Aspects Of Perception Research Articles

Language experience shapes predictive coding of rhythmic sound sequences.

Perceptual systems heavily rely on prior knowledge and predictions to make sense of the environment. Predictions can originate from multiple sources of information, including contextual short-term priors, based on isolated temporal situations, and context-independent long-term priors, arising from extended exposure to statistical regularities. While the effects of short-term predictions on auditory perception have been well-documented, how long-term predictions shape early auditory processing is poorly understood. To address this, we recorded magnetoencephalography data from native speakers of two languages with different word orders (Spanish: functor-initial vs Basque: functor-final) listening to simple sequences of binary sounds alternating in duration with occasional omissions. We hypothesized that, together with contextual transition probabilities, the auditory system uses the characteristic prosodic cues (duration) associated with the native language's word order as an internal model to generate long-term predictions about incoming non-linguistic sounds. Consistent with our hypothesis, we found that the amplitude of the mismatch negativity elicited by sound omissions varied orthogonally depending on the speaker's linguistic background and was most pronounced in the left auditory cortex. Importantly, listening to binary sounds alternating in pitch instead of duration did not yield group differences, confirming that the above results were driven by the hypothesized long-term 'duration' prior. These findings show that experience with a given language can shape a fundamental aspect of human perception - the neural processing of rhythmic sounds - and provides direct evidence for a long-term predictive coding system in the auditory cortex that uses auditory schemes learned over a lifetime to process incoming sound sequences.

Experiences as heuristics for geothermal public perception: Testing the correlation between thermal waters recreation and geothermal energy perception

This research focuses on the question of how geothermal energy public perception is formed within a national context where news media do not pay attention to geothermal energy, and there is no active opposition to geothermal energy. The research builds on theoretical underpinnings of heuristics in energy perceptions and highlights the importance of physical experiences and associations as sources of experiential learning. Through a survey conducted among members of the general public in Slovenia, the role of thermal water recreation in shaping public perception of geothermal energy is empirically tested. The results show that, in this context, geothermal energy is highly positively assessed compared to hydro energy and nuclear energy, and that there is a correlation between frequency of thermal recreation and certain aspects of public perception of geothermal energy. The policy implications go beyond the simple recommendation of including tourism in public awareness campaigns but point to the specific vulnerability of energy acceptance in this context, where perceptions are formed based on “thinking fast”, and where the media and the public discourse on geothermal energy have not (yet) considered the potential risks and opposition to geothermal projects.

Olfactory performance and odor liking are negatively associated with food neophobia in children aged between 3 and 9 years

BackgroundChild food neophobia, i.e., rejection or avoidance of novel foods at a young age, is a prevalent nutrition problem that affects the quality of children’s diet and impedes the development of healthy food preferences. Sensory sensitivity can relate to the degree of food neophobia, but previous studies rarely focused on the olfactory component of this problem in children.ObjectiveWe aimed to thoroughly examine the relationship between various aspects of olfactory sensitivity and food neophobia in children.Methods246 children aged between three and nine years took part in a food neophobia assessment as well as in a comprehensive, psychophysical olfactory testing.ResultsWe found that certain smell perception aspects such as lower odor liking, poorer odor identification ability as well as lower sensitivity to an unknown non-food odor all significantly predicted higher food neophobia in children. Among individual characteristics of either a child or a caregiver, only the child’s age significantly and positively predicted food neophobia. The exploratory model looking into the role of family environment factors predicting self-reported food neophobia in children revealed that food neophobia was associated with lower control given to a child in this child’s feeding process, as well as with a more frequent use of food as a reward in feeding.ConclusionsWe suggest that suppressed olfactory perception and performance can play a unique role in child nutritional difficulties. The study inspires further considerations of olfaction-engaging interventions to counteract food-neophobia in children.

