Perceptual Assumption Research Articles

Risk-taking under time-sensitivity in Sino-Pak negotiation in the context of the BRI project

China and Pakistan took part in the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) project through CPEC (China–Pakistan Economic Corridor), but it faced many challenges at the negotiation and implementation stages. While their firms and individuals have come closer to exploring the scope and scales of opportunities, they have faced difficulties associated with uncertainty and time (risk-taking behaviour directly and indirectly through time sensitivity). Culturally, the potential differences in the risk orientation are plausible, but the contextualised differences in the negotiation process are not clear at the style level of analysis. This article explores whether how and why the negotiation style of China and Pakistan differs despite the visible values ahead of them. Based on postgraduate students in business schools, we investigated the notion of risk-taking orientation and moderation of the time sensitivity to both sides. The survey was based on 1398 participants: 917 (66%) Chinese and 481 (34%) Pakistani participants responded to risk-taking (low-high) and time sensitivity (low-high). The results are consistent across models. Directly, Chinese negotiators are more risk-takers than Pakistani negotiators. Indirectly, time-sensitive Chinese negotiators are low risk-takers than time-sensitive Pakistani negotiators. The study extends the risk orientation and time-sensitivity in perceptual assumptions in the cultural context.

Shading Beats Binocular Disparity in Depth from Luminance Gradients: Evidence against a Maximum Likelihood Principle for Cue Combination.

Perceived depth is conveyed by multiple cues, including binocular disparity and luminance shading. Depth perception from luminance shading information depends on the perceptual assumption for the incident light, which has been shown to default to a diffuse illumination assumption. We focus on the case of sinusoidally corrugated surfaces to ask how shading and disparity cues combine defined by the joint luminance gradients and intrinsic disparity modulation that would occur in viewing the physical corrugation of a uniform surface under diffuse illumination. Such surfaces were simulated with a sinusoidal luminance modulation (0.26 or 1.8 cy/deg, contrast 20%-80%) modulated either in-phase or in opposite phase with a sinusoidal disparity of the same corrugation frequency, with disparity amplitudes ranging from 0’-20’. The observers’ task was to adjust the binocular disparity of a comparison random-dot stereogram surface to match the perceived depth of the joint luminance/disparity-modulated corrugation target. Regardless of target spatial frequency, the perceived target depth increased with the luminance contrast and depended on luminance phase but was largely unaffected by the luminance disparity modulation. These results validate the idea that human observers can use the diffuse illumination assumption to perceive depth from luminance gradients alone without making an assumption of light direction. For depth judgments with combined cues, the observers gave much greater weighting to the luminance shading than to the disparity modulation of the targets. The results were not well-fit by a Bayesian cue-combination model weighted in proportion to the variance of the measurements for each cue in isolation. Instead, they suggest that the visual system uses disjunctive mechanisms to process these two types of information rather than combining them according to their likelihood ratios.

Interpreting sensory substitution beyond the perceptual assumption: An analogy with reading

Sensory substitution devices (SSDs) aim at replacing or assisting one or several functions of a deficient sensory modality by means of another sensory modality. Despite the numerous studies and research programs devoted to their development and integration, SSDs have failed to live up to their goal of allowing one to ‘see with the skin’ (White et al., 1970) or to ‘see with the brain’ (Bach-y-Rita et al., 2003). These somewhat peremptory claims, as well as the research conducted so far, are based on an implicit perceptual paradigm. Such perceptual assumption accepts the equivalence between using a SSD and perceiving through a particular sensory modality. Our aim is to provide an alternative model, which defines the integration of SSDs as being closer to culturally-implemented cognitive extensions of existing perceptual skills such as reading. In this talk, we will show why the analogy with reading provides a better explanation of the actual findings, that is, both of the positive results achieved and of the limitations noticed across the field of research on SSDs. The parallel with the most recent two-route and interactive models of reading (e.g., Dehaene et al., 2005) generates a radically new way of approaching these results, by stressing the dependence of integration on the existing perceptual-semantic route. In addition, it enables us to generate innovative research questions and specific predictions which set the stage for future work.

Reading the World through the Skin and Ears: A New Perspective on Sensory Substitution.

