Multidimensional Stimuli Research Articles

Use of multiple dimensions in learned discriminations

Many naturally occurring categories vary across multiple stimulus dimensions (e.g. size, color, texture). When humans categorize multidimensional stimuli on the basis of a single dimension this has been taken to indicate use of a rule that could be verbalized. Sorting on the basis of all the stimulus dimensions (‘overall similarity’ or ‘family resemblance’) has been taken to indicate a more basic, implicit, automatic, perhaps associative process. However, a review of the literature on animal discrimination learning shows that animals often discriminate on the basis of one dominant dimension. In recent experiments, situations conducive to more complex cognitive processes have increased family resemblance sorting in humans. In an effort to resolve this apparent paradox, experiments were conducted in which humans and pigeons were exposed to multidimensional category discrimination tasks under closely similar conditions. Preliminary results show no evidence that even a non-verbal rule can be said to be involved in pigeons’ choices in these conditions, despite the fact that under some conditions a single dimension may dominate their behavior.

Searching for best exemplars in multidimensional stimulus spaces

Examining phonetic categorization in multidimensional stimulus spaces poses a number of practical problems. The traditional method of forced identification becomes prohibitive when the number and size of stimulus dimensions becomes increasingly large. In response, Evans and Iverson [J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 115, 352-361 (2004)] proposed an adaptive tracking algorithm for finding vowel best exemplars in a multidimensional space. This algorithm converged on best exemplars in a small number of trials; however, the search method was designed explicitly for vowel stimuli. In this paper, a more general multidimensional search algorithm is described, and results from simulations and experiments using the proposed algorithm are presented.

Do discrimination tasks discourage multi-dimensional stimulus processing?: Evidence from a cross-modal object discrimination in rats

Neurobiologists are becoming increasingly interested in how complex cognitive representations are formed by the integration of sensory stimuli. To this end, discrimination tasks are frequently used to assess perceptual and cognitive processes in animals, because they are easy to administer and score, and the ability of an animal to make a particular discrimination establishes beyond doubt that the necessary perceptual/cognitive processes are present. It does not, however, follow that absence of discrimination means the animal cannot make a particular perceptual judgement; it may simply mean that the animal did not manage to discover the relevant discriminative stimulus when trying to learn the task. Here, it is shown that rats did not learn a cross-modal object discrimination (requiring association of each object's visual appearance with its odour) when trained on the complete task from the beginning. However, they could eventually make the discrimination when trained on the component parts step by step, showing that they were able to do the necessary cross-modal integration in the right circumstances. This finding adds to growing evidence that discrimination tasks tend to encourage feature-based discrimination, perhaps by engaging automatic, habit-based brain systems. Thus, they may not be the best way to assess the formation of multi-dimensional stimulus representations of the kind needed in more complex cognitive processes such as declarative memory. Instead, more natural tasks such as spontaneous exploration may be preferable.

Interval Coding. II. Dendrite-Dependent Mechanisms

The rich temporal structure of neural spike trains provides multiple dimensions to code dynamic stimuli. Popular examples are spike trains from sensory cells where bursts and isolated spikes can serve distinct coding roles. In contrast to analyses of neural coding, the cellular mechanics of burst mechanisms are typically elucidated from the neural response to static input. Bridging the mechanics of bursting with coding of dynamic stimuli is an important step in establishing theories of neural coding. Electrosensory lateral line lobe (ELL) pyramidal neurons respond to static inputs with a complex dendrite-dependent burst mechanism. Here we show that in response to dynamic broadband stimuli, these bursts lack some of the electrophysiological characteristics observed in response to static inputs. A simple leaky integrate-and-fire (LIF)-style model with a dendrite-dependent depolarizing afterpotential (DAP) is sufficient to match both the output statistics and coding performance of experimental spike trains. We use this model to investigate a simplification of interval coding where the burst interspike interval (ISI) codes for the scale of a canonical upstroke rather than a multidimensional stimulus feature. Using this stimulus reduction, we compute a quantization of the burst ISIs and the upstroke scale to show that the mutual information rate of the interval code is maximized at a moderate DAP amplitude. The combination of a reduced description of ELL pyramidal cell bursting and a simplification of the interval code increases the generality of ELL burst codes to other sensory modalities.