Auditory System of Blood-Sucking Mosquitoes (Diptera, Culicidae)

This review comprehensively explores the morphology of the mosquito auditory organs – antennae and Johnston’s organs. Spatial and frequency characteristics of auditory sensory neurons within Johnston’s organs are discussed, as well as the mechanisms of mechanotransduction in these neurons. The review presents findings from studies investigating the aspects of mosquito perception of acoustic signals when their auditory system is subjected to vibrations generated by flapping wings. Additionally, the review discusses the significance of acoustic communication in the reproductive behavior of mosquitoes.

Efficient Computation of Geodesics in Color Space.

Although scientists agree that a perceptual color space is not Euclidean and color difference measures, such as CIELAB's ∆E2000, model these aspects of color perception, colormaps are still mostly evaluated through piecewise linear interpolation in a Euclidean color space. In a non-Euclidean setting, the piecewise linear interpolation of a colormap through control points translates to finding shortest paths. Alternatively, a smooth interpolation can be generalized to finding the straightest path. Both approaches are difficult to solve and are compute intensive. We compare the 11 most promising optimization algorithms for the computation of a geodesic either as the shortest or as the straightest path to find the most efficient one to use for colormap interpolation in real-world applications. For two control points, the zero curvature algorithms excelled, especially the 2D relaxation method. For multiple control points, only the mimimal curvature algorithms can produce smooth curves, amongst which the 1D relaxation method performed best.

The Environmental Perception and Vegetarian Motivation of People in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Abstract Studies have previously shown that there were many vegetarian movements in the world, using many different models to indicate vegetarian food choice behavior. Among the factors affecting the motivation to become a vegetarian, perception and attitude are considered important factors influencing the decision to switch from using foods of animal origin to plant-based ones. There are many measured aspects of perception ranging from health, religion, love of animals, or animal rights. Among these, environmental perception increasingly shows a clear influence on vegetarian motivation, especially for young people. This current study aims to find out whether factors relating to perception including environmental perception, influence people’s motivation to become vegetarian in Ho Chi Minh City. To achieve this goal, the research surveyed 360 people living in Ho Chi Minh City (divided into three groups (students, office workers, and manual workers) using a direct questionnaire. Research results show that among the four independent variables (perception, ability, opportunity, barriers), there are three variables (1) perception; (2) opportunity; and (3) barriers having a significant relationship with the vegetarian motivation of people in Ho Chi Minh City. From the findings, this study points out key highlights in people’s current vegetarian food choices in this area, including environmental perception.

Ten questions concerning Architectural Acoustics

Building and room acoustics are relatively modern architectural and engineering disciplines. Nevertheless, acoustics was also a concern for buildings in the past, e.g., in theatres in ancient Greece and in Roman times. Nowadays, we spend 80–90 % of our time indoors, and sound impacts our communication and actions in an environment to a great extent. Therefore, acoustic aspects should be considered appropriately in the Environmental Quality and Global Comfort context as part of the overall aspects of building physics, although other factors (e.g., thermal, air quality, etc.) are conventionally considered more “mainstream”. The ten questions considered in this paper range from the basic definitions underlying the differences between building and room acoustics, to more applied topics about how to measure, simulate and use acoustic data in the design of the built environment. Significant research activities have been conducted by acoustic experts on different aspects related to the measurements of physical properties, perceptual aspects and technological development in both the physical and virtual dimensions, thereby paving the way towards a more inclusive and healthier acoustic environment. Apart from illustrating the current state of the art, the answers to these questions point out the still existing gaps in the field and future challenges, thereby highlighting the new competencies required to support the design of the acoustic environment, focusing on the physical, physiological, and psychological needs of the users.

