Variation In Perception Research Articles

Implications of Noise on Neural Correlates of Consciousness: A Computational Analysis of Stochastic Systems of Mutually Connected Processes

Random fluctuations in neuronal processes may contribute to variability in perception and increase the information capacity of neuronal networks. Various sources of random processes have been characterized in the nervous system on different levels. However, in the context of neural correlates of consciousness, the robustness of mechanisms of conscious perception against inherent noise in neural dynamical systems is poorly understood. In this paper, a stochastic model is developed to study the implications of noise on dynamical systems that mimic neural correlates of consciousness. We computed power spectral densities and spectral entropy values for dynamical systems that contain a number of mutually connected processes. Interestingly, we found that spectral entropy decreases linearly as the number of processes within the system doubles. Further, power spectral density frequencies shift to higher values as system size increases, revealing an increasing impact of negative feedback loops and regulations on the dynamics of larger systems. Overall, our stochastic modeling and analysis results reveal that large dynamical systems of mutually connected and negatively regulated processes are more robust against inherent noise than small systems.

It\u2019s in your hands: How variable perception affects grasping estimates in virtual reality

Successful interaction within one’s environment is contingent upon one’s ability to accurately perceive the extent over which actions can be performed, referred to as action boundaries. As our possibilities for action are subject to variability, it is necessary for individuals to be able to update their perceived action boundaries to accommodate for variance. While research has shown that individuals can update their action boundaries to accommodate for variability, it is unclear how the perceptual system calibrates to this variance to inform our action boundaries. This study investigated the influence of perceptual motor variability by analysing the effect of random and systematic variability on perceived grasp ability in virtual reality. Participants estimated grasp ability following perceptual-motor experience with a constricted, normal, extended, or variable grasp. In Experiment 1, participants experienced all three grasping abilities (constricted, normal, extended) 33% of the time. In Experiment 2 participants experienced the constricted and normal grasps 25% of the time, and the extended grasp 50% of the time. The results indicated that when perceptual-motor feedback is inconsistent, the perceptual system disregards the frequency of perceptual-motor experience with the different action capabilities and considers each action capability experienced as a type, and subsequently calibrates to the average action boundary experienced by type.

Category structure guides the formation of neural representations.

Perceptual variability is often viewed as having multiple benefits in object learning and categorization. Despite the abundant results demonstrating benefits such as increased transfer of knowledge, the neural mechanisms underlying variability as well as the developmental trajectories of how variability precipitates changes to category boundaries are unknown. By manipulating an individual's exposure to variability of novel, metrically organized categories during an fMRI-adaptation paradigm, we were able to assess the functional differences between similarity and variability in category learning and generalization across two time-points in development: adulthood (n = 14) and late childhood (n = 13). During this study, participants were repeatedly exposed to category members from different distributions. After a period of adaptation, a deviant stimulus that differed from the expected distribution was then presented. This deviant differed in either an invariant dimension (a feature that remained consistent throughout presentation was altered) or a similarity dimension (a feature that changed throughout exposure was changed in a new dimension). Our results can be summarized in three main findings: (1) Variability during exposure recruited the right fusiform gyrus to a greater extent than tight exposure. (2) Deviant items were generalized based on the exemplar distributions during exposure, although children only generalized items if provided variable exposure. (3) Variability influenced release to a greater extent in children than adults. These results are discussed in relation to the variability and category learning literature more broadly.

Variability in the temporal perception of polyphenol-related sensations in extra virgin olive oil and impact on flavor perception

Polyphenol-related sensations (PRS) in extra virgin olive oil (EVOO), i.e. bitterness, pungency and astringency, are often identified by consumers as negative drivers of preference. A deep comprehension of how these sensations interact is a fundamental step to better understand consumers’ preferences toward EVOO. Perception of PRS proved to be variable on an individual basis, but studies that involve the EVOO matrix and that consider the whole consumption experience are lacking. Thus, the purpose of this study was to explore the variability in PRS perception in EVOO and to evaluate the impact of this perceptual variability on flavor perception over time.For this study, 11 Italian EVOOs were initially considered as well representative of the expected variability in terms of olive tree cultivars and areas of production. Projective Mapping followed by Ultra-Flash Profile were used to get the six EVOOs that formed the most diverse subset with respect to PRS. A panel of 19 assessors (9 females) was characterized for the perception of bitterness, astringency and pungency through intensity evaluation of water solutions with five levels of increasing concentration of the solute related to a specific PRS, independently for each oral sensation. PRS perception responses were used to split the panel into two groups, one with a higher level of perception to PRS (HP-PRS) and one with a lower level of perception to PRS (LP-PRS).After training on EVOO descriptors, both groups evaluated the samples dynamically and in triplicate, using Temporal Check-All-That-Apply methodology. Differences in PRS perception were confirmed in EVOO samples and were shown to impact flavor perception over time. Pungency and astringency were the major modulators of the temporal flavor perception, whereas bitterness had a negligible role.The findings in this study are a contribution to improve the understanding of dynamics of perception in EVOO and provided insights that may be helpful to promote EVOO sensory evaluation.

