Picture Perception Research Articles

Context insensitivity during positive and negative emotional expectancy in depression assessed with functional magnetic resonance imaging

Patients with depression show an enhanced preoccupation with negative expectations and are often unable to look forward to positive events. Here we studied anticipatory emotional processes in unmedicated depressed patients using functional magnetic resonance imaging. Consistent with a negative processing bias, we hypothesized enhanced responses to negative and attenuated responses to positive expectancy cues in brain areas associated with emotional expectancy. Participants comprised 19 drug-free depressed patients and 19 matched healthy control subjects who viewed affective photographs. Pictures were preceded by an expectancy cue which signaled the emotional valence of the upcoming picture in half of the trials. Depressed patients showed attenuated blood-oxygen-level-dependent responses in the left lateral prefrontal cortex (inferior frontal gyrus, Brodmann area 44) during positive expectancy and—contrary to our hypothesis—in the right lateral orbitofrontal cortex (middle frontal gyrus, Brodmann area 47) during negative expectancy. This attenuation was specific for the anticipation (as opposed to the perception) of emotional pictures and correlated with a clinical measure of depressive symptoms. The observed attenuation suggests emotion-context insensitivity rather than a negative processing bias during anticipatory emotional processes in depression. This hyporeactivity may contribute to clinical features like anergia, apathy, and loss of motivation in the context of both positive and negative incentives.

Profile Orientation and Social Distance in Portrait Painting

A study of portrait paintings by various artists revealed that the sitter's face is more likely to be illuminated by a light source to the artist's left than to his right. Although the sitter's face may be turned towards the artist's left or right side with equal frequency, the interaction of illumination and profile orientation does not appear to be arbitrary. This finding is interpreted in the context of other findings on left and right in picture perception, and a new explanation of the relationship between profile orientation and the personality of the sitter is offered.

The Complex Picture Test in Dementia

The newly developed Complex Picture Test (CPT) examines main cognitive domains, especially perceptual and visual-spatial abilities. The potential usefulness of the CPT in the assessment of dementia was evaluated. Patients with different forms of dementia [14 vascular dementia (VaD), 30 Alzheimer’s disease (AD), 6 Parkinson’s disease dementia (PDD)], 12 subjects with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and 30 matched controls were examined by the CPT, Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), the WAIS-R Digit Span subtest, and the Clock Drawing Test (CDT). The CPT consists of 10 complex pictures, each presenting characteristics paradoxically in opposition to each other. The subjects scored points for naming the object and noticing the paradox. One point was added for commenting on the paradox without prompting (3 points each picture/maximum of 30). CPT scores were significantly higher in the control group (mean ± SD, 29.46 ± 1.43) than in the AD, VaD, MCI, and PDD groups (13.1 ± 2.3, 16.9 ± 3.5, 23.2 ± 1.4, and 23.6 ± 3.4, respectively; p < 0.05). Significant positive correlations between MMSE, Digit Span, CDT, and CPT scores were observed (rho 0.76, 0.35, and 0.56, respectively). These data show perception of complex pictures being compromised in dementia. The correlation between CPT scores and MMSE scores suggests that tests may be used as a brief screening tool for dementia.

Differences between Experts and Non-experts in photographic perception and assessment

How professional skills and schemata do affect cognition, evaluative dimensions and aesthetic perception of pictures? And what about the effect of social elements like a smiling or serious subject pictured? The present study investigates the differences between Experts (photo professionals) and inexperienced individuals in perception and evaluation of photographs. Furthermore, it approaches the influence of different facial expressions (Reis et al. in Euro J Soc Psychol 20(3):259-267, 1990). People with well-developed schemes in photography should evaluate pictures through assessment, while inexperienced people should evaluate pictures through appraisal? N = 118, 60 Experts and 58 inexperienced people were asked to evaluate a set of stimulus pictures throughout: (a) 'The Circumplex Model of Affect' (PAQs) to measure 4 affective dimensions; and (b) a Semantic Differential made of 9 couples of bipolar adjectives to measure 2 evaluative dimensions (Aesthetics and Distinctive Features). Results partially confirmed the hypotheses: Experts differ significantly from Non-experts in picture evaluations. Smile arouses more positive evaluations, but only in the inexperienced group. No subject position effects were found. These results are in concordance with previous research about Expert and Non-expert evaluation, and they open new questions about facial expressions studies.