Lithology identification of coal-bearing strata based on data-driven dual-channel relevance networks in coal mine roadway drilling process

The accurate prediction of coal seam thickness and the identification of the lithology of coal-bearing strata represent a crucial aspect of the intelligent perception of the stratigraphic environment. These technologies represent a fundamental aspect of intelligent mining operations with respect to coal. Accordingly, this paper concentrates on the investigation of lithology identification in coal-bearing strata through the utilization of data-driven dual-channel relevance networks in the context of coal mine roadway drilling operations. In consideration of the impact of coal seam thickness fluctuations on lithology identification, the region in question is initially delineated into two distinct categories: those comprising relatively stable coal seams and those comprising unstable coal seams. This is achieved through the application of coal seam thickness prediction and stability evaluation techniques. Subsequently, in consideration of the varying challenges posed by the region's coal seams, which can be either relatively stable or unstable, distinct lithology identification schemes are employed in different regions. In regions where the coal seam is relatively stable, there is a significant demand for classification of soft and hard coal seams. Additionally, the non-coal seam samples belong to a limited number of classes, necessitating the use of the SMOTE-GBDT algorithm to classify the coal-bearing strata into soft coal seam, hard coal seam, and non-coal seam. In the case of an unstable coal seam, the ability to distinguish between different seams is of paramount importance for lithology identification purposes. To this end, a double-layer binary classification RVM approach is employed to categorize coal-bearing strata into weak interlayer, coal seam and mudstone layer. The proposed methodology entails the utilization of diverse techniques in accordance with the specific characteristics of varying coal seam stability regions, with the objective of meticulously delineating the targets of lithology identification. This approach facilitates the generation of a comprehensive understanding of the coal-bearing strata environment, which can subsequently inform the implementation of intelligent adaptive control strategies.

Effects of different audiovisual landscapes in bamboo forest space on physical and mental restorative potential of university students: based on eye-tracking experiments

With its unique audiovisual environment, bamboo forest spaces serve as natural sanctuaries for urban residents, offering significant restorative effects by reducing physical and mental stress and alleviating fatigue. This promotes the vigorous development of outdoor recreation activities. To further explore the restorative effects of bamboo forest space on people's audiovisual perceptual aspects. In this study, we conducted field research in the Southern Sichuan Bamboo Sea, collecting audiovisual materials from four types of bamboo forest spaces: pathway type, cultural type, ornamental type, and recreational. These spatial photographs were combined with three types of soundscapes (silent, background, and background + wind-blown bamboo sound). Eye tracking experiments were utilized to investigate the physical and mental restorative effects of these different audiovisual features on college students. The results showed that in the visual aspect, the visual restorative properties of recreational-type and ornamental-type bamboo spaces were better than those of pathway type and cultural-type spaces; in the auditory aspect, the sounds of wind-blown bamboo, flowing water, and chirping birds in the bamboo forest significantly enhanced the subjective restorative properties of the bamboo forest space, reducing the number of fixations and the average pupil diameter. In addition, this paper found that the soundscape guided people's visual attention, with the wind-blown bamboo sound increasing focus on natural elements, and the extensibility of the bamboo forest space was positively correlated with the number of fixations, while fascination was negatively correlated with the average saccade amplitude. These findings provide insights for the optimized design of audiovisual restorative environments in bamboo forest space in the future.

Meta-analysis of Face Perception in Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorders: Evidence for Differential Impairment in Emotion Face Perception.

Schizophrenia spectrum disorders (SSD) are associated with face perception impairments. It is unclear whether impairments are equal across aspects of face perception or larger-indicating a differential impairment-for perceiving emotions relative to other characteristics (eg, identity, age). While many studies have attempted to compare emotion and non-emotion face perception in SSD, they have varied in design and produced conflicting findings. Additionally, prior meta-analyses on this topic were not designed to disentangle differential emotion impairments from broader impairments in face perception or cognition. We hypothesize that SSD-related impairments are larger for emotion than non-emotion face perception, but study characteristics moderate this differential impairment. We meta-analyzed 313 effect sizes from 104 articles to investigate if SSD-related impairments are significantly greater for emotion than non-emotion face perception. We tested whether key study characteristics moderated these impairments, including SSD severity, sample intelligence matching, task difficulty, and task memory dependency. We found significantly greater impairments for emotion (Cohen's d = 0.74) than non-emotion face perception (d = 0.55) in SSD relative to control samples, regardless of SSD severity, intelligence matching, or task difficulty. Importantly, this effect was obscured when non-emotion tasks used a memory-dependent design. This is the first meta-analysis to demonstrate a differential emotion impairment in SSD that cannot be explained by broader impairments in face perception or cognition. The findings also underscore the critical role of task matching in studies of face perception impairments; to prevent confounding influences from memory-dependent task designs.

