The misrepresentation of spatial uncertainty in visual search: Single- versus joint-distribution probability cues
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The misrepresentation of spatial uncertainty in visual search: Singleversus joint-distribution probability cues Bradley S. Gibson 1 & Joseph R. Pauszek 1 & Jamie M. Trost 1 & Michael J. Wenger 2 Accepted: 8 September 2020 # The Psychonomic Society, Inc. 2020
Abstract The present study used information theory to quantify the extent to which different spatial cues conveyed the entropy associated with the identity and location of a visual search target. Single-distribution cues reflected the probability that the target would appear at one fixed location whereas joint-distribution cues reflected the probability that the target would appear at the location where another cue (arrow) pointed. The present study used a novel demand-selection paradigm to examine the extent to which individuals explicitly preferred one type of probability cue over the other. Although both cues conveyed equal entropy, the main results suggested representation of greater target entropy for joint- than for single-distribution cues based on a comparison between predicted and observed probability cue choices across four experiments. The present findings emphasize the importance of understanding how individuals represent basic information-theoretic quantities that underlie more complex decision-theoretic processes such as Bayesian and active inference. Keywords Visual search . Visual perception . Attention: space-based
Introduction The synthetic approach to psychological science recommends that theories should be founded on broad, continuous constructs derived from general principles (Cisek, 2019; Hommel et al., 2019). The “free energy principle” in computational neuroscience is one candidate principle that may unify theories of perception, cognition, and action; this principle contends a biological imperative to minimize the uncertainty of an individual’s sensory, motoric, and metabolic states based on an internal model capable of predicting those future states (Bogacz, 2017; Clark, 2016; Friston, 2009, 2013; Gershman, 2019; Hutchinson & Barrett, 2019). The free energy principle therefore predicts that individuals should generally seek to minimize uncertainty in their interactions with the world. Consistent with this general principle, there is strong behavioral and physiological evidence that the brain represents probability distributions and performs inferences based on * Bradley S. Gibson [email protected] 1
Department of Psychology, University of Notre Dame, 390 Corbett Family Hall, Notre Dame, IN, USA
2
Department of Psychology, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, USA
those distributions (see Ma, 2012, and Pouget, Beck, Ma, & Latham, 2013, for reviews). However, there is also evidence to suggest that individual behavior can reflect suboptimal inferences arising from incorrect probability distributions as opposed to noise (Beck, Ma, Pitkow, Latham, & Pouget, 2012). The present study was designed to examine this biological imperative within the context of visual search, and the extent to which an individual’s ability to perform optimal (or i
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