Academic Tenure: Perceptual Variations Among Tenured, Tenure-seeking and Non-tenure Faculty.

Tenure is a hallmark of higher education, but its value and relevance is questioned. This study examined faculty perceptions of the value of tenured and non-tenured nursing faculty appointments. A descriptive correlational design using an anonymous survey was sent to members of the American Association of College of Nursing. Participants (N=542) from 44 states completed the survey. Significant differences in workload were found in teaching, administrative responsibilities, scholarship, and academic service. Compared to non-tenured faculty, tenured faculty had higher scores on Career Opportunities (p<0.001), lower Life Balance scores (p=0.001) and higher Academic Support scores (p=0.014). Non-tenured faculty were less likely to agree than tenured faculty that tenure improves quality of education (χ2=86.48, p<0.001) or is relevant to the modern university (χ2=75.20, p<0.001). Narrative responses revealed six themes about tenure. Faculty on both tracks questioned the value of tenure. Faculties in schools of nursing nationwide need to re-evaluate the purpose of tenure and the tenure criteria in light of each institution's unique mission and expectations to determine how they are meeting the needs of both academic institution and nursing faculty. Although the idea of tenure is institutional, implementation is initiated at the school level. Our study revealed naivete about tenure among nursing faculty at the school level.

Multiple-image arrays in face matching tasks with and without memory

Previous research has shown that exposure to within-person variability facilitates face learning. A different body of work has examined potential benefits of providing multiple images in face matching tasks. Viewers are asked to judge whether a target face matches a single face image (as when checking photo-ID) or multiple face images of the same person. The evidence here is less clear, with some studies finding a small multiple-image benefit, and others finding no advantage. In four experiments, we address this discrepancy in the benefits of multiple images from learning and matching studies. We show that multiple-image arrays only facilitate face matching when arrays precede targets. Unlike simultaneous face matching tasks, sequential matching and learning tasks involve memory and require abstraction of a stable representation of the face from the array, for subsequent comparison with a target. Our results show that benefits from multiple-image arrays occur only when this abstraction is required, and not when array and target images are available at once. These studies reconcile apparent differences between face learning and face matching and provide a theoretical framework for the study of within-person variability in face perception.

Toward an individual-difference perspective on phonologization

Phonologization is often understood to be a process along the pathway of sound change where low-level physiological or perceptual variation that gives rise to sound patterns is explicitly encoded in the grammar. The nature of this transition and how it comes about remain largely unclear. The broad theoretical goal of this paper is to argue that phonologization should be defined at the level of the individual; it takes place whenever an individual acquires a so-called “phonetic precursor” as an intended, and controlled, pattern in the language, even if the pattern exhibits gradient properties. To illustrate this perspective, a case study on the nature of individual variation in vowel duration as a function of vowel height in Cantonese is presented, offering evidence that some Cantonese speakers have phonologized the height-dependent vowel duration effect and discussing the implications of this result for understanding intrinsic vowel duration as a phonetic precursor to sound change. The article closes with a discussion regarding the current proposal in relation to past models of phonologization and offers suggestions for future directions in phonologization research.

Role of semantic context and talker variability in speech perception of cochlear-implant users and normal-hearing listeners.

This study assessed the impact of semantic context and talker variability on speech perception by cochlear-implant (CI) users and compared their overall performance and between-subjects variance with that of normal-hearing (NH) listeners under vocoded conditions. Thirty post-lingually deafened adult CI users were tested, along with 30 age-matched and 30 younger NH listeners, on sentences with and without semantic context, presented in quiet and noise, spoken by four different talkers. Additional measures included working memory, non-verbal intelligence, and spectral-ripple detection and discrimination. Semantic context and between-talker differences influenced speech perception to similar degrees for both CI users and NH listeners. Between-subjects variance for speech perception was greatest in the CI group but remained substantial in both NH groups, despite the uniformly degraded stimuli in these two groups. Spectral-ripple detection and discrimination thresholds in CI users were significantly correlated with speech perception, but a single set of vocoder parameters for NH listeners was not able to capture average CI performance in both speech and spectral-ripple tasks. The lack of difference in the use of semantic context between CI users and NH listeners suggests no overall differences in listening strategy between the groups, when the stimuli are similarly degraded.

