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Distance Estimation Is Influenced by Encoding Conditions

BACKGROUND: It is well established that foveating a behaviorally relevant part of the visual field improves localization performance as compared to the situation where the gaze is directed elsewhere. Reduced localization performance in the peripheral encoding conditions has been attributed to an ecc...

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Autores principales: Oleksiak, Anna, Mańko, Mirosława, Postma, Albert, van der Ham, Ineke J. M., van den Berg, Albert V., van Wezel, Richard J. A.
Formato: Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2010
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2847905/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20360953
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0009918
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author Oleksiak, Anna
Mańko, Mirosława
Postma, Albert
van der Ham, Ineke J. M.
van den Berg, Albert V.
van Wezel, Richard J. A.
author_facet Oleksiak, Anna
Mańko, Mirosława
Postma, Albert
van der Ham, Ineke J. M.
van den Berg, Albert V.
van Wezel, Richard J. A.
author_sort Oleksiak, Anna
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: It is well established that foveating a behaviorally relevant part of the visual field improves localization performance as compared to the situation where the gaze is directed elsewhere. Reduced localization performance in the peripheral encoding conditions has been attributed to an eccentricity-dependent increase in positional uncertainty. It is not known, however, whether and how the foveal and peripheral encoding conditions can influence spatial interval estimation. In this study we compare observers' estimates of a distance between two co-planar dots in the condition where they foveate the two sample dots and where they fixate a central dot while viewing the sample dots peripherally. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Observers were required to reproduce, after a short delay, a distance between two sample dots based on a stationary reference dot and a movable mouse pointer. When both sample dots are foveated, we find that the distance estimation error is small but consistently increases with the dots-separation size. In comparison, distance judgment in peripheral encoding condition is significantly overestimated for smaller separations and becomes similar to the performance in foveal trials for distances from 10 to 16 degrees. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Although we find improved accuracy of distance estimation in the foveal condition, the fact that the difference is related to the reduction of the estimation bias present in the peripheral conditon, challenges the simple account of reducing the eccentricity-dependent positional uncertainty. Contrary to this, we present evidence for an explanation in terms of neuronal populations activated by the two sample dots and their inhibitory interactions under different visual encoding conditions. We support our claims with simulations that take into account receptive fields size differences between the two encoding conditions.
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spelling pubmed-28479052010-04-01 Distance Estimation Is Influenced by Encoding Conditions Oleksiak, Anna Mańko, Mirosława Postma, Albert van der Ham, Ineke J. M. van den Berg, Albert V. van Wezel, Richard J. A. PLoS One Research Article BACKGROUND: It is well established that foveating a behaviorally relevant part of the visual field improves localization performance as compared to the situation where the gaze is directed elsewhere. Reduced localization performance in the peripheral encoding conditions has been attributed to an eccentricity-dependent increase in positional uncertainty. It is not known, however, whether and how the foveal and peripheral encoding conditions can influence spatial interval estimation. In this study we compare observers' estimates of a distance between two co-planar dots in the condition where they foveate the two sample dots and where they fixate a central dot while viewing the sample dots peripherally. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Observers were required to reproduce, after a short delay, a distance between two sample dots based on a stationary reference dot and a movable mouse pointer. When both sample dots are foveated, we find that the distance estimation error is small but consistently increases with the dots-separation size. In comparison, distance judgment in peripheral encoding condition is significantly overestimated for smaller separations and becomes similar to the performance in foveal trials for distances from 10 to 16 degrees. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Although we find improved accuracy of distance estimation in the foveal condition, the fact that the difference is related to the reduction of the estimation bias present in the peripheral conditon, challenges the simple account of reducing the eccentricity-dependent positional uncertainty. Contrary to this, we present evidence for an explanation in terms of neuronal populations activated by the two sample dots and their inhibitory interactions under different visual encoding conditions. We support our claims with simulations that take into account receptive fields size differences between the two encoding conditions. Public Library of Science 2010-03-29 /pmc/articles/PMC2847905/ /pubmed/20360953 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0009918 Text en Oleksiak et al. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Oleksiak, Anna
Mańko, Mirosława
Postma, Albert
van der Ham, Ineke J. M.
van den Berg, Albert V.
van Wezel, Richard J. A.
Distance Estimation Is Influenced by Encoding Conditions
title Distance Estimation Is Influenced by Encoding Conditions
title_full Distance Estimation Is Influenced by Encoding Conditions
title_fullStr Distance Estimation Is Influenced by Encoding Conditions
title_full_unstemmed Distance Estimation Is Influenced by Encoding Conditions
title_short Distance Estimation Is Influenced by Encoding Conditions
title_sort distance estimation is influenced by encoding conditions
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2847905/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20360953
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0009918
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