Sensory substitution devices aim at replacing or assisting one or several functions of a deficient sensory modality by means of another sensory modality. Despite the numerous studies and research programs devoted to their development and integration, sensory substitution devices have failed to live up to their goal of allowing one to “see with the skin” (White et al., 1970) or to “see with the brain” (Bach-y-Rita et al., 2003). These somewhat peremptory claims, as well as the research conducted so far, are based on an implicit perceptual paradigm. Such perceptual assumption accepts the equivalence between using a sensory substitution device and perceiving through a particular sensory modality. Our aim is to provide an alternative model, which defines sensory substitution as being closer to culturally implemented cognitive extensions of existing perceptual skills such as reading. In this article, we will show why the analogy with reading provides a better explanation of the actual findings, that is, both of the positive results achieved and of the limitations noticed across the field of research on sensory substitution. The parallel with the most recent two-route and interactive models of reading (e.g., Dehaene et al., 2005) generates a radically new way of approaching these results, by stressing the dependence of integration on the existing perceptual-semantic route. In addition, the present perspective enables us to generate innovative research questions and specific predictions which set the stage for future work.

Are Gaussian spectra a viable perceptual assumption in color appearance?

Natural illuminant and reflectance spectra can be roughly approximated by a linear model with as few as three basis functions, and this has suggested that the visual system might construct a linear representation of the spectra by estimating the weights of these functions. However, such models do not accommodate nonlinearities in color appearance, such as the Abney effect. Previously, we found that these nonlinearities are qualitatively consistent with a perceptual inference that stimulus spectra are instead roughly Gaussian, with the hue tied to the inferred centroid of the spectrum [J. Vision 6(9), 12 (2006)]. Here, we examined to what extent a Gaussian inference provides a sufficient approximation of natural color signals. Reflectance and illuminant spectra from a wide set of databases were analyzed to test how well the curves could be fit by either a simple Gaussian with three parameters (amplitude, peak wavelength, and standard deviation) versus the first three principal component analysis components of standard linear models. The resulting Gaussian fits were comparable to linear models with the same degrees of freedom, suggesting that the Gaussian model could provide a plausible perceptual assumption about stimulus spectra for a trichromatic visual system.

Are Gaussian spectra a viable perceptual assumption in color appearance?

Natural illuminant and reflectance spectra can be roughly approximated by a linear model with as few as three basis functions, and this has suggested that the visual system might construct a linear representation of the spectra by estimating the weights of these functions. However, such models do not accommodate nonlinearities in color appearance, such as the Abney effect. Previously, we found that these nonlinearities are qualitatively consistent with a perceptual inference that stimulus spectra are instead roughly Gaussian, with the hue tied to the inferred centroid of the spectrum [J. Vision 6(9), 12 (2006)]. Here, we examined to what extent a Gaussian inference provides a sufficient approximation of natural color signals. Reflectance and illuminant spectra from a wide set of databases were analyzed to test how well the curves could be fit by either a simple Gaussian with three parameters (amplitude, peak wavelength, and standard deviation) versus the first three principal component analysis components of standard linear models. The resulting Gaussian fits were comparable to linear models with the same degrees of freedom, suggesting that the Gaussian model could provide a plausible perceptual assumption about stimulus spectra for a trichromatic visual system.

VR and hallucination: a technoetic perspective

Virtual Reality (VR), especially in a technologically focused discourse, is defined by a class of hardware and software, among them head-mounted displays (HMD); navigation and pointing devices; and stereoscopic imaging. This presentation examines an experiential aspect of VR. Putting virtual in front of reality modifies the ontological status of a class of experience that of reality. Reality has also been modified (by artists, new media theorists, technologists and philosophers) as augmented, mixed, simulated, artificial, layered and enhanced. Modifications of reality are closely tied to modifications of perception. Media theorist Roy Ascott creates a model of three VRs: verifiable reality, virtual reality and vegetal (entheogenically induced) reality. The ways in which we shift our perceptual assumptions, create and verify illusions and enter the willing suspension of disbelief that allows us entry into imaginal worlds is central to the experience of VR worlds, whether those worlds are explicitly representational (robotic manipulations) or explicitly imaginal (artistic creations). The early rhetoric surrounding VR was interwoven with psychedelics, a perception amplified by Timothy Leary's presence on the historic SIGGRAPH panel, and the Wall Street Journal's tag of VR as electronic LSD. This article discusses the connections philosophical, social-historical and psychological-perceptual between these two domains.