Structural neural correlates of individual differences in categorical perception

Listeners perceive speech sounds categorically. While group-level differences in categorical perception have been observed in children or individuals with reading disorders, recent findings suggest that typical adults vary in how categorically they perceive sounds. The current study investigated neural sources of individual variability in categorical perception of speech. Fifty-seven participants rated phonetic tokens on a visual analogue scale; categoricity and response consistency were measured and related to measures of brain structure from MRI. Increased surface area of the right middle frontal gyrus predicted more categorical perception of a fricative continuum. This finding supports the idea that frontal regions are sensitive to phonetic category-level information and extends it to make behavioral predictions at the individual level. Additionally, more gyrification in bilateral transverse temporal gyri predicted less consistent responses on the task, perhaps reflecting subtle variation in language ability across the population.

Perceptual variation and ignorance

There is variation in how people perceive colors and other secondary qualities. The challenge of perceptual variation is to say whose perceptions are accurate. A natural and influential response is that, whenever there’s variation in two people’s perceptions, at most one of their perceptions is accurate. I will argue that this leads to an unacceptable kind of ignorance.

El método Singapur para el aprendizaje de las matemáticas. Enfoque y concreción de un estilo de aprendizaje

Los excelentes resultados obtenidos por Singapur en las últimas pruebas PISA 2015 y TIMMS 2015, han provocado un gran interés por el denominado Método Singapur de aprendizaje de las matemáticas. El marco curricular de Singapur tiene como centro de aprendizaje la resolución de problemas matemáticos y se basa en cuatro aspectos fundamentales: el enfoque CPA (concreto - pictórico - abstracto), el currículo en espiral, las variaciones sistemática y perceptual y la comprensión relacional. Estos aspectos se fundamentan en las ideas de Jerome Bruner, Zoltan Dienes y Richard Skemp. En este trabajo, tras presentar el sistema educativo de Singapur y el marco curricular, se estudian las aportaciones de estos autores y sus concreciones en el Método Singapur y se extraen una serie de conclusiones para su adaptación.

Valuing Protected Areas: Socioeconomic Determinants of the Willingness to Pay for the National Park

The study aimed at estimating the variability of perception of the Wielkopolski National Park (WNP) value among different groups of society. The study was based on questionnaires conducted in 2018. Analyses were carried out on the basis of 1350 records. The results of the survey were subjected to statistical analysis using the canonical correspondence analysis (CCA) and the analysis of variance. The study revealed that the relation with the natural environment significantly differs among various groups of society. The application of diverse analytical tools in relation to the survey data allowed for the quantification of that diversity. The relationship between the economic situation of respondents and their willingness to pay for nature conservation is non-linear.

Towards a Robust Visual Place Recognition in Large-Scale vSLAM Scenarios Based on a Deep Distance Learning.

The application of deep learning is blooming in the field of visual place recognition, which plays a critical role in visual Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (vSLAM) applications. The use of convolutional neural networks (CNNs) achieve better performance than handcrafted feature descriptors. However, visual place recognition is still a challenging task due to two major problems, i.e., perceptual aliasing and perceptual variability. Therefore, designing a customized distance learning method to express the intrinsic distance constraints in the large-scale vSLAM scenarios is of great importance. Traditional deep distance learning methods usually use the triplet loss which requires the mining of anchor images. This may, however, result in very tedious inefficient training and anomalous distance relationships. In this paper, a novel deep distance learning framework for visual place recognition is proposed. Through in-depth analysis of the multiple constraints of the distance relationship in the visual place recognition problem, the multi-constraint loss function is proposed to optimize the distance constraint relationships in the Euclidean space. The new framework can support any kind of CNN such as AlexNet, VGGNet and other user-defined networks to extract more distinguishing features. We have compared the results with the traditional deep distance learning method, and the results show that the proposed method can improve the performance by 19–28%. Additionally, compared to some contemporary visual place recognition techniques, the proposed method can improve the performance by 40%/36% and 27%/24% in average on VGGNet/AlexNet using the New College and the TUM datasets, respectively. It’s verified the method is capable to handle appearance changes in complex environments.