Coding processes involved in the cortical representation of complex tactile stimuli

To understand how information is coded in the primary somatosensory cortex (S1) we need to decipher the relationship between neural activity and tactile stimuli. Such a relationship can be formally measured by mutual information. The present study was designed to determine how S1 neuronal populations code for the multidimensional kinetic features (i.e. random, time-varying patterns of force) of complex tactile stimuli, applied at different locations of the rat forepaw. More precisely, the stimulus localization and feature extraction were analyzed as two independent processes, using both rate coding and temporal coding strategies. To model the process of stimulus kinetic feature extraction, multidimensional stimuli were projected onto lower dimensional subspace and then clustered according to their similarity. Different combinations of stimuli clustering were applied to differentiate each stimulus identification process. Information analyses show that both processes are synergistic, this synergy is enhanced within the temporal coding framework. The stimulus localization process is faster than the stimulus feature extraction process. The latter provides more information quantity with rate coding strategy, whereas the localization process maximizes the mutual information within the temporal coding framework. Therefore, combining mutual information analysis with robust clustering of complex stimuli provides a framework to study neural coding mechanisms related to complex stimuli discrimination.

Feature sampling in detection: Implications for the measurement of perceptual independence.

The article presents the feature sampling signal detection (FS-SDT) model, an extension of the multivariate signal detection (SDT) model. The FS-SDT model assumes that, because of attentional shifts, different subsets of features are sampled for different presentations of the same multidimensional stimulus. Contrary to the SDT model, the FS-SDT model enables the estimation of pure perceptual effects that are uncontaminated by strategic attention shifts. The consideration of feature sampling in detection and identification opens a new perspective on the problem of measuring, respectively, the separability and integrality of stimulus dimensions. Disregarding feature sampling as a component process in detection and identification usually results in biased estimations of perceptual independence concepts relevant for judgments of whether stimulus dimensions are processed independently.

Event-Related Brain Potentials: Report Order and Task Switch on Multidimensional Stimuli Identification

An experiment was conducted to evaluate the effect of order of reporting stimulus dimension in multidimensional stimulus identification using a switch-task paradigm. Participants were required to identify each two-dimensional symbol by pushing the corresponding buttons on the keypad on which there were two columns representing the two dimensions, part and shape. The two orders of report were Order Part/Shape and Order Shape/Part. There was a task cue prior to each presentation of a symbol indicating the particular report order the participants should perform. The cue changed randomly. Both behavioral data and event-related potentials were recorded from 12 college students. Analysis of behavioral data showed switch cost indicated by increase in response time was greater for Order Shape/Part, a less appropriate order of reporting dimensional values, than Order Part/Shape (88 msec. vs 9 msec. for response time for the first stimulus dimension; 96 msec. vs -1 msec. for response time total). Neural activities under Order Shape/Part and Order Part/Shape were different, and it seems plausible that participants put more effort into selection and showed more related semantic activation in Order Shape/Part than in Order Part/ Shape which fits the Chinese adjective-then-noun language habit.

Formant movement and duration in second-language vowel learning

This study tested native speakers of Norwegian, German, French, and Spanish on their recognition and production of L2 English vowels. A goodness-optimization method was used to construct phonetically detailed perceptual vowel space maps for each listener’s L1 and L2 (English). These maps comprised best exemplar locations in a multidimensional stimulus space that included F1 and F2 target frequencies, F1 and F2 movement, and duration. The maps were then compared to assessments of each individual’s recognition accuracy for naturally spoken English vowels and their degree of accent for spoken English. The results demonstrated that all four language groups used phonetic detail to recognize English vowels; individuals had higher recognition accuracy for natural English vowels when their best exemplars had formant movement and duration contrast that were more like those of L1 English speakers. However, their use of phonetic detail was not entirely predictable by their L1 background. It thus appears that individuals with a range of L1 backgrounds form phonetically detailed category representations during L2 learning, and that their representation of phonetic detail has practical implications for recognizing natural L2 speech.