Apparent depth of pictures reflected by a mirror: The plastic effect

We investigated the plastic effect in picture perception, in which the apparent depth of a picture is increased when it is reflected by a mirror. The plastic effect was well known in the mid-18th century, but very few studies have elucidated its nature. In Experiment 1, we examined how often the plastic effect occurs in different ocular conditions. A group of 22 observers compared directly observed pictures and their mirror-reflected images in each of free-binocular, free-monocular, and restrictive-monocular conditions. When the observers were forced to choose the picture that appeared greater in depth, 73 % of them chose the reflected pictures, regardless of oculomotor condition. In Experiment 2, we examined how often the plastic effect is detected as a function of observation time. When 22 observers compared a directly watched movie and its mirror-reflected movie for 5 min, the number of observers who judged the reflected movie to be greater in depth was about 55 % at the onset of the trial but was 86 % at the end. In Experiment 3, we examined transfer of the plastic effect. Ten observers judged the change in apparent depth of directly observed pictures after prolonged exposure to the same reflected or actual pictures. Transfer was confirmed and was greater for pictures that represented greater depth (r = .88). We suggested that the plastic effect is mainly induced by the double apparent locations of a reflected picture. From the long incubation time and the transfer to real pictures, we also suggested that it involves perceptual learning regarding visual skill.

Identifying Raised-Line Drawings by Touch: A Hard but Not Impossible Task

Drawings are usually visual, but may also be tactile, that is, perceptible through the fingers (Eriksson, 1988). In the latter case, they may be extremely useful to people who are blind (Kennedy, 1993). Identifying raisedline drawings of everyday objects by touch is far from easy, however. Whether tactile drawings can be interpreted without recourse to visual experience and imagery has evoked different views. This issue is central to the debate between Kennedy (1993; the optimistic view) and Lederman, Klatzky, Chataway, and Summers (1990; the pessimistic view) on the perception of tactile pictures. This debate has not been resolved, insofar as studies have yielded inconsistent results regarding the ease with which individuals respond to tactile picture-naming tasks. The topic of tangible drawings for individuals who are blind is an important one to the field of visual impairment. However, it has not been addressed so far in a literature review. In this article, we review the selected literature on tactile picture naming and provide a quantitative look at this literature by presenting results related to accuracy (percentage of correct naming). We attempt to identify the factors that influence accurate picture naming when identifying raised-line drawings. CORPUS OF STUDIES We selected studies that asked individuals who are blind and those who are sighted to identify as quickly and as accurately as possible a set of tactile drawings depicting common objects. A search of scientific databases (PubMed, Science Direct) yielded 16 articles that were published over the past 30 years that matched our inclusion criteria: publication in a journal, the use of raised-line drawings of everyday objects as stimuli, the use of a tactile picture-naming task (requiring both speed and accuracy), participants who were blind and those who were sighted, and the reporting of mean accuracy measures. Studies using tactile picture-matching tasks, multiple-choice procedures, or tactile graphics and maps were excluded. The main findings obtained in each study are summarized in Table 1. VARIABLES OF INTEREST A detailed examination of the corpus (see Table 1) identified five known variables whose effects were assessed in the literature (A: participants' visual status, B: type of picture, C: size of picture, D: information given for the task, and E: mode of exploration). Five additional parameters on which the studies differed, but whose effects have not been assessed in the literature, were documented (F: picture set, G: number of pictures, H: type of paper, I: exploration time, and J: number of participants). These parameters are worth considering because they may influence picture-naming accuracy. A total of 46 measures of mean accuracy were obtained (these means were obtained from the original articles). These measures could be compared together to the extent that all studies used a picture-naming task, leading to accuracy measures (percentage of correct naming). Overall, the mean accuracy was 42%, with wide variations across the studies (SD: 21, range: 9-85). EFFECTS OF KNOWN VARIABLES Studies that assessed the effect of visual status on accuracy of identification of raisedline drawings provided inconsistent findings. Some showed that participants with late-onset blindness outperformed participants with early-onset blindness and those who were sighted (study 2) or participants with early-onset blindness only (study 11), whereas others showed that participants who were sighted outperformed participants with early-onset blindness (study 3) or the reverse (study 7). These inconsistencies may have partly been due to methodological differences of the various studies. In the whole corpus, the performance of participants who were blind ranged from 9% to 82%, and the performance of participants who were sighted ranged from 9% to 85%. With respect to the type of picture, there was converging evidence that three-dimensional, visually realistic pictures yielded lower accuracy scores than did pictures without depth information (two-dimensional pictures or Texyform pictures involving a tactile depiction code) (studies 3, 10, 11, and 16). …