Timbral brightness perception investigated through multimodal interference

Brightness is among the most studied aspects of timbre perception. Psychoacoustically, sounds described as “bright” versus “dark” typically exhibit a high versus low frequency emphasis in the spectrum. However, relatively little is known about the neurocognitive mechanisms that facilitate these metaphors we listen with. Do they originate in universal magnitude representations common to more than one sensory modality? Triangulating three different interaction paradigms, we investigated using speeded classification whether intramodal, crossmodal, and amodal interference occurs when timbral brightness, as modeled by the centroid of the spectral envelope, and pitch height/visual brightness/numerical value processing are semantically congruent and incongruent. In four online experiments varying in priming strategy, onset timing, and response deadline, 189 total participants were presented with a baseline stimulus (a pitch, gray square, or numeral) then asked to quickly identify a target stimulus that is higher/lower, brighter/darker, or greater/less than the baseline after being primed with a bright or dark synthetic harmonic tone. Results suggest that timbral brightness modulates the perception of pitch and possibly visual brightness, but not numerical value. Semantically incongruent pitch height-timbral brightness shifts produced significantly slower reaction time (RT) and higher error compared to congruent pairs. In the visual task, incongruent pairings of gray squares and tones elicited slower RTs than congruent pairings (in two experiments). No interference was observed in the number comparison task. These findings shed light on the embodied and multimodal nature of experiencing timbre.

Local social perception of mining in Parauapebas and Canaã dos Carajás in the eastern Amazonia, Brazil

The mineral industry plays a role in structural transformations in southeastern Pará, Eastern Amazonia, where large projects in this sector are located. This study analyzes aspects of the social perception of mining from image and reputation concepts in the Amazonian context. This paper aimed to examine the role of socioeconomic, political, and historical variables on social perception. It focused on four dimensions - economic, environmental, relationship and image, and general dimensions in Parauapebas and Canaã dos Carajás cities. The methodology consisted of the application in April of 2018 of questionnaires in a stratified sample of 960 and 349 randomly selected households in each of those cities, respectively. We employed the PCA/factor analysis method to examine whether a set of variables is relevant to social perception. The study found that the mining industry is a partner – not an intruder – because its beginning coincided with the social and historical formation of the territory. Perceptions of image and reputation were positive. Interviewee education, age, income, Whatsapp and Facebook usage, having a formal job, belonging to a union and a political party, occupation, and time of arrival are the main factors for social perception of mining. Despite their significantly negative opinion concerning mining's environmental impact, most interviewees pointed out that mining is reliable, friendly, transparent, and involved with the municipalities' problems. Our work fills a gap in growing literature that shows the challenges of companies, governments, and civil society in contemplating the dynamic aspects of mining for effective planning aiming at the social sustainability of mining regions.

Aesthetic Tradition and Cultural Temperament

British and American literature is one of the bright gems in the history of world literature, which has formed a unique literature after many times of historical evolution and integration of national culture. This paper makes an in-depth study of the historical development of Britain and the United States, starting from the three dimensions of "aesthetic tradition", "cultural temperament" and "translation of British and American literature", and discussing from two aspects of literary criticism and aesthetic perception. It is helpful to understand the unique cultural connotation and temperament of British and American culture, so as to better understand the cultural connotation of British and American classics and improve the translation quality of British and America literary works.