Event-Related Potential as a Measure of Effects of Report Order and Training on Identification of Multidimensional Stimuli

This experiment investigated effects of report order and training on multidimensional stimulus identification. Subjects were required to identify each two-dimensional symbol. There were two orders of reporting the two dimensions of a stimulus. Subjects performed the task for three practice sessions. Both behavioral data and event-related potentials were recorded. Analysis showed order of report had no significant effect on behavior data. But when participants responded in Order Shape/ Part, they showed more N2 inhibition for Order Part/Shape. The P3 mean amplitude was marginally significantly greater for Order Part/Shape than Order Shape/Part. This indicated Order Part/Shape, according to natural language habits, was more appropriate and less cognitively demanding than Order Shape/Part. For the two report orders, along with reduction of reaction time, amplitude of N1 and N2 increased with practice. Amplitude of P2 decreased with practice, and no P3 habituation was found. ERP data indicated no habituation effect. Results suggested neural activity depended not only on perceptual mechanism but also on extent of learning.

Speeded old-new recognition of multidimensional perceptual stimuli: Modeling performance at the individual-participant and individual-item levels.

Observers made speeded old-new recognition judgments of color stimuli embedded in a multidimensional similarity space. The paradigm used multiple lists but with the underlying similarity structures repeated across lists, to allow for quantitative modeling of the data at the individual-participant and individual-item levels. Correct-rejection response times (RTs) got systematically faster as the similarity of foils to the old study items decreased. There were also intricate patterns of speed-accuracy trade-offs that varied across individual items and participants. An exemplar-based random-walk model provided a good overall quantitative account of the recognition choice probabilities, mean correct RTs, and mean error RTs associated with the individual items on the basis of their positions in multidimensional similarity space. However, the model failed to predict the very long RTs associated with correct rejections of a prototype foil.

Tuning for shape dimensions in macaque inferior temporal cortex

It is widely assumed that distributed bell-shaped tuning (e.g. Radial Basis functions) characterizes the shape selectivity of macaque inferior temporal (IT) neurons, analogous to the orientation or spatial frequency tuning found in early visual cortex. Demonstrating such tuning properties requires testing the responses of neurons for different values along dimensions of shape. We recorded the responses of single macaque IT neurons to variations of a rectangle and a triangle along simple shape dimensions, such as taper and axis curvature. The neurons showed systematic response modulation along these dimensions, with the greatest response, on average, to the highest values on the dimensions, e.g. to the most curved shapes. Within the range of values tested, the response functions were monotonic rather than bell-shaped. Multi-dimensional scaling of the neural responses showed that these simple shape dimensions were coded orthogonally by IT neurons: the degree and direction of responses modulation (i.e. the increase or decrease of responses along a dimension) was independent for the different dimensions. Furthermore, for combinations of curvature-related and other simple shape dimensions, the joint tuning was separable, that is well predicted by the product of the tuning for each of the dimensions. The independence of dimensional tuning may provide the neural basis for the independence of psychophysical judgements of multidimensional stimuli.

Dissociable roles of the human somatosensory and superior temporal cortices for processing social face signals

Faces are multi-dimensional stimuli bearing important social signals, such as gaze direction and emotion expression. To test whether perception of these two facial attributes recruits distinct cortical areas within the right hemisphere, we used single-pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) in healthy volunteers while they performed two different tasks on the same face stimuli. In each task, two successive faces were presented with varying eye-gaze directions and emotional expressions, separated by a short interval of random duration. TMS was applied over either the right somatosensory cortex or the right superior lateral temporal cortex, 100 or 200 ms after presentation of the second face stimulus. Participants performed a speeded matching task on the second face during one of two possible conditions, requiring judgements about either gaze direction or emotion expression (same/different as the first face). Our results reveal a significant task-stimulation site interaction, indicating a selective TMS-related interference following stimulations of somatosensory cortex during the emotional expression task. Conversely, TMS of the superior lateral temporal cortex selectively interfered with the gaze direction task. We also found that the interference effect was specific to the stimulus content in each condition, affecting judgements of gaze shifts (not static eye positions) with TMS over the right superior temporal cortex, and judgements of fearful expressions (not happy expressions) with TMS over the right somatosensory cortex. These results provide for the first time a double dissociation in normal subjects during social face recognition, due to transient disruption of non-overlapping brain regions. The present study supports a critical role of the somatosensory and superior lateral temporal regions in the perception of fear expression and gaze shift in seen faces, respectively.

