferences than the 6 months old infants. A contextual feature is likely to change on recognition from 6 month infants to 18 month infants as the infant matures.

What would be the implications of your findings? Try to talk about this with regard to the article and sensation/perception in general

The results show that the background of images does not alter preference direction as the majority of both environments in the experiment remained consistent. According to Noguchi et al (2011), there is an indication that the visual system despite of a person’s age resolves an indistinctness of the pairings of color and motion by the use of distinct minor areas. There is also an implication which shows that the mechanism of perceptual groupings is interceded by the pre- alerted indications of color and motion combinations (Noguchi et al, 2011). Perception changes in representational flexibility as a result of age and also experience with an environment.