Induced motion and oculomotor capture

Three experiments investigating the basis of induced motion are reported. The proposition that induced motion is based on the visual capture of eye-position information and is therefore a subject-relative, rather than object-relative, motion was explored in the first experiment. Observers made saccades to an invisible auditory stimulus following fixation on a stationary stimulus in which motion was induced. In the remaining two experiments, the question of whether perceived induced motion produces a straight ahead shift was explored. The critical eye movement was directed to apparent straight ahead. Because these saccades partially compensated for the apparent displacement of the induction stimulus, and saccades to the auditory stimulus did not, we conclude that induced motion is not based on oculomotor visual capture. Rather, it is accompanied by a shift in the judged direction of straight ahead, an instance of the straight ahead shift. The results support an object-relative theory of induced motion.     

Visual motion and attentional capture

Previous work has shown that abrupt visual onsets capture attention. This occurs even with stimuli that are equiluminant with the background, which suggests that the appearance of a new perceptual object, not merely a change in luminance, captures attention. Three experiments are reported in which this work was extended by investigating the possible role of visual motion in attentional capture. Experiment 1 revealed that motion can efficiently guide attention when it is perfectly informative about the location of a visual search target, but that it does not draw attention when it does not predict the target’s position. This result was obtained with several forms of motion, including oscillation, looming, and nearby moving contours. To account for these and other results, we tested anew-object account of attentional capture in Experiment 2 by using a global/local paradigm. When motion segregated a local letter from its perceptual group, the local letter captured attention as indexed by an effect on latency of response to the task-relevant global configuration. Experiment 3 ruled out the possibility that the motion in Experiment 2 captured attention merely by increasing the salience of the moving object. We argue instead that when motion segregates a perceptual element from a perceptual group, a new perceptual object is created, and this event captures attention. Together, the results suggest that motion as such does not capture attention but that the appearance of a new perceptual object does.     

Methods for analyzing performance of musical rhythm

Performance of musical rhythm was analyzed to test the hypothesis that such performance is characterized by certain systematic variations as regards the durations of the sound events in relation to strict mechanical regularity. Monophonic performances of 28 melodies in different notations were registered, and the duration data were treated by a special computer program for systematic variations and by factor analysis. The methods are illustrated for one of the melodies demonstrating pronounced systematic variations and different types of performance as found by factor analysis.     

A motion capture library for the study of identity, gender, and emotion perception from biological motion

We present the methods that were used in capturing a library of human movements for use in computer-animated displays of human movement. The library is an attempt to systematically tap into and represent the wide range of personal properties, such as identity, gender, and emotion, that are available in a person's movements. The movements from a total of 30 nonprofessional actors (15 of them female) were captured while they performed walking, knocking, lifting, and throwing actions, as well as their combination in angry, happy, neutral, and sad affective styles. From the raw motion capture data, a library of 4,080 movements was obtained, using techniques based on Character Studio (plug-ins for 3D Studio MAX, AutoDesk, Inc.), MATLAB The MathWorks, Inc.), or a combination of these two. For the knocking, lifting, and throwing actions, 10 repetitions of the simple action unit were obtained for each affect, and for the other actions, two longer movement recordings were obtained for each affect. We discuss the potential use of the library for computational and behavioral analyses of movement variability, of human character animation, and of how gender, emotion, and identity are encoded and decoded from human movement.     

Perception of musical tension in short chord sequences: The influence of harmonic function,sensory dissonance,horizontal motion,and musical training

This study investigates the effect of four variables (tonal hierarchies, sensory chordal consonance, horizontal motion, and musical training) on perceived musical tension. Participants were asked to evaluate the tension created by a chord X in sequences of three chords {C major → X → C major} in a C major context key. The X chords could be major or minor triads major-minor seventh, or minor seventh chords built on the 12 notes of the chromatic scale. The data were compared with Krumhansl’s (1990) harmonic hierarchy and with predictions of Lerdahl’s (1988) cognitive theory, Hutchinson and Knopoff’s (1978) and Parncutt’s (1989) sensory-psychoacoustical theories, and the model of horizontal motion defined in the paper. As a main outcome, it appears that judgments of tension arose from a convergence of several cognitive and psychoacoustics influences, whose relative importance varies, depending on musical training.     

Combining local and global cues to motion

A spinning, moving object, such as a football with a surface texture, combines motion signals from rotation and translation. The interaction between these two kinds of signal was studied psychophysically with moving, circular clouds of dots, which also could move within the cloud. If the cloud moved near-vertically downwards but the dots within it moved obliquely, the apparent path of the cloud was attracted to that of the dots, as previously demonstrated with moving Gabor patches (Tse & Hseih Vision Research, 46, 3881-3885, 2006; Lisi & Cavanagh Current Biology, 25, 2535-40, 2015). This attractive effect was enhanced in parafoveal viewing and by not presenting a frame around the dots. A larger effect in the opposite direction (repulsion) was found for the perceived direction of the dots when they moved near-vertically and the cloud containing them moved obliquely. These results are discussed in relation to Gestalt principles of perceived relative motion and, more recently, Bayes-inspired accounts of the interaction between local and global motion.     