How different feature spaces may be represented in cortical maps

This paper explores how different high-dimensional feature spaces might be represented in cortical maps, subject to continuity and completeness constraints. Spaces explored included products of circular variables (such as orientation), products of linear dimensions encoding scalar features (such as spatial frequency) and products of binary features. Maps were generated using the Kohonen algorithm, with uniform or non-uniform stimulus distributions. A 2D retina was always assumed to be present. Simulations were run with and without annealing. For uniform input distributions, coverage uniformity (Swindale 1991 Biol. Cybern. 65 415-24) was used to measure how well the map was able to represent the feature space. For non-uniform distributions a weighted measure of coverage uniformity was calculated. Good coverage could be achieved for up to five or six cyclic variables but was substantially worse for a similar number of uniformly distributed scalar features. For annealed maps of multi-dimensional stimuli with Gaussian distributions, the distribution of receptive field centres and the distribution of total activity evoked on the cortex matched the stimulus distribution well. For annealed maps of non-uniformly distributed binary features there was an approximately linear relationship between the area of a map devoted to a specific feature and the probability of occurrence of the feature during development. Deviations from uniform retinotopy often led to improved coverage.

A model of aesthetic appreciation and aesthetic judgments

Although aesthetic experiences are frequent in modern life, there is as of yet no scientifically comprehensive theory that explains what psychologically constitutes such experiences. These experiences are particularly interesting because of their hedonic properties and the possibility to provide self-rewarding cognitive operations. We shall explain why modern art's large number of individualized styles, innovativeness and conceptuality offer positive aesthetic experiences. Moreover, the challenge of art is mainly driven by a need for understanding. Cognitive challenges of both abstract art and other conceptual, complex and multidimensional stimuli require an extension of previous approaches to empirical aesthetics. We present an information-processing stage model of aesthetic processing. According to the model, aesthetic experiences involve five stages: perception, explicit classification, implicit classification, cognitive mastering and evaluation. The model differentiates between aesthetic emotion and aesthetic judgments as two types of output.

Peak shift but not range effects in recognition of faces

University students were trained to discriminate between two gray-scale images of faces that varied along a continuum from a unique face to an average face created by morphing. Following training, participants were tested without feedback for their ability to recognize the positive face (S+) within a range of faces along the continuum. In Experiments 1 and 4, the range of stimuli presented during testing was manipulated. In Experiment 2, participants viewed different ranges of faces during an adaptation period that followed training and preceded testing. In all experiments, generalization functions revealed peak shifts or area shifts (fewer “yes” responses to novel faces on the negative side of the S+), but no systematic effects of the test or adaptation range. Peak shift was found both for upright and inverted faces and occurred even if the orientation of the face was reversed between training and test. Using similar methods, either an area shift or range effect (but not both together) was demonstrated for line tilt stimuli (Experiment 3), and the appearance of these effects depended on instructions. It appears that peak shift and area shift are robust across many different kinds of stimuli, but range effects may not readily occur with complex multidimensional stimuli.

