Anomalous visual experience is linked to perceptual uncertainty and visual imagery vividness

Bibliographic Data

ID21533681
AuthorsJohannes H Salge, Johannes Salge (Otto-von-Guericke-Universität Magdeburg), Stefan Pollmann (0000-0001-5840-5658, Center for Behavioral Brain Sciences), Reshanne R Reeder (0000-0002-8525-5285, Center for Behavioral Brain Sciences, corresponding author)
Year2021
Volume85
Issue5
Pages1848-1865
Publication date2021-07-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenuePsychological Research (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0340-0727 • E-ISSN: 1430-2772
PublisherSpringer Science and Business Media LLC (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1007/s00426-020-01364-7
PMID32476064
OpenAlexW3032474503
LanguageEN
Citations received6
References cited58

An imbalance between top-down and bottom-up processing on perception (specifically, over-reliance on top-down processing) can lead to anomalous perception, such as illusions. One factor that may be involved in anomalous perception is visual mental imagery, which is the experience of “seeing” with the mind’s eye. There are vast individual differences in self-reported imagery vividness, and more vivid imagery is linked to a more sensory-like experience. We, therefore, hypothesized that susceptibility to anomalous perception is linked to individual imagery vividness. To investigate this, we adopted a paradigm that is known to elicit the perception of faces in pure visual noise (pareidolia). In four experiments, we explored how imagery vividness contributes to this experience under different response instructions and environments. We found strong evidence that people with more vivid imagery were more likely to see faces in the noise, although removing suggestive instructions weakened this relationship. Analyses from the first two experiments led us to explore confidence as another factor in pareidolia proneness. We, therefore, modulated environment noise and added a confidence rating in a novel design. We found strong evidence that pareidolia proneness is correlated with uncertainty about real percepts. Decreasing perceptual ambiguity abolished the relationship between pareidolia proneness and both imagery vividness and confidence. The results cannot be explained by incidental face-like patterns in the noise, individual variations in response bias, perceptual sensitivity, subjective perceptual thresholds, viewing distance, testing environments, motivation, gender, or prosopagnosia. This indicates a critical role of mental imagery vividness and perceptual uncertainty in anomalous perceptual experience

Ambiguity · Cognition · Cognitive psychology · Face perception · Illusion · Mental image · Optical illusion · Perception · Sensory processing · Sensory system · Visual perception · Computer Science · Face Recognition and Perception · Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies · Psychology · Psychology of Moral and Emotional Judgment · Artificial Intelligence

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