Color similarity can facilitate integration of components during rapid presentation
Date
2020
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Delaware
Abstract
Scene identification is excellent at presentation durations of around 100 ms; much faster than the eyes can move. Nevertheless, pictures and frames presented simultaneously during rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) are sometimes perceived as being presented sequentially, with the frame appearing to be presented around the preceding or following picture in the sequence (temporal migration: Intraub, 1985). This effect appears to reflect a failure of integration of the two visual components. Higher level semantic relations may be the cause of the integration failure seen here, or a low-level feature such as color relation may play a role. Color similarity was investigated as a factor that may facilitate integration of these components during RSVP, reducing temporal migration. In Experiment 1, twelve pictures were presented at 100 ms each in an RSVP sequence, one of which was surrounded by a rectangular frame. Participants were tasked with identifying which picture they saw with the frame. This frame was made up of either a color most representative of the picture using a computational color analysis model (matched trials), or a color very different from the most representative of the picture (mismatched trials). Frame detection was 4.3% higher on matched than mismatched trials, indicating a small color matching effect benefiting integration. Testing at slightly slower (117 ms) and faster (83 ms) presentation rates showed a color matching effect of similar magnitude at the slower but not faster rate (3.9% compared to 2.6%). Experiment 2 explored how a more comprehensive method of color matching using multicolor, mosaic frames might impact the color matching effect, with results indicating an effect of similar magnitude (3.4%), but a larger effect size. Overall, these results show a small reliable effect of color matching in reducing temporal migration. Although color similarity plays a role in facilitating integration of visual components, there are clearly other factors that impact integration at these presentation rates. Future research might explore the role of higher-level conceptual relatedness on the temporal migration effect.
Description
Keywords
Color perception, Conceptual short-term store, Rapid serial visual presentation, Visual integration, Visual perception