Shot in the Dark: Notes on Photography, Causality, and Content

Pictures—paintings, etchings, photographs, CGI—let us see what is not there. Or, rather, since what pictures depict is not really there, we do not really see the pictorial contents. But we seem to see the depicted things: we “see” them “in” the pictures. One kind of picture—photographs— would seem to have a special capacity to yield this experience of “seeming-to-see.” Over the last couple of decades, the question of what it is to see something in a picture—photographic or otherwise—has been lively discussed. The papers in this thesis are all attempts at contributing to this discussion.Essay I treats the special subjective experience one undergoes in looking at photographs (as opposed to “handmade” images). I argue that this experience is (in part) due to our taking photographs as a certain kind of trace. Along the way, it is also argued that Kendall Walton’s “transparency thesis”—the thought that one literally, actually, sees photographed objects when one sees photographs of them—cannot explain the phenomenology of photography. Behind Walton’s transparency thesis lies a view of photography as an essentially causal medium; it is the merely causal process of photography that, on Walton’s view, makes photographs transparent. In Essay II, I offer an account of the role of causality in photography, and discuss its implications for the possible contents of photographs. Essays III and IV discuss pictorial perception in general. Essay III treats Richard Wollheim’s notion of non-localisation, and (what I call) pictorial perceptual presence, how things, which are strictly speaking not seen in an image, are still part of our apprehension of the picture. Essay IV gives an account of the seeing of states of affairs in pictures, and points to the significance of such seeing.

Neural activity associated with self-reflection

BackgroundSelf-referential cognitions are important for self-monitoring and self-regulation. Previous studies have addressed the neural correlates of self-referential processes in response to or related to external stimuli. We here investigated brain activity associated with a short, exclusively mental process of self-reflection in the absence of external stimuli or behavioural requirements. Healthy subjects reflected either on themselves, a personally known or an unknown person during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The reflection period was initialized by a cue and followed by photographs of the respective persons (perception of pictures of oneself or the other person).ResultsSelf-reflection, compared with reflecting on the other persons and to a major part also compared with perceiving photographs of one-self, was associated with more prominent dorsomedial and lateral prefrontal, insular, anterior and posterior cingulate activations. Whereas some of these areas showed activity in the “other”-conditions as well, self-selective characteristics were revealed in right dorsolateral prefrontal and posterior cingulate cortex for self-reflection; in anterior cingulate cortex for self-perception and in the left inferior parietal lobe for self-reflection and -perception.ConclusionsAltogether, cingulate, medial and lateral prefrontal, insular and inferior parietal regions show relevance for self-related cognitions, with in part self-specificity in terms of comparison with the known-, unknown- and perception-conditions. Notably, the results are obtained here without behavioural response supporting the reliability of this methodological approach of applying a solely mental intervention. We suggest considering the reported structures when investigating psychopathologically affected self-related processing.

Rate Reduction Method based on Human Visual Perception of Repeatedly Displayed Sharp and Blurred Pictures

Rate Reduction Method based on Human Visual Perception of Repeatedly Displayed Sharp and Blurred Pictures

Come dire oggettivamente che la prospettiva è relativa

This article attempts to utilize the conceptual clarity typical of the work of Lucia Pizzo Russo to address the muddled question of the objectivity of perspective. By separating out the distinct problems of the objectivity of optical geometry, simple sight, and object recognition, we can clarify what we are not discussing when talking about linear perspective. These forms of objectivity are secured. But the claim is still made that linear perspective in pictorial perception is relative, because its results are not consistent and often not relevant to making pictures. In its place, I nominate another objective method, the so-called Egyptian method, outlined by Rudolf Arnheim in his Art and Visual Perception. Therefore, my position is not purely relativist because the dismantling of linear perspective does not suggest that all is conventional.

