The effects of task and saliency on latencies for colour and motion processing
Adams, Wendy J. and Mamassian, Pascal (2004) The effects of task and saliency on latencies for colour and motion processing. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 271, (1535), 139-146. (doi:10.1098/rspb.2003.2566).
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Description/Abstract
In human visual perception, there is evidence that different visual attributes, such as colour, form and motion, have different neural-processing latencies. Specifically, recent studies have suggested that colour changes are processed faster than motion changes. We propose that the processing latencies should not be considered as fixed quantities for different attributes, but instead depend upon attribute salience and the observer's task.
We asked observers to respond to high- and low-salience colour and motion changes in three different tasks. The tasks varied from having a strong motor component to having a strong perceptual component. Increasing salience led to shorter processing times in all three tasks. We also found an interaction between task and attribute: motion was processed more quickly in reaction-time tasks, whereas colour was processed more quickly in more perceptual tasks.
Our results caution against making direct comparisons between latencies for processing different visual attributes without equating salience or considering task effects. More-salient attributes are processed faster than less-salient ones, and attributes that are critical for the task are also processed more quickly.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| ISSNs: | 0962-8452 (print) |
| Related URLs: | |
| Keywords: | awareness, visual latency, visual pathways, colour, motion |
| Subjects: | B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology |
| Divisions: | University Structure - Pre August 2011 > School of Psychology > Division of Cognition |
| Item ID: | 18640 |
| Date Deposited: | 18 Jan 2006 |
| Last Modified: | 01 Jun 2011 01:46 |
| Contributors: | Adams, Wendy J. (Author) Mamassian, Pascal (Author) |
| Date: | 2004 |
| Status: | Published |
| URI: | http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/18640 |
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