Team-Track: A tool for investigating tracking performance in teams

Team performance and coordination have gained considerable interest in disparate fields (e.g., aviation, process control, medicine, and wartime operations). Team-Track, a C program that allows controlled experimental manipulation of team conditions, was developed to meet the research needs resulting from this interest. Using Team-Track, one can manipulate task interdependence, team staffing, relative contributions of team members, communications, and informational displays in a low-cost environment. The dependent measure of performance generated by the program is the absolute tracking error along each dimension. The program is ideal for investigating team interactions as it allows for orthogonal manipulation of team variables, therefore accommodating a multitude of research paradigms.     

Games teams play: A method for investigating team coordination and performance

Teams are playing an increasingly important role in the workplace. However, reviews of the team performance literature have suggested that there are serious deficiencies in our understanding of team processes and performance (e.g., Dyer, 1984). These difficulties may be attributable, in part, to the lack of laboratory methodologies to investigate team performance. This paper describes the use of low-fidelity simulations as a potentially useful paradigm for researching team coordination and performance. This paradigm is advantageous in that it offers relatively high levels of experimental control and task representation at a low cost.     

Frontal brain electrical activity (EEG) distinguishes valence and intensity of musical emotions

Using recent regional brain activation/emotion models as a theoretical framework, we examined whether the pattern of regional EEG activity distinguished emotions induced by musical excerpts which were known to vary in affective valence (i.e., positive vs. negative) and intensity (i.e., intense vs. calm) in a group of undergraduates. We found that the pattern of asymmetrical frontal EEG activity distinguished valence of the musical excerpts. Subjects exhibited greater relative left frontal EEG activity to joy and happy musical excerpts and greater relative right frontal EEG activity to fear and sad musical excerpts. We also found that, although the pattern of frontal EEG asymmetry did not distinguish the intensity of the emotions, the pattern of overall frontal EEG activity did, with the amount of frontal activity decreasing from fear to joy to happy to sad excerpts. These data appear to be the first to distinguish valence and intensity of musical emotions on frontal electrocortical measures.     

Spatial task performance,sex differences,and motion sickness susceptibility

There are substantial individual differences in susceptibility to motion sickness, yet little is known about what mediates these differences. Spatial ability and sex have been suggested as possible factors in this relationship. 89 participants (57 women) were administered a Motion Sickness Questionnaire that assesses motion sickness susceptibility, a Water-level Task that gauges sensitivity to gravitational upright, and a Mental Rotation Task that tests an individual's awareness of how objects typically move in space. Significant sex differences were observed in performance of both the Water-level Task (p<.01), and the Mental Rotation Task (p<.005), with women performing less accurately than men. Women also had significantly higher scores on the Motion Sickness Questionnaire (p<.005). Among men, but not women, significant negative relationships were observed between Water-level Task performance and Motion Sickness Questionnaire score (p<.001) and between Mental Rotation Task performance and Motion Sickness Questionnaire score (p<.005). In conclusion, women performed significantly more poorly than men did on the spatial ability tasks and reported significantly more bouts of motion sickness. In addition, men showed a significant negative relationship between spatial ability and motion sickness susceptibility.     

Novelty and saliency in attentional capture by unannounced motion singletons

The present study examined attentional capture by an unannounced motion singleton in a visual search task. The results showed that a motion singleton only captured attention on its first unannounced occurrence when the observers had not encountered moving items before in the experiment, whereas it failed to capture when observers were familiar with moving items. This indicates that motion can capture attention independently of top-down attentional control settings, but only when motion as a feature is unexpected and new. An additional experiment tested whether salient items can capture attention when all stimuli possess new and unexpected features, and novelty information cannot guide attention. The results showed that attention was shifted to the location of the salient item when all items were new and unexpected, reinforcing the view that salient items receive attentional priority. The implications of these results for current theories of attention are discussed.     

Masculinity, femininity, and musical composition psychological and psychoendocrinological aspects of musical and spatial faculties

Physiological and psychological masculinity and femininity were assessed in relation to musical capacities and spatial ability. Male composers had lower mean testosterone levels than male instrumentalists and male non-musicians; female composers had higher testosterone levels than female instrumentalists and female non-musicians. Testosterone in saliva was the physiological marker for androgyny. All of the groups were found to be psychologically androgynous on Bem's Sex-Role Inventory and all groups had above average spatial ability. Musicians, however, surpassed non-musicians on spatial visualization and on Witelson's Dichaptic Stimulation Test.     