Suicide-nearness assessed with PORT, the Percept-genetic Object-Relation Test: A replication and a reliability study

To determine the reliability and validity of a previously identified "suicide cluster" in the Percept-genetic Object-Relation Test (PORT), which test documents subliminal perception of object-relation pictures, 20 suicide attempters and 70 controls were investigated. The correspondence between scores assigned by two judges was 95%-100%. The suicide-cluster signs in PORT, notably "lack of attachment relationships" and "Motor activity," were significant. Differences between the results of this and the previous study are discussed as is the role of psychiatric disorder in suicide.

Early gamma-band activity as a function of threat processing in the extrastriate visual cortex

Various neuroimaging investigations have revealed that perception of emotional pictures is associated with greater visual cortex activity than their neutral counterparts. It has further been proposed that threat-related information is rapidly processed, suggesting that the modulation of visual cortex activity should occur at an early stage. Additional studies have demonstrated that oscillatory activity in the gamma band range (40–100 Hz) is associated with threat processing. Magnetoencephalography (MEG) was used to investigate such activity during perception of task-irrelevant, threat-related versus neutral facial expressions. Our results demonstrated a bilateral reduction in gamma band activity for expressions of threat, specifically anger, compared with neutral faces in extrastriate visual cortex (BA 18) within 50–250 ms of stimulus onset. These results suggest that gamma activity in visual cortex may play a role in affective modulation of visual processing, in particular with the perception of threat cues.

The influence of color on emotional perception of natural scenes

Is color a critical factor when processing the emotional content of natural scenes? Under challenging perceptual conditions, such as when pictures are briefly presented, color might facilitate scene segmentation and/or function as a semantic cue via association with scene-relevant concepts (e.g., red and blood/injury). To clarify the influence of color on affective picture perception, we compared the late positive potentials (LPP) to color versus grayscale pictures, presented for very brief (24 ms) and longer (6 s) exposure durations. Results indicated that removing color information had no effect on the affective modulation of the LPP, regardless of exposure duration. These findings imply that the recognition of the emotional content of scenes, even when presented very briefly, does not critically rely on color information.

FMRI study of the aesthetic emotions (“kansei”): Pictorial depth perception and musical harmony

fMRI study of the aesthetic emotions (“kansei”): Pictorial depth perception and musical harmony

Measuring Pictorial Balance Perception at First Glance using Japanese Calligraphy

Measuring Pictorial Balance Perception at First Glance using Japanese Calligraphy

Dynamics and Languaging: Toward an Ecology of Language

We introduce the second of 2 special issues of Ecological Psychology that present papers from a conference, “Grounding Language in Perception and (Inter)action,” held at Gordon College in June 2009. The articles in this issue situate the study of language use in two kinds of context that are central to an understanding of “languaging” activities in the social settings in which they occur. The first is the context of dynamical systems theory. Wallot and Van Orden show how a dynamical systems approach can illuminate language use as the intentional and creative activity that it is. Cowley and Thibault illustrate the distributed language approach. Cowley follows Gibson (1979/1986) in comparing language understanding to picture perception. Thibault illustrates the wholly embedded nature of language use in an evocative example of 2 boys offering a description of aliens they have learned about in a story. All of the contributors emphasize language as embodied social action deeply embedded in the social contexts of talking. The articles in this issue and its predecessor, Ecological Psychology 22(4), offer valuable insights for development of an ecological theory of language use.

Depictive Traces: On the Phenomenology of Photography

Pictures—paintings, etchings, photographs, CGI—let us see what is not there. Or, rather, since what pictures depict is not really there, we do not really see the pictorial contents. But we seem to see the depicted things: we “see” them “in” the pictures. One kind of picture—photographs— would seem to have a special capacity to yield this experience of “seeming-to-see.” Over the last couple of decades, the question of what it is to see something in a picture—photographic or otherwise—has been lively discussed. The papers in this thesis are all attempts at contributing to this discussion.Essay I treats the special subjective experience one undergoes in looking at photographs (as opposed to “handmade” images). I argue that this experience is (in part) due to our taking photographs as a certain kind of trace. Along the way, it is also argued that Kendall Walton’s “transparency thesis”—the thought that one literally, actually, sees photographed objects when one sees photographs of them—cannot explain the phenomenology of photography. Behind Walton’s transparency thesis lies a view of photography as an essentially causal medium; it is the merely causal process of photography that, on Walton’s view, makes photographs transparent. In Essay II, I offer an account of the role of causality in photography, and discuss its implications for the possible contents of photographs. Essays III and IV discuss pictorial perception in general. Essay III treats Richard Wollheim’s notion of non-localisation, and (what I call) pictorial perceptual presence, how things, which are strictly speaking not seen in an image, are still part of our apprehension of the picture. Essay IV gives an account of the seeing of states of affairs in pictures, and points to the significance of such seeing.