Rigid facial motion at study facilitates the holistic processing of own-race faces during the structural encoding stage

Holistic processing is a fundamental element of face-recognition studies. Some behavioral studies have investigated the impact of rigid facial motion on holistic face processing, yet it is still unclear how rigid motion affects the time course of holistic face processing for different face races. The current study investigated this issue, using the composite face effect (CFE) as a direct measure of holistic processing. Participants were asked to match the identity of the top half of a static composite face with the study face during the test stage, where the study face was either static or rigidly-moving. ERP results showed that rigidly-moving study faces elicited a larger CFE relative to static study faces in the N170 component when recognizing own-race faces. The amplitude of P1, N170 and P2 components indicated that rigid motion facilitated holistic face processing, with differences observed between the hemispheres over time. Specifically, the CFE was only observed after exposure to rigidly-moving faces in the P1 and P2 components of the right hemisphere. Additionally, a greater CFE was observed following exposure to rigidly-moving faces compared to static faces, particularly in the N170 component of the left hemisphere. This study suggests that holistic processing is a fundamental aspect of face perception that applies to both static and moving faces, not just static ones. Furthermore, rigid facial motion improves holistic processing of own-race faces during the structural encoding stage. These findings provide evidence of distinct neural mechanisms underlying the holistic processing of static and moving faces.

Psychoacoustic model for detecting the sensation of impulsivity in acoustic signals from refrigerators

This study investigates the perception of impulsivity in audio signals specifically caused by thermal expansion (cracking noise) in domestic refrigerators. It employs a multifaceted approach encompassing an analysis of sensitivity to impulsive events, an assessment of the prominence of impulse signals, and a correlation analysis of these data. The investigation revealed different responses to various sound samples, highlighting subjective variations. Using linear regression, correlation analysis demonstrated a robust and positive relationship (Pearson correlation coefficient of 0.851) between perceived impulsivity and the Impulsivity Prediction Model (IPM). This alignment underscores the reliability of the developed IPM in capturing and predicting subjective perceptions of low-amplitude transient signals. Comparisons between groups of participants, conducted using both Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and t-tests, explored potential disparities related to gender, age, and acoustic knowledge. The results indicated no statistically significant differences in the perception of impulsivity concerning gender, age groups, or acoustic knowledge. In conclusion, this study provides insights into the perceptual aspects of impulsivity in audio signals from home refrigerators, specifically addressing thermal expansion noises, and establishes the reliability of the Impulsivity Prediction Model (IPM) as a tool for objective assessment. The congruence between subjective judgments and objective metrics enhances the applicability of IPM in diverse fields, from acoustic engineering to psychoacoustic research.

Exploration of Socio-Cultural Aspects of Cancer Patients Who Refuse Chemotherapy: Literature Review

Background: Cancer is a multifaceted disease characterized by the uncontrolled growth and spread of abnormal cells. Socio-cultural background plays an important role in many aspects of cancer patients' lives, including beliefs, behaviors, perceptions, emotions, and attitudes towards illness and pain. Objective: The aim of this study was to explore the socio-cultural aspects of cancer patients who refuse chemotherapy. Methods: The research method used was a systematic review by identifying journal articles published online consisting of English language from 2019-2024. Articles were retrieved using PubMed, ScieceDirect, and JSTOR search engine tools. Results: There were 5 journals based on the inclusion criteria. Conclusion: The results showed that socio-cultural aspects have a complex influence on cancer patients' decision to refuse chemotherapy.

Негативность, связанная с ошибкой, как нейрофизиологический коррелят исполнительных функций: Обзор исследований

<p style="text-align: justify;">Executive functions are a set of high-level cognitive processes that regulate human behavior and cognition, and are necessary for adaptive and goal-directed behavior. The error monitoring process can be considered as a condition preceding the enhancement or activation of executive control. The neural correlate of this condition is the error-related negativity (ERN). This article presents a narrative review of research investigating cognitive and affective aspects of the error monitoring process in the context of executive functions using the ERN. The literature review on the affective aspect revealed a diversity of approaches to influencing the state of participants. Most works take into account information about participants' state or affectively salient aspects of stimuli perception. However, this information may not be sufficient to establish a link to the response to conflict induced by an error in an experimental task. Presumably, the general emotional state has only an indirect influence on the error monitoring process. This may be the reason for the inconsistent results observed in this area of research.</p>