Voice Feature Extraction for Gender and Emotion Recognition

Voice recognition plays a key function in spoken communication that facilitates identifying the emotions of a person that reflects within the voice. Gender classification through speech is a popular Human Computer Interaction (HCI) method on account that determining gender through computer is hard. This led to the development of a model for "Voice feature extraction for Emotion and Gender Recognition". The speech signal consists of semantic information, speaker information (gender, age, emotional state), accompanied by noise. Females and males have specific vocal traits because of their acoustical and perceptual variations along with a variety of emotions which bring their own specific perceptions. In order to explore this area, feature extraction requires pre-processing of data, which is necessary for increasing the accuracy. The proposed model follows steps such as data extraction, pre-processing using Voice Activity Detector(VAD), feature extraction using Mel-Frequency Cepstral Coefficient(MFCC), feature reduction by Principal Component Analysis(PCA) and Support Vector Machine (SVM) classifier. The proposed combination of techniques produced better results which can be useful in healthcare sector, virtual assistants, security purposes and other fields related to Human Machine Interaction domain.

Risk of COVID-19 in Health Professionals: A Case-Control Study, Portugal

Introduction: Health professionals face higher occupational exposure to SARS-CoV-2. We aimed to estimate the risk of COVID-19 test positivity in health professionals compared to non-health professionals. Methods: We conducted a test-negative case-control study using Portuguese national surveillance data (January to May 2020). Cases were suspected cases who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2; controls were suspected cases who tested negative. We used multivariable logistic regression modelling to estimate the odds ratio of a positive COVID-19 test (RT-PCR; primary outcome), comparing health professionals and non-health professionals (primary exposure), and adjusting for the confounding effect of demographic, clinical, and epidemiological characteristics, and the modification effect of the self-reported epidemiological link (i.e., self-reported contact with a COVID-19 case or person with COVID-19-like symptoms). Results: Health professionals had a 2-fold higher risk of a positive COVID-19 test result (aOR = 1.89, 95% CI 1.69–2.11). However, this association was strongly modified by the self-report of an epidemiological link such that, among cases who did report an epidemiological link, being a health professional was a protective factor (aOR = 0.90, 95% CI 0.82–0.98). Conclusion: Our findings suggest that health professionals might be primarily infected by unknown contacts, plausibly in the healthcare setting, but also that their occupational exposure does not systematically translate into a higher risk of transmission. We suggest that this could be interpreted in light of different types and timing of exposure, and variability in risk perception and associated preventive behaviours.

ÖĞRETMENLERİN AKILLI TAHTA KULLANIMINA İLİŞKİN TUTUMLARININ BİLGİSAYAR VE İNTERNET ÖZ YETERLİLİK ALGISI İLE İLİŞKİSİ

This study, it was aimed to reveal the relationship between teachers' attitudes towards the use of smart boards and their perception of computer and internet self-efficacy. In addition, the attitude towards the use of smart boards and the variability of computer and internet self-efficacy perception by age and professional seniority were examined. As a result of the research, it was seen that as the age of the teachers increased, their computer and internet self-efficacy perceptions decreased, and their attitudes towards the smartboard also became negative. In addition, there is a positive and weak relationship between computer and internet self-efficacy perceptions and attitudes towards using smartboards. As a result of the research, it was suggested to provide in-service training to teachers over the age of 45 that can increase computer and internet self-efficacy perception. In this way, it is thought that their attitudes towards the smartboard can also be made positive.

Андрогинные мотивы в романе Лены Элтанг «Побег куманики»

The novel “Pobeg Kumaniki” (“Bramble Sprout”) by Lena Eltang fits in with traditions of modernism, where the images of the androgyny are related to the problem of finding and obtaining “intelligible integrity.” The paper analyzes the methods of embodying androgynous motives (auto-associative intertextuality, temporal and gender variability of perception of re-ality, Moras’ representation of himself as a woman, the homosexual intention of the hero, the relationship of duality with different-sex characters, etc.). The novel reveals the androgyny semantics in the context of the split Self and the search for the fundamental basis that would unite the parts into a whole. Androgynous motives correlate with the themes of creativity and love. It is due to the desire to compensate for the brother’s dislike and parting with him that Moras creates the text. The absence of love is one of the novel’s central manifestations of the splinter motif (disintegration, separation) that is antonymous to androgyny. The storylines of the two characters (Forge and Moras) test different ways of achieving integrity. Two vectors of movement towards wholeness are revealed: one towards complexity, multidimensionality (combining the diversity of the world and the Self in consciousness and text) and one towards simplification (the disappearance of fragmentation in the state of the embryo, representing pure potency). However, all the methods only manifest the limitations of human capabilities. Androgyny is still an ideal not to be realized during earthly existence. Therefore, the Central character disappears in the finale.