Activation of competing perceptual assumptions for 3-D shape

Activation of competing perceptual assumptions for 3-D shape

Illusory conjunctions of musical pitch and timbre

An experiment addressed perceptual assumptions that have formed the basis of models for auditory feature integration. Musicians searched stimuli containing two lateralized tones for a target timbre and its pitch. Errors representing potential illusory conjunctions exceeded feature misperception errors. Responses were submitted to multinomial models to evaluate the contribution of guessing, illusory conjunctions, and intertone distance. Illusory conjunction models provided the most accurate data fits. Illusory conjunction rates exceeded zero, and were not affected by distance. Implications for feature binding models are discussed.

Generic assumptions shared by visual perception and imagery

What is difficult to imagine is also surprising to perceive. This indicates that active visual imagery is an integral part of active visual perception. Erroneous mental transformations provide clues to prior assumptions in visual imagery, just as visual illusions provide clues to perceptual assumptions. Visual imagery and perception share generic assumptions about invariants in images of rigid objects.

Perceptual assumptions and projective distortions in a three-dimensional shape illusion.

We examine a shape illusion, in which the balconies of a building appear to tilt up or down, depending on the viewpoint. The balconies are actually level parallelogram shapes, but appear as tilted rectangles. We measured the illusory tilts observed when parallelogram shapes are viewed above the line of sight, using three-dimensional stimuli consisting of parallelograms of various tilts viewed at different orientations. Under perspective projection, parallelism and orthogonality are not preserved. However, perspective distortions alone cannot account for the perceived tilts measured in these experiments, since observers perceived illusory tilts even for stimuli in the frontoparallel plane. We introduce a model, based on the theory that observers assume ambiguously projected three-dimensional angles to be equal to 90 degrees, but revise their predictions on the basis of observation. In the model, perceived tilt is predicted as a weighted sum of the tilts predicted by the assumptions that the shape is rectangular, and that the shape is level (i.e. that the angle between the shape and the vertical backboard is equal to 90 degrees). We prove that it is mathematically impossible for a planar rectangle to share a projection with a nonrectangular parallelogram. A less restrictive assumption that just the two leading internal angles are equal to 90 degrees is suggested as an alternative, and it is further proven that this new configuration of angles leads to a unique perceived tilt. The relative weights in the model reflect the amount that each prediction is revised, and are shown to vary systematically with stimulus orientation. For some observers a better fit was found by replacing the level-tilt assumptions with an assumption that physical tilt was equal to the projected tilt.

Detecting natural changes of cone-excitation ratios in simple and complex coloured images.

Ratios of excitations in each cone-photoreceptor class produced by light reflected from pairs of surfaces in a scene are almost invariant under natural illuminant changes. The stability of these spatially defined ratios may explain the remarkable ability of human observers to efficiently discriminate illuminant changes from changes in surface reflectances. Spatial cone-excitation ratios are not, however, exactly invariant. This study is concerned with observers' sensitivity to these invariance violations. Simulations of Mondrian paintings with either 49 or two natural surfaces under Planckian illuminants were presented as images on a computer-controlled display in a two-interval experimental design: in one interval, the surfaces underwent an illuminant change; in the other interval, the surfaces underwent the same change but the images were then corrected so that, for each cone class, ratios of excitations were preserved exactly. Although the intervals with corrected images corresponded individually to highly improbable natural events, observers systematically misidentified them as containing the illuminant changes, the probability of error increasing as the violation of invariance in the other interval increased. For the range of illuminants and surfaces tested, sensitivity to violations of invariance was found to depend on cone class: it was greatest for long-wavelength-sensitive cones and least for short-wavelength-sensitive cones. Spatial cone-excitation ratios, or some closely related quantities, seem to be the cues preferred by observers for making inferences about surface illuminant changes.

On the role of perception in shaping phonological assimilation rules.