Exploring Mentoring through Ecoliteracies

The article initiates with a theoretical exploration of fields of practice, followed by an introduction to the domain of mentoring and its foundational principles. A concise overview of Gestalt perception methodology facilitates the reconfiguration of the model of Theoretical Foundations of the Induction Year, aligning it with the European Commission Handbook for developing comprehensive induction programs for novice educators. This restructuring provides deeper insights into mentoring support concepts, prompting an inquiry into requisite abilities for effective mentoring. This investigation transitions to the broader context of ecologies of practice and the underlying principles of ecological structures. Drawing from established ecological dimensions, the article presents four influential figures crucial to mentoring, developed through Gestalt perception methodology. These figures serve to enhance mentoring experiences by leveraging the visual and memorable aspects of perception. Finally, the article provides a summary evaluation of its contributions.

Investigating the crowding effect on letters and symbols in deaf adults

Reading requires the transformation of a complex array of visual features into sounds and meaning. For deaf signers who experience changes in visual attention and have little or no access to the sounds of the language they read, understanding the visual constraints underlying reading is crucial. This study aims to explore a fundamental aspect of visual perception intertwined with reading: the crowding effect. This effect manifests as the struggle to distinguish a target letter when surrounded by flanker letters. Through a two-alternative forced choice task, we assessed the recognition of letters and symbols presented in isolation or flanked by two or four characters, positioned either to the left or right of fixation. Our findings reveal that while deaf individuals exhibit higher accuracy in processing letters compared to symbols, their performance falls short of that of their hearing counterparts. Interestingly, despite their proficiency with letters, deaf individuals didn’t demonstrate quicker letter identification, particularly in the most challenging scenario where letters were flanked by four characters. These outcomes imply the development of a specialized letter processing system among deaf individuals, albeit one that may subtly diverge from that of their hearing counterparts.

Newborn's neural representation of instrumental and vocal music as revealed by fMRI: A dynamic effective brain connectivity study.

Music is ubiquitous, both in its instrumental and vocal forms. While speech perception at birth has been at the core of an extensive corpus of research, the origins of the ability to discriminate instrumental or vocal melodies is still not well investigated. In previous studies comparing vocal and musical perception, the vocal stimuli were mainly related to speaking, including language, and not to the non-language singing voice. In the present study, to better compare a melodic instrumental line with the voice, we used singing as a comparison stimulus, to reduce the dissimilarities between the two stimuli as much as possible, separating language perception from vocal musical perception. In the present study, 45 newborns were scanned, 10 full-term born infants and 35 preterm infants at term-equivalent age (mean gestational age at test = 40.17 weeks, SD = 0.44) using functional magnetic resonance imaging while listening to five melodies played by a musical instrument (flute) or sung by a female voice. To examine the dynamic task-based effective connectivity, we employed a psychophysiological interaction of co-activation patterns (PPI-CAPs) analysis, using the auditory cortices as seed region, to investigate moment-to-moment changes in task-driven modulation of cortical activity during an fMRI task. Our findings reveal condition-specific, dynamically occurring patterns of co-activation (PPI-CAPs). During the vocal condition, the auditory cortex co-activates with the sensorimotor and salience networks, while during the instrumental condition, it co-activates with the visual cortex and the superior frontal cortex. Our results show that the vocal stimulus elicits sensorimotor aspects of the auditory perception and is processed as a more salient stimulus while the instrumental condition activated higher-order cognitive and visuo-spatial networks. Common neural signatures for both auditory stimuli were found in the precuneus and posterior cingulate gyrus. Finally, this study adds knowledge on the dynamic brain connectivity underlying the newborns capability of early and specialized auditory processing, highlighting the relevance of dynamic approaches to study brain function in newborn populations.