MIDI and Macintosh: Searching for a better mousetrap

This paper will explore how MIDI (musical instrument digital interface)-technology can benefit researchers interested in using Apple Macintosh computers for stimulus control and response timing. One example presented here will illustrate how MIDI equipment can be adapted to provide millisecond precision response timing that cannot be obtained with solely software-based timing techniques. Another example will show how to use MIDI to control sound-generating devices that far surpass the sound-producing capabilities built into the Macintosh. There will also be a discussion of how certain MIDI equipment can provide information on the velocity and the duration of a response that is not available with traditional laboratory hardware. The examples presented here rely on a commercial software library called MIDIBASIC that was designed to be used with Microsoft QuickBasic. The availability of a millisecond timer that can be called from QuickBasic may offer a special advantage for researchers who have previously written programs in an Apple II environment using AppleSoft Basic.     

Attentional capture and aging: implications for visual search performance and oculomotor control

Two studies examined potential age-related differences in attentional capture. Subjects were instructed to move their eyes as quickly as possible to a color singleton target and to identify a small letter located inside it. On half the trials, a new stimulus (i.e., a sudden onset) appeared simultaneously with the presentation of the color singleton target. The onset was always a task-irrelevant distractor. Response times were lengthened, for both young and old adults, whenever an onset distractor appeared, despite the fact that subjects reported being unaware of the appearance of the abrupt onset. Eye scan strategies were also disrupted by the appearance of the onset distractors. On about 40% of the trials on which an onset appeared, subjects made an eye movement to the task-irrelevant onset before moving their eyes to the target. Fixations close to the onset were brief, suggesting parallel programming of a reflexive eye movement to the onset and goal-directed eye movement to the target. Results are discussed in terms of age-related sparing of the attentional and oculomotor processes that underlie attentional capture.     

Change detection in multi-voice music: the role of musical structure, musical training, and task demands

This study evaluated the relationship between primitive and scheme-driven grouping (A. S. Bregman, 1990) by comparing the ability of different listeners to detect single note changes in 3-voice musical compositions. Primitive grouping was manipulated by the use of 2 distinctly different compositional styles (homophony and polyphony). The effects of scheme-driven processes were tested by comparing performance of 2 groups of listeners (musicians and nonmusicians) and by varying task demands (integrative and selective listening). Following previous studies, which had tested only musically trained participants, several variables were manipulated within each compositional style. The results indicated that, although musicians demonstrated a higher sensitivity to changes than did nonmusicians, the 2 groups exhibited similar patterns of sensitivity under a variety of conditions.     

The role of flicker and abrupt displacement in attention capture by motion onsets

Sunny and von Mühlenen (Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 18, 1050–1056, 2011) showed that an onset of motion captured attention only when the motion was jerky (refreshed at 8 or 17 Hz), but not when it was smooth (33 or 100 Hz). However, it remained unclear why the onset of jerky motion captures attention. In the present study, we systematically tested the role of different aspects of jerky motion in capturing attention. Simple flicker without motion did not capture attention in the same way as jerky motion (Exp. 1). An abrupt displacement between 0.26° and 1.05° captured attention, irrespective of whether the stimulus subsequently continued to move smoothly (Exp. 2) or whether it remained stationary (Exps. 3 and 4). A displaced stimulus that was preceded briefly at the new location by a figure-8 placeholder did not capture attention (Exp. 5). These results are explained within a masking account, according to which abrupt onsets and abrupt displacements receive a processing advantage because they escape forward masking by the preceding figure-8 placeholders.     

Making psycholinguistics musical: Self-paced reading time evidence for shared processing of linguistic and musical syntax

Linguistic processing, especially syntactic processing, is often considered a hallmark of human cognition; thus, the domain specificity or domain generality of syntactic processing has attracted considerable debate. The present experiments address this issue by simultaneously manipulating syntactic processing demands in language and music. Participants performed self-paced reading of garden path sentences, in which structurally unexpected words cause temporary syntactic processing difficulty. A musical chord accompanied each sentence segment, with the resulting sequence forming a coherent chord progression. When structurally unexpected words were paired with harmonically unexpected chords, participants showed substantially enhanced garden path effects. No such interaction was observed when the critical words violated semantic expectancy or when the critical chords violated timbral expectancy. These results support a prediction of the shared syntactic integration resource hypothesis (Patel, 2003), which suggests that music and language draw on a common pool of limited processing resources for integrating incoming elements into syntactic structures. Notations of the stimuli from this study may be downloaded from pbr.psychonomic-journals.org/content/supplemental.     

Auditory feedback in music performance: the role of melodic structure and musical skill

Five experiments explored whether fluency in musical sequence production relies on matches between the contents of auditory feedback and the planned outcomes of actions. Participants performed short melodies from memory on a keyboard while musical pitches that sounded in synchrony with each keypress (feedback contents) were altered. Results indicated that altering pitch contents can disrupt production, but only when altered pitches form a sequence that is structurally similar to the planned sequence. These experiments also addressed the role of musical skill: Experiments 1 and 3 included trained pianists; other experiments included participants with little or no musical training. Results were similar across both groups with respect to the disruptive effects of auditory feedback manipulations. These results support the idea that a common hierarchical representation guides sequences of actions and the perception of event sequences and that this coordination is not acquired from learned associations formed by musical skill acquisition.