Perceptual constancy with a novel sensory skill
Making sense of the world requires perceptual constancy-the stable perception of an object across changes in one's sensation of it. To investigate whether constancy is intrinsic to perception, we tested whether humans can learn a form of constancy that is unique to a novel sensory skill (here,...
| Main Authors: | , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Journal article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
American Psychological Association
2020
|
| _version_ | 1797090209085521920 |
|---|---|
| author | Norman, LJ Thaler, L |
| author_facet | Norman, LJ Thaler, L |
| author_sort | Norman, LJ |
| collection | OXFORD |
| description | Making sense of the world requires perceptual constancy-the stable perception of an object across changes in one's sensation of it. To investigate whether constancy is intrinsic to perception, we tested whether humans can learn a form of constancy that is unique to a novel sensory skill (here, the perception of objects through click-based echolocation). Participants judged whether two echoes were different either because: (a) the clicks were different, or (b) the objects were different. For differences carried through spectral changes (but not level changes), blind expert echolocators spontaneously showed a high constancy ability (mean d' = 1.91) compared to sighted and blind people new to echolocation (mean d' = 0.69). Crucially, sighted controls improved rapidly in this ability through training, suggesting that constancy emerges in a domain with which the perceiver has no prior experience. This provides strong evidence that constancy is intrinsic to human perception. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-07T03:15:13Z |
| format | Journal article |
| id | oxford-uuid:b58f4598-cf23-436e-871c-bf8ddf12460a |
| institution | University of Oxford |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-07T03:15:13Z |
| publishDate | 2020 |
| publisher | American Psychological Association |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | oxford-uuid:b58f4598-cf23-436e-871c-bf8ddf12460a2022-03-27T04:34:24ZPerceptual constancy with a novel sensory skillJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:b58f4598-cf23-436e-871c-bf8ddf12460aEnglishSymplectic ElementsAmerican Psychological Association2020Norman, LJThaler, LMaking sense of the world requires perceptual constancy-the stable perception of an object across changes in one's sensation of it. To investigate whether constancy is intrinsic to perception, we tested whether humans can learn a form of constancy that is unique to a novel sensory skill (here, the perception of objects through click-based echolocation). Participants judged whether two echoes were different either because: (a) the clicks were different, or (b) the objects were different. For differences carried through spectral changes (but not level changes), blind expert echolocators spontaneously showed a high constancy ability (mean d' = 1.91) compared to sighted and blind people new to echolocation (mean d' = 0.69). Crucially, sighted controls improved rapidly in this ability through training, suggesting that constancy emerges in a domain with which the perceiver has no prior experience. This provides strong evidence that constancy is intrinsic to human perception. |
| spellingShingle | Norman, LJ Thaler, L Perceptual constancy with a novel sensory skill |
| title | Perceptual constancy with a novel sensory skill |
| title_full | Perceptual constancy with a novel sensory skill |
| title_fullStr | Perceptual constancy with a novel sensory skill |
| title_full_unstemmed | Perceptual constancy with a novel sensory skill |
| title_short | Perceptual constancy with a novel sensory skill |
| title_sort | perceptual constancy with a novel sensory skill |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT normanlj perceptualconstancywithanovelsensoryskill AT thalerl perceptualconstancywithanovelsensoryskill |