Korean Society For Cognitive and Biological Psychology

[ Article ]

The Korean Journal of Cognitve & Biological Psychology - Vol. 30, No. 2, pp.141-156

ISSN: 1226-9654 (Print)

Print publication date 30 Apr 2018

Received 05 Mar 2018 Revised 29 Apr 2018 Accepted 30 Apr 2018

DOI: https://doi.org/10.22172/cogbio.2018.30.2.004

Perceiving causal relations between moving objects: Postdictive causal attribution can bias apparent motion correspondence

Sung-Ho Kim^† ; Ye-Eun Jung

Department of Psychology, Ewha Womans University

지각된 인과성이 애매한 가현운동 지각에 미치는 영향

김성호^† ; 정예은

이화여자대학교 심리학과

Correspondence to: ^†김성호, 이화여자대학교 심리학과, (120-750) 서울시 서대문구 이화여대길 52 E-mail: sunghokim@ewha.ac.kr

Abstract

Comprehension of physical events in terms of cause and effect is fundamental for making sense of and dealing successfully with changes in the dynamic physical world. Previous research has demonstrated that the causal structure of the world can, in some cases, be directly perceived: When two billiard balls collide, observers perceive that the action of one ball caused the other's motion, merging two motion events into a unitary percept. The current study explored whether such casual interpretations can contribute to resolving low-level ambiguities in motion perception. We used a bistable apparent motion display, a motion quartet, which can lead to the perception of either horizontal or vertical motion, and tested the effects of “context objects” which moved in such a way that motion targets appeared to collide with them in either horizontal or vertical dimension. Our results show that contextual motion implying a Michotte-style launch can strongly bias observed motion correspondence, consistent with physical regularities of mechanical causality in a postdictive way. It suggests that the perception of causality is an earlier and more pervasive phenomenon than previously understood, and in fact can influence the perception of motion itself.

초록

물리적 세계의 역동적 변화를 이해하기 위해서는 물리적 사건을 인과적 관계로 해석하는 것이 필요하다. 인과성 지각에 대한 선행 연구는 세상의 인과적 구조가 때로는 직접적으로 지각가능함을 보여준다. 본 연구는 수직 혹은 수평 움직임으로 지각 가능한 "네 물체 움직임" 패러다임을 이용하여, 지각된 인과성이 애매한 가현운동 지각에 미치는 영향을 살펴보았다. 가상 사각형의 두 대각 귀퉁이에 번갈아 제시되는 가현운동 표적 물체가 두 쌍의 맥락 물체와 함께 제시되었다. 각 쌍의 표적 물체가 나타날 때마다 인접한 한 쌍의 맥락 물체가 수직 또는 수평 방향으로 이동하면, 물체 간 “충돌” 해석과 일관되는 방향으로 표적 물체의 움직임이 경험되는 편향이 관찰되었다. 본 연구는 (1)인과성 지각이 가현운동의 대응 문제 해결에 기여할 수 있으며, (2)시간 순서상 후행사건인 맥락 물체의 이동이 선행사건인 표적 물체의 움직임 방향에 영향을 주는 사후해석적인 방식으로 가현운동이 지각됨을 보여준다. 이 현상은 인과성 지각이 물체 움직임 정보를 기초로 한 일방향적 시각 처리과정의 최종 단계가 아니며, 기초적인 운동 지각과정에 하향적으로 기여할 수 있음을 시사한다.

Keywords:

causal perception, apparent motion, motion correspondence, postdiction

키워드:

인과적 지각, 가현운동, 움직임 대응문제, 사후추정

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