Relational Dynamics in Perception: Impacts on Trial-to-trial Variation

We show that trial-to-trial variability in sensory detection of a weak visual stimulus is dramatically diminished when rather than presenting a fixed stimulus contrast, fluctuations in a subject's judgment are matched by fluctuations in stimulus contrast. This attenuation of fluctuations does not involve a change in the subject's psychometric function. The result is consistent with the interpretation of trial-to-trial variability in this sensory detection task being a high-level meta-cognitive control process that explores for something that our brains are so used to: subject–object relational dynamics.