Abstract
Human perception consists of the continuous integration of sensory cues pertaining to the same object. While it has been fairly well shown that humans use an optimal strategy when integrating low-level cues proportional to their relative reliability, the integration processes underlying high-level perception are much less understood. Here we investigate cue integration in a complex high-level perceptual system, the human face processing system. We tested cue integration of facial form and motion in an identity categorization task and found that an optimal model could successfully predict subjects’ identity choices. Our results suggest that optimal cue integration may be implemented across different levels of the visual processing hierarchy.
Highlights
Human perception consists of the continuous integration of sensory cues pertaining to the same object
Similar to studies based on low-level stimuli, we expected that subjects integrate facial form and motion cues in an optimal fashion
Similar to studies on low-level integration, we tested cue integration based on form, motion or combined cues in separate blocks
Summary
Human perception consists of the continuous integration of sensory cues pertaining to the same object. We tested cue integration of facial form and motion in an identity categorization task and found that an optimal model could successfully predict subjects’ identity choices. The optimal strategy is to weight these cues in proportion to their reliability[1, 2] Humans employ this strategy when combining multiple low-level cues within[3,4,5] and across[6,7,8] modalities, but less is known about mechanisms for integration in high-level perception. We compared three models that differ in how the visual system integrates facial form and motion information: (1) optimally, (2) by using only the most reliable cue, or (3) by computing a simple average of both cues. We found that the optimal model predicted subjects’ identity choices best, suggesting that this principle governs both low- and high-level perception
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