ACESSANDO O SIGNIFICADO SOCIAL DA PALATALIZAÇÃO /t, d/

Ao considerar a língua como sistema inerentemente variável, a Teoria da Variação e Mudança (WEINREICH; LABOV; HERZOG, 2006 [1968]) postula que as variantes linguísticas apresentam o mesmo significado referencial, mas tendem a apresentar significados sociais diferentes. Esses significados podem ser associados a valores positivos, negativos ou neutros na comunidade. Neste estudo, mensuramos os significados sociais associados ao processo de palatalização /t, d/ por estudantes universitários do agreste alagoano, a partir de seis parâmetros de julgamento social: percepção da variação na cidade onde mora, crença a respeito do próprio uso linguístico, avaliação da variação, percepção do uso quanto à variação diatópica, quanto à escolarização e quanto ao preconceito linguístico. Adotamos uma abordagem direta (GARRET; COUPLAND; WILLIAMS, 2003) através de um questionário de crenças e atitudes linguísticas, que foi aplicado a 102 estudantes universitários. Os dados evidenciam que a percepção dos estudantes é sensível ao contexto linguístico, revelando que, para a palatalização regressiva, há uma avaliação positiva, indicando ser um estereótipo positivo, ao passo que, para a palatalização progressiva, há uma avaliação negativa, indicando um caso de estereótipo negativo na comunidade.

Unstructured numerical intensity scales: Models, protocols and errors

A sample of 62 untrained subjects were assessed on their ability to use unstructured numerical 9-point and 30-point category scales along with an unstructured line scale, using both rank-rating and serial monadic protocols. Visual stimuli were used for convenience, the task being to rate the heights of 12 easily discriminable columns of mung beans held in transparent vertical cylinders. Such stimuli had no perceptual variance, which would otherwise have added uncontrolled variance to the subjects’ performance. Two measures of performance were used for each of the 6 experimental conditions. First, mean number of ‘scaling errors’ made in each of the six experimental conditions was computed. In this experiment, a scaling error was defined as giving a taller column a score equal to or less than a shorter column. The lower the error count, the better the subjects’ performance. The second measure was to match the subjects’ rating scale pattern of scores to a ‘true’ pattern of scores, derived from the physical measurements of the 12 columns. For this, a ‘dissimilarity score’ was developed. This compared the sum of the Euclidean distances between standardized true scale ratings for each of the column’s 12 true heights, with those obtained from each subject. This gave a measure of the mismatch between the subject’s set of scores and the true set of scores. Both the scaling error counts and the dissimilarity measures, indicated that subjects performed significantly better using the rank-rating protocol than the serial monadic. This was because of the effects of forgetting the exact intensities of stimuli once they had been removed, removal of stimuli being a necessary part of the serial monadic protocol. Subjects were penalized when using the 9-point scales, because there were too few categories to represent the different heights of all 12 columns. This introduced the concept of ‘sufficient space’. Using the rank-rating protocol, the 30-point and line scales, with no memory problems and sufficient space elicited the best performances; they were not significantly different.

Prospects for development of advertising graphics in the traditional and digital media

The visualization is becoming an increasingly important area of research and has a wide range of applications. The aim of this article is to compare the visual means of advertisements from traditional (print advertising, poster, outdoor) to digital media (internet ads). The trans system and multimodal methodological approaches are applied, which made it possible to using system-structural, socio-cultural, and comparative methods. The style and prospects for the development of Advertising Graphics in the first half of XXI cent. have been determined. Based on the analysis of modern trends, the stylistics of Advertising Graphics are noted: the preservation of distinct styles and monocultures; the dominance of compromise options (fusion, mixing, conscious eclecticism, variability of perception); the simultaneous coexistence of many styles (polystylism); the conceptual search for new styles; and conscious return to the origins of ethno-cultures, further rethinking of folk themes, generalization and decorativeness of Folk Art. We predict in Future the priority of functional, minimalist and polygonal styles, for some categories and services — ethno style (for food, clothing, footwear, accessories, tourism, etc.). Metaphor and other methods of visualization (hyperbole, metonymy, allegory, association) will remain the art-stylistic devices in Advertising. It is obvious that traditional media, in particular posters, will be preserved, but at the same time,there will be a gradual disappearance of print advertising and outdoor transformation towards increasing digitalization. The scientific results obtained will be great importance at the theoretical, practical and educational levels, and in general, will promote the development of Advertising Design in Ukraine. The author emphasizes that the Poster retains the position of the main advertising media, despite the rapid development of computer technologies and virtual space, and considers media design as a qualitatively new stage in the socio-cultural designing of communications and the most promising type of Design.