Probabilistic, positional averaging predicts object-level crowding effects with letter-like stimuli.

ABSTRACT: We investigated how crowding-a breakdown in object recognition that occurs in the presence of nearby distracting clutter-works for complex letter-like stimuli. Subjects reported the orientation (up/down/left/right) of a T target, abutted by a single flanker composed of randomly positioned horizontal and vertical bars. In addition to familiar retinotopic anisotropies (e.g., more crowding from more eccentric flankers), we report three object-centered anisotropies. First, inversions of the target element were rare: errors included twice as many ±90° as 180° target rotations. Second, flankers were twice as intrusive when they lay above or below (end-flanking) compared to left or right (side-flanking) of an upright T target (an effect that holds under global rotation of the target-flanker pair)

SUBMITTER: Dakin SC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6686192 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature