Low-level Perception Research Articles

Urban American Indian Community Health Beliefs Associated with Addressing Cancer in the Northern Plains Region.

American Indians residing in the Northern Plains region of the Indian Health Service experience some of the most severe cancer-related health disparities. We investigated ways in which the community climate among an American Indian population in an urban community in the Northern Plains region influences community readiness to address cancer. A Community Readiness Assessment, following the Community Readiness Model, conducted semi-structured interviews with eight educators, eight students, and eight community leaders from the American Indian community in Omaha's urban American Indian population and established the Northern Plains region community at a low level of readiness to address cancer. This study reports on a subsequent qualitative study that analyzed all 24 interview transcriptions for emergent themes to help understand the prevailing attitude of the community toward cancer. A synthesis of six emergent themes revealed that the community's perceptions of high levels of severity and barriers, paired with perceptions of low levels of susceptibility and benefits, lead to low levels of self-efficacy, all of which are reflected in minimal cues to action and little effort to address cancer. These findings, interpreted through the lens of the Health Belief Model, can inform the development of more community-based, comprehensive, and culturally appropriate approaches to address the multilevel determinants of health behaviors in relation to cancer among American Indians in the Northern Plains region.

Calibrating personality self-report scores to acquaintance ratings

By convention in individual personality assessment, scores on self-report questionnaires within ±.5 standard deviations of the mean score for that trait are considered "average," whereas scores outside that range are reported as "high" or "low" levels of the trait. To date, no one has examined how well this convention corresponds to perceptions of low, average, or high trait levels by acquaintances. The present study compares the accuracy of the conventional ±.5 SD cutting scores for low, average, and high trait levels with cutting scores derived from Optimal Data Analysis (ODA; Yarnold & Seltysik, 2005) for 160 participants who completed the IPIP-NEO-300 (Goldberg, 1999; Johnson, 2014) and were rated by acquaintances on the 30 facets and 5 domains of that instrument. In 32 of 35 comparisons, the ±.5 convention was found to be less accurate than the ODA method for deriving cutting scores.

Managing Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Together: The Effects of Stakeholder Participation and Third-Party Organization (TPO) Endorsement on CSR Initiative Effectiveness

Engaging in strategic corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives is one of the strategies firms employ to positively influence stakeholder perceptions and induce desirable business outcomes. However, merely employing CSR initiatives may not always guarantee success, as poorly executed and inadequately managed CSR initiatives might be counterproductive for a company and even inhibit that company from reaping those initiatives’ benefits. The CSR literature claims that stakeholder participation and third-party organization (TPO) endorsements are effective CSR management approaches, yet little scholarly attention has been given to their effects on customers’ attitudes and intentions. To address the question pertaining to the impact of participation strategies (information, response, involvement) and third-party endorsement on CSR effectiveness determinants (perceived motives and skepticism) and customers’ intention to engage in a company’s CSR initiative, a 3 × 2 between-respondents factorial experiment with 213 Dutch health insurance clients was implemented. Results indicate that only stakeholder participation positively influences individuals’ intention to engage with the initiative, and that this effect is mediated by perceptions of CSR motives and low levels of skepticism.

The moderating effect of corruption on the relationship between formal institutions and entrepreneurial activity

PurposeCorruption has been shown to discourage entrepreneurship in both developed and developing countries. However, it is less clear to what extent corruption affects the development of institutions’ impact on entrepreneurial activity in the context of emerging economies, such as those in the post-communist countries. The purpose of this study is to use institutional economics as a conceptual framework to analyse the moderating effect of control of corruption (informal institution) on the relationship between formal institutions (such as the number of procedures, education and training [TEDU], access to finance and technology absorption) and entrepreneurial activity.Design/methodology/approachThe study used panel data of 14 post-communist countries and different secondary databases from the years 2006-2016.FindingsThe main findings showed the importance of the institutional environment (formal and informal) on encouraging the rates of entrepreneurial activity. Overall, corruption showed that it behaves as a moderator between formal institutions and entrepreneurship. In particular, the evidence from this study showed that formal institutions, such as the number of procedures and TEDU, are more likely to encourage individual’s choice to become an entrepreneur and start a new business activity in post-communist economies that have a perception of lower levels of corruption.Originality/valueThis study has several implications from both theoretical perspectives (advancing the application of institutional economics for the study of entrepreneurship) and from the practical point of view (providing insights for governmental policies interested in fostering higher levels of entrepreneurial activity).

Visual Working Memory Directly Alters Perception

Visual working memory (VWM), the ability to temporarily maintain and manipulate information, underlies a variety of critical high-level behaviours from directing attention1-4 to making complex decisions5. Here we show that its impact extends to even the most basic levels of perceptual processing, directly interacting with and even distorting the physical appearance of visual features. This interference results from and can be predicted by the recruitment of posterior perceptual cortices to maintain information in VWM6-9, which causes an overlap with the neuronal populations supporting perceptual processing10-15. Across three sets of experiments, we demonstrated bidirectional interference between VWM and low-level perception. Specifically, for both maintained colours and orientations, presenting a distractor created bias in VWM representation depending on the similarity between incoming and maintained information, consistent with the known tuning curves for these features. Moreover, holding an item in mind directly altered the appearance of new stimuli, demonstrated by changes in psychophysical discrimination thresholds. Thus, as a consequence of sharing the early visual cortices, what you see and what you are holding in mind are intertwined at even the most fundamental stages of processing.

Visual working memory directly alters perception

Visual working memory (VWM), the ability to temporarily maintain and manipulate information, underlies a variety of critical high-level behaviours from directing attention1-4 to making complex decisions5. Here we show that its impact extends to even the most basic levels of perceptual processing, directly interacting with and even distorting the physical appearance of visual features. This interference results from and can be predicted by the recruitment of posterior perceptual cortices to maintain information in VWM6-9, which causes an overlap with the neuronal populations supporting perceptual processing10-15. Across three sets of experiments, we demonstrated bidirectional interference between VWM and low-level perception. Specifically, for both maintained colours and orientations, presenting a distractor created bias in VWM representation depending on the similarity between incoming and maintained information, consistent with the known tuning curves for these features. Moreover, holding an item in mind directly altered the appearance of new stimuli, demonstrated by changes in psychophysical discrimination thresholds. Thus, as a consequence of sharing the early visual cortices, what you see and what you are holding in mind are intertwined at even the most fundamental stages of processing.

Relating categorization to set summary statistics perception

Two cognitive processes have been explored that compensate for the limited information that can be perceived and remembered at any given moment. The first parsimonious cognitive process is object categorization. We naturally relate objects to their category, assume they share relevant category properties, often disregarding irrelevant characteristics. Another scene organizing mechanism is representing aspects of the visual world in terms of summary statistics. Spreading attention over a group of objects with some similarity, one perceives an ensemble representation of the group. Without encoding detailed information of individuals, observers process summary data concerning the group, including set mean for various features (from circle size to face expression). Just as categorization may include/depend on prototype and intercategory boundaries, so set perception includes property mean and range. We now explore common features of these processes. We previously investigated summary perception of low-level features with a rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) paradigm and found that participants perceive both the mean and range extremes of stimulus sets, automatically, implicitly, and on-the-fly, for each RSVP sequence, independently. We now use the same experimental paradigm to test category representation of high-level objects. We find participants perceive categorical characteristics better than they code individual elements. We relate category prototype to set mean and same/different category to in/out-of-range elements, defining a direct parallel between low-level set perception and high-level categorization. The implicit effects of mean or prototype and set or category boundaries are very similar. We suggest that object categorization may share perceptual-computational mechanisms with set summary statistics perception.

From motion perception to Bob Dylan.

Directionals like from New York, through the tunnel, into the dark represent a major class of spatial expressions, typically associated with locomotion (verbs). Semantically, many of their aspects are notoriously difficult to characterize, among them their characteristics (classification, typology), their relation to locatives (e. g. in New York, in the tunnel, in the dark), and their composition with verbs (especially in non-locomotion contexts). Cognitively, there is a big theoretical gap to fill between aspects of low-level motion perception and the conception of static situations in terms of non-actual (loco)motion.
 This paper first critically discusses Zwarts’ explicit formal account of directionals, then introduces a Cognitivist attentional semantics and finally applies the Cognitivist approach to directionals. It will be shown that attention-based conceptual representations are necessary components in directional semantics and explanatory for the mentioned aspects.

Associations between interoceptive sensitivity, intuitive eating, and body mass index in patients with anorexia nervosa and normal-weight controls.

Reduced perception of bodily signals and low levels of intuitive eating have been reported in patients with anorexia nervosa (AN) compared with normal‐weight individuals. However, findings have been inconsistent and treatment progress might account for some of these inconsistencies. Thirty‐seven inpatients with AN and 39 normal‐weight controls completed a heartbeat perception task and the Intuitive Eating Scale–2. Patients with AN reported lower intuitive eating than controls, whereas interoceptive sensitivity did not differ between groups. Higher interoceptive sensitivity was related to higher intuitive eating across both groups. In patients with AN, both higher interoceptive sensitivity and intuitive eating correlated with the number of days in the hospital and with higher body mass index (BMI), when controlling for BMI at admission. These relationships suggest that interoceptive sensitivity and intuitive eating improve during treatment. Future research should determine whether these improvements promote weight gain or follow it.

Cancer survivorship care after curative treatment: Chinese oncology practitioners' practices.

To establish oncology practitioners' perceptions of responsibility, confidence levels, and frequency of survivorship care practice in relation to the post-treatment phase of survivorship care in Mainland China; to identify factors associated with oncology practitioners' perceptions of responsibility, confidence levels, and frequency of survivorship care practice; and to examine factors that impede the provision of quality survivorship care. A cross-sectional survey of Chinese oncology practitioners was conducted using a test battery consisting of a self-developed information sheet, a 29-item survivorship care scale (29-SCS), and a 16-item impeding factors scale. There were 331 participants. Mean values of the four subscales (8.87, 61.82, 18.62, and 40.49) on perceptions of responsibility were relatively higher than those of the mean values of confidence levels and frequency of survivorship care practice. Participant characteristics, including professional discipline, highest educational qualification achieved, work status, work role, and work setting, were identified as factors associated with oncology practitioners' responsibility perceptions, confidence levels, and survivorship care practice frequency. The top three barriers to quality survivorship care perceived by participants were lack of time, an appropriate physical location, and evidence-based practice guidelines to inform survivorship care. Findings of relatively high levels of perception of responsibility and low levels of confidence in survivorship care suggest that survivorship care is needed, with the aim of implementing oncology practitioners' responsibility and improving their confidence in providing survivorship care in cancer practice. Future multiple levels of cooperation for overcoming barriers and implementing quality survivorship care are highly recommended.

Open-Ended Learning: A Conceptual Framework Based on Representational Redescription.

Reinforcement learning (RL) aims at building a policy that maximizes a task-related reward within a given domain. When the domain is known, i.e., when its states, actions and reward are defined, Markov Decision Processes (MDPs) provide a convenient theoretical framework to formalize RL. But in an open-ended learning process, an agent or robot must solve an unbounded sequence of tasks that are not known in advance and the corresponding MDPs cannot be built at design time. This defines the main challenges of open-ended learning: how can the agent learn how to behave appropriately when the adequate states, actions and rewards representations are not given? In this paper, we propose a conceptual framework to address this question. We assume an agent endowed with low-level perception and action capabilities. This agent receives an external reward when it faces a task. It must discover the state and action representations that will let it cast the tasks as MDPs in order to solve them by RL. The relevance of the action or state representation is critical for the agent to learn efficiently. Considering that the agent starts with a low level, task-agnostic state and action spaces based on its low-level perception and action capabilities, we describe open-ended learning as the challenge of building the adequate representation of states and actions, i.e., of redescribing available representations. We suggest an iterative approach to this problem based on several successive Representational Redescription processes, and highlight the corresponding challenges in which intrinsic motivations play a key role.

Intact perceptual bias in autism contradicts the decreased normalization model

One recent, promising account of Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) situates the cause of the disorder in an atypicality in basic neural information processing, more specifically in how activity of one neuron is modulated by neighboring neurons. The canonical neural computation that implements such contextual influence is called divisive (or suppressive) normalization. The account proposes that this normalization is reduced in ASD. We tested one fundamental prediction of this model for low-level perception, namely that individuals with ASD would show reduced cross-orientation suppression (leading to an illusory tilt perception). 11 young adults with an ASD diagnosis and 12 age-, gender-, and IQ-matched control participants performed a psychophysical orientation perception task with compound grating stimuli. Illusory tilt perception did not differ significantly between groups, indicating typical divisive normalization in individuals with ASD. In fact, all individuals with ASD showed a considerable orientation bias. There was also no correlation between illusory tilt perception and autistic traits as measured by the Social Responsiveness Scale. These results provide clear evidence against the decreased divisive normalization model of ASD in low-level perception, where divisive normalization is best characterized. We evaluate the broader existing evidence for this model and propose ways to salvage and refine the model.

Altération de la perception visuelle élémentaire en psychiatrie

Objectives Abnormalities in visual perception are not at the foreground of schizophrenia symptomatology [1] , [2] , [3] . They are nonetheless often found in the patients’ complaints during prodromal phases, and have been described as one of the best predictor of schizophrenia conversion. What is the link between perceptual disorders and clinical symptoms in schizophrenia ? After a short discussion of different perceptual abnormalities, we will focus on the time structure of perception, that illustrates possible links between low-level perception disorders, predictive coding and the sense of minimal self (the self that helps to feel as being present here and now). Methods We tested the link between the sense of self and time disorders in 28 stabilized patients with schizophrenia and 24 matched controls. We evaluated time expectation, as indexed by the ability to benefit from the passage of time to react to a visual target : expectation increases with time, leading to shorter reaction times. We additionally check to which amount this phenomena is modulated when the targets are missing in some trials, and can be compensated for by attention cues. In parallel, minimal self-disorders were evaluated with the EASE (phenomenological scale). Results Patients can expect sensory signals and react to unusual events like missing targets as well as controls. However, the patients who display disorders of the minimal self (EASE) do not benefit from the passage of time, and all patients display disrupted time expectation when the occurrence of events is uncertain. Conclusion The results suggest a link between timing and minimal self disorders. Time expectation helps to link events with one another and to transform a chain of discontinuous events in a continuous flow. Conversely, fragile time expectations may lead to a sense of discontinuity, which could disrupt the flow of sensory signals, thus contributing to minimal self-disorders.

Perceptual and judgment creep

Psychology Do we think that a problem persists even when it has become less frequent? Levari et al. show experimentally that when the “signal” a person is searching for becomes rare, the person naturally responds by broadening his or her definition of the signal—and therefore continues to find it even when it is not there. From low-level perception of color to higher-level judgments of ethics, there is a robust tendency for perceptual and judgmental standards to “creep” when they ought not to. For example, when blue dots become rare, participants start calling purple dots blue, and when threatening faces become rare, participants start calling neutral faces threatening. This phenomenon has broad implications that may help explain why people whose job is to find and eliminate problems in the world often cannot tell when their work is done. Science , this issue p. [1465][1] [1]: /lookup/doi/10.1126/science.aap8731

Identidad nacional, dominancia social y percepción del sistema normativo en Lima-Perú

relationship among National Identity, Social Dominance (SD) and perception of Nor-mative System (NS) were analyzed in citizens of upper middle class from Lima (n = 156). Results show high levels of valuation and identification with the national in-group and there is consensus to recognize self-stereotypes of Warmth and Competence as the most representative of it. Also, a predominantly negative perception of ns and low levels of sd are observed in participants. At correlational level, results show that self-stereotype of Morality is inversely related to a negative representation of the ns, whereas attribute of Warmth is directly related to a positive perception of the ns, and the sd is also related to a positive evaluation of ns. Although ns representation does not affect levels of identification or assess-ment of national in-group membership, it will be linked to how people self-stereotypically represent their group

CONTENT BASED IMAGE RETRIEVAL USING HYBRID-SVM

The goal of content based image retrieval is to retrieve the images that users want to search. Content based Image retrieval systems attempt to search through a database to find images that are perceptually similar to a query image. Set of low-Level visual features (Color, Shape and Texture) are used to represent an image in most modern content based image retrieval systems. Therefore, between high-level information and low-level features a gap exists, which are the main reason that down the improvement of the image retrieval accuracy.In this paper Hybrid support vector machine (SVM) method proposed to retrieve several features and shorten the semantic gap between low-level visual feature and high-level perception. Image data set is taken from coral image data set. MATLAB 2009a is used as a simulator to analysis the proposed work.

Emergent Structuring of Interdependent Affordance Learning Tasks Using Intrinsic Motivation and Empirical Feature Selection

This paper studies mechanisms that produce hierarchical structuring of affordance learning tasks of different levels of complexity. Guided by intrinsic motivation, our system detects easy tasks first, and learns them in selected environments which are maximally different from the previously encountered ones. Easy tasks are learned from observed low-level attributes of the environment, and provide abstractions over these attributes. As learning progresses, the system shifts its focus and starts learning harder tasks not only from low-level attributes but also from previously-learned abstract concepts. Therefore, hard tasks are autonomously placed higher in the hierarchy if the easy task concepts are identified as distinctive input attributes of hard tasks. Use of abstract concepts allows hard tasks to be learned faster than learning them from scratch, i.e., from low-level perception only. We tested our system with the tasks of learning effect predictions for poke and stack actions using a dataset that includes 83 real-world objects. On the basis of a large number of runs of the method, our analysis shows that the hierarchical task structure emerged as expected, along with a consistent learning order. Furthermore, a significant bootstrapping effect in learning speed of the stack action was observed with the discovered hierarchy, albeit only when fully-learned poke actions were used from the beginning.

Functional and spatial segregation within the inferior frontal and superior temporal cortices during listening, articulation imagery, and production of vowels

Classical models of language localize speech perception in the left superior temporal and production in the inferior frontal cortex. Nonetheless, neuropsychological, structural and functional studies have questioned such subdivision, suggesting an interwoven organization of the speech function within these cortices. We tested whether sub-regions within frontal and temporal speech-related areas retain specific phonological representations during both perception and production. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging and multivoxel pattern analysis, we showed functional and spatial segregation across the left fronto-temporal cortex during listening, imagery and production of vowels. In accordance with classical models of language and evidence from functional studies, the inferior frontal and superior temporal cortices discriminated among perceived and produced vowels respectively, also engaging in the non-classical, alternative function – i.e. perception in the inferior frontal and production in the superior temporal cortex. Crucially, though, contiguous and non-overlapping sub-regions within these hubs performed either the classical or non-classical function, the latter also representing non-linguistic sounds (i.e., pure tones). Extending previous results and in line with integration theories, our findings not only demonstrate that sensitivity to speech listening exists in production-related regions and vice versa, but they also suggest that the nature of such interwoven organisation is built upon low-level perception.

Evaluating Low-Level Speech Features Against Human Perceptual Data

We introduce a method for measuring the correspondence between low-level speech features and human perception, using a cognitive model of speech perception implemented directly on speech recordings. We evaluate two speaker normalization techniques using this method and find that in both cases, speech features that are normalized across speakers predict human data better than unnormalized speech features, consistent with previous research. Results further reveal differences across normalization methods in how well each predicts human data. This work provides a new framework for evaluating low-level representations of speech on their match to human perception, and lays the groundwork for creating more ecologically valid models of speech perception.

Associations Between Parental Factors and Child Diabetes-Management-Related Behaviors.

Adherence to diabetes-management regimens in children requires teamwork and consistency from both parents and children. This study investigated a mediational model developed to understand the relationship between different modifiable parent factors influencing child diabetes-related behaviors. We recruited 186 parents of children aged 2 to 10 years with Type 1 diabetes to complete self-report questionnaires on child diabetes behavior, parental self-efficacy with managing the child's behavior, parent diabetes self-efficacy, parent adjustment, condition management effort, parent perception of their diabetes knowledge, and parenting behavior. We used structural equation modeling in AMOS to test our hypothesized model of interrelationships between variables associated with child diabetes behavior. The hypothesized model provided good fit to the data. We found that parent perception of low levels of diabetes knowledge and higher levels of condition management effort, and parent adjustment difficulties were associated with lower parental self-efficacy with diabetes management. This was further linked with lower levels of parental self-efficacy with managing their child's diabetes behavior, and consequently, higher extent of child diabetes behavior problems. Contrary to our expectations, we did not find a significant effect of parenting behavior on child diabetes behavior problems, either directly or indirectly via parent self-efficacy for managing child's behavior. Our findings shed light on the mechanisms through which different parenting factors interact and are associated with diabetes behavior in children. These factors can be targeted through parenting interventions to improve child's cooperation with diabetes-management tasks and reduce barriers to effective management.