Affective perception and imagery: A NIRS study

The activation of cortical attention networks during affective picture processing has been extensively studied, whereas little is known about affective imagery. It is still unclear whether differences in emotional stimulus content are able to modulate visual cortex activation during imagery. Moreover, individual differences in emotional reactivity and imagery ability have not been investigated. The aim of this experiment was to examine these processes by means of near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS). Thirty-five healthy adults were instructed to look at affective (disgust and happy) and neutral pictures and afterwards visualize them during multi-channel NIRS recording. Our main results indicated a differential involvement of parietal and occipital areas in the perception and imagery of affective pictures. In general, picture perception provoked increased oxygenated hemoglobin in occipital regions, whereas imagery was associated with an increase in parietal areas. Emotional content modulated activation of the left occipital cortex during both picture perception and imagery. Affective pictures (disgust and happy) provoked greater activation compared to neutral ones. Additionally, the self-rated imagery ability of the participants was positively correlated with their occipital activation during affective imagery. Thus, occipital activation might be crucial for the quality of imagery. In contrast, all correlations with emotional traits (e.g. trait disgust) and oxygenation were nonsignificant, which might be due to the fact that those personality factors predominantly modulate the activation of subcortical limbic structures which are not accessible with NIRS.

Perceiving Text and Image in Apollinaire's Calligrammes

Literary scholars have recently become increasingly interested in the perceptual and cognitive mechanisms involved in reading, and have incorporated scientific research in this area into their critical approaches to texts. This article argues that such an approach is particularly appropriate when authors explicitly engage with the way in which their texts are visually taken in and processed. This is the case with Guillaume Apollinaire, whose calligrammes are informed by a theory of visual-verbal simultaneity stipulating that the reader should be simultaneously aware of both textual and pictorial aspects of the poem. Experimental research in the psychology of reading and picture perception is used to assess this theory of simultaneity, and specifically to challenge Michel Foucault's claim that reading and viewing are mutually exclusive processes. The article concludes by considering further applications of psychological research to word and image studies.

Differential modulation of emotion processing brain regions by noradrenergic and serotonergic antidepressants

Most widely used antidepressant drugs affect the serotonergic and noradrenergic pathways. However, there are currently no neurobiological criteria for selecting between these targets and predicting the treatment response in individual depressed patients. The current study is aimed at differentiating brain regions known to be pathophysiologically and functionally involved in depression-related emotion processing with respect to their susceptibility to serotonergic and noradrenergic modulation. In a single-blind pseudo-randomized crossover study, 16 healthy subjects (out of 21 enrolled) were included in analysis after ingesting a single dose of citalopram (a selective serotonin-reuptake inhibitor, 40mg), reboxetine (a selective noradrenaline-reuptake inhibitor, 8mg), or placebo at three time points prior to functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). During fMRI, subjects anticipated and subsequently viewed emotional pictures. Effects of serotonergic and noradrenergic modulation versus placebo on brain activity during the perception of negative pictures were analyzed with a repeated measures ANOVA in the whole brain and in specific regions of interest relevant to depression. Noradrenergic modulation by reboxetine increased brain activity in the thalamus, right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and occipital regions during the perception of negative emotional stimuli. Citalopram primarily affected the ventrolateral prefrontal cortical regions. The brain regions involved in the processing of negative emotional stimuli were differentially modulated by selective noradrenergic and serotonergic drugs: thalamic activity was increased by reboxetine, whereas citalopram primarily affected ventrolateral prefrontal regions. Thus, dysfunction in these regions, which could be identified in depressed patients, may predict treatment responses to either noradrenergic or serotonergic antidepressants.