Assimilation of nasals to the place of articulation of following consonants is a common and natural process among the world's languages. Recent phonological theory attributes this naturalness to the postulated geometry of articulatory features and the notion of spreading (McCarthy, 1988). Others view assimilation as a result of perception (Ohala, 1990), or as perceptually tolerated articulatory simplification (Kohler, 1990). Kohler notes that certain consonant classes (such as nasals and stops) are more likely than other classes (such as fricatives) to undergo place assimilation to a following consonant. To explain this pattern, he proposes that assimilation tends not to occur when the members of a consonant class are relatively distinctive perceptually, such that their articulatory reduction would be particularly salient. This explanation, of course, presupposes that the stops and nasals which undergo place assimilation are less distinctive than fricatives, which tend not to assimilate. We report experimental results that confirm Kohler's perceptual assumption: In the context of a following word initial stop, fricatives were less confusable than nasals or unreleased stops. We conclude, in agreement with Ohala and Kohler, that perceptual factors are likely to shape phonological assimilation rules.

Adult Undergraduates in Higher Education: A Review of Past Research Perspectives

This review examines past research on adult undergraduates in American higher education. Due to varied beliefs regarding adult students and past higher educational practice, this study utilizes qualitative content analysis to identify key perceptual assumptions and orientations as well as descriptive groupings. Five inductive thematic categories, domains of reality framed by the researchers, are identified. These include: the Image of Implied Deficiency, Image of Student Entry and Adaptation, Image of Description and Characterization, Image of Psychosocial Development, and Image of Equity and Outcome. A discussion of these key perspectives as well as a critical review of past research in the study of adult undergraduate students is presented.

Adult Undergraduates in Higher Education: A Review of past Research Perspectives

This review examines past research on adult undergraduates in American higher education. Due to varied beliefs regarding adult students and past higher educational practice, this study utilizes qualitative content analysis to identify key perceptual assumptions and orientations as well as descriptive groupings. Five inductive thematic categories, domains of reality framed by the researchers, are identified. These include: the Image of Implied Deficiency, Image of Student Entry and Adaptation, Image of Description and Characterization, Image of Psychosocial Development, and Image of Equity and Outcome. A discussion of these key perspectives as well as a critical review of past research in the study of adult undergraduate students is presented.

The correction of perceptual assumption during the period of growth

A small-scale, monocular distorted room (DR) was used in an experiment involving 159 subjects aged 6–14 yr and 17 adult subjects (18–45 yr). A static cue (two exercise-books) and a dynamic cue (exploration with a bamboo stick) were used by these subjects to correct their mistaken assumption that the DR was normal (assumption NR).

The Deterrence Doctrine and the Perceived Certainty of Legal Punishments

This research on the deterrence doctrine differs from previous investigations by focusing on perceived properties of legal punishments rather than objective properties. Data from a survey of 1,700 high school students in Arizona show a close inverse relation among 15 types of crimes or delinquencies between the median or mean perceived certainty of punishment (arrest or reformatory) and rates of self-reported acts. However, the same relation holds between the rates and the perceived seriousness of acts, which is taken as indicative of the social (extralegal) condemnation of crime. Furthermore, the perceived certainty of punishment and perceived seriousness are so highly collinear that their effects on the rates cannot be differentiated. Although the findings cannot be viewed as conclusive evidence against the deterrence doctrine, they raise doubts about previous interpretations of the inverse relation among states between the objective certainty of imprisonment and crime rates. The relation has no bearing on the perceptual assumptions that enter into the deterrence doctrine, and the present findings indicate that the relation could reflect differential social condemnation of crime. (abstract Adapted from Source: American Sociological Review, 1977. Copyright © 1977 by the American Sociological Association) Legal Sanctions Crime Prevention Senior High School Student Arizona Juvenile Perceptions Student Perceptions Crime Perceptions Deterrence Offender Punishment 07-02

Perceptual Differences of Selected Football Players, Dancers, and Nonperformers to a Given Stimulus

Abstract Selected football players, dancers, and nonperformers were exposed to two conditions involving perceptual assumptions. Reactions were studied to indicate degree each group differed. It was concluded that realistic perceptions cannot be assigned as a function of an individual's categorization relative to movement participation.