How different feature spaces may be represented in cortical maps

This paper explores how different high-dimensional feature spaces might be represented in cortical maps, subject to continuity and completeness constraints. Spaces explored included products of circular variables (such as orientation), products of linear dimensions encoding scalar features (such as spatial frequency) and products of binary features. Maps were generated using the Kohonen algorithm, with uniform or non-uniform stimulus distributions. A 2D retina was always assumed to be present. Simulations were run with and without annealing. For uniform input distributions, coverage uniformity (Swindale 1991 Biol. Cybern. 65 415–24) was used to measure how well the map was able to represent the feature space. For non-uniform distributions a weighted measure of coverage uniformity was calculated. Good coverage could be achieved for up to five or six cyclic variables but was substantially worse for a similar number of uniformly distributed scalar features. For annealed maps of multi-dimensional stimuli with Gaussian distributions, the distribution of receptive field centres and the distribution of total activity evoked on the cortex matched the stimulus distribution well. For annealed maps of non-uniformly distributed binary features there was an approximately linear relationship between the area of a map devoted to a specific feature and the probability of occurrence of the feature during development. Deviations from uniform retinotopy often led to improved coverage.

Usability Magnitude Estimation

Magnitude estimation is a measurement method that is very useful for measuring multi-faceted constructs that do not have a physical analog (e.g., usability) and are produced from multidimensional stimuli (e.g., user interfaces). Traditional usability metrics have shown limitations in usefulness and validity. Usability magnitude estimation is an assessment method whereby participants assign usability ‘values’ to tasks, conditions, or other user interface targets according to ratio-based number assignments. The resultant ratio-scale data is appropriate for parametric statistical analysis. This method has been used successfully in a variety of usability activities at Oracle. It has proven to be efficient, sensitive, and highly effective for comparisons using usability as a differentiator.

Asymmetries in Stimulus Comparisons by Monkey and Man

Similarity is a core concept in theories of object recognition, categorization, and reasoning [1–2]. It is often conceptualized as a geometric distance in a multidimensional stimulus space [3–5]. However, research in humans has revealed that similarity judgments involve more than a simple distance calculation and tend to be asymmetric when stimuli differ in factors such as prototypicality [6–11]. For example, most people judge 99 to be more similar to 100 than 100 to 99. Up to now, it was not known whether such asymmetries might also occur in nonhuman subjects. This study reveals asymmetries in the pattern of errors made by four rhesus monkeys in a temporal same/different task. Monkeys usually perceived a smaller difference between two different stimuli when the first stimulus in a trial was less prototypical than the second, just as what was found previously for human subjects. The pattern of asymmetries differed between monkeys, and a control study showed that such variability is also present for human subjects. We propose that known neurophysiological mechanisms [12] can account for asymmetry in the stimulus comparisons of both species. Thus, seemingly complex phenomena that occur when human subjects rate stimulus similarity are also present in macaques' similarity judgments and could be based on relatively simple mechanisms.

Priming of mental operations by masked stimuli.

Motor responses can be affected by visual stimuli that have been made invisible by masking. Can masked visual stimuli also affect nonmotor operations that are necessary to perform the task? Here, I report priming effects of masked stimuli on operations that were cued by masking stimuli. Cues informed participants about operations that had to be executed with a forthcoming target stimulus. In five experiments, cues indicated (1) the required response, (2) part of the motor response, (3) the stimulus modality of the target stimulus, or (4) the task to be performed on a multidimensional stimulus. Motor and nonmotor priming effects followed comparable time courses, which differed from those of prime recognition. Experiment 5 demonstrated nonmotor priming without prime awareness. Results suggest that motor and nonmotor operations are similarly affected by masked stimuli.

Response context affects judgments of flavor components in foods and beverages

Panelists in sensory evaluation studies often make judgments about specific components of flavor (for example, sweetness) that are embedded in the complex, multi-dimensional sensory experience elicited by a food or beverage. Studies with multi-modal mixtures provide evidence that the variations in instructions and the response context have a significant impact on the way panelists make these judgments. Response alternatives set a context that influences an observer's approach to an evaluation task prior to the presentation of the stimuli. Observers develop a strategy for dealing with the task, and the number and type of response alternatives represent constraints that the experimenter imposes on the observer. Studies of odor-induced enhancement of taste ratings and taste mixtures provide support for this view. A model for the judgment of flavor components is described which attempts to account for the influence of both perceptual and conceptual factors on ratings of multidimensional stimuli such as foods and beverages.