To err and err, but less and less: Predictive coding and affective value in perception, art, and autism

Both theoretical and empirical arguments are accumulating for a substantial role of affective processes in vision. We argue that affect is not something that comes into play in a final processing stage, merely working on the output of object recognition processes, but that it is intrinsic to the entire visual processing stream and thus an important factor in the constructive processes of perceptual organization and object recognition. Neural activity in visual areas as low-level as V1 is shown to be modulated by the emotional significance of stimuli1-2. Behaviorally, affect has been found to increase awareness of stimuli in neglect patients and in binocular rivalry and there are even indications that affect may improve the discrimination of low-level visual features3. Hence, affect can influence what in our visual environment is processed, how it is processed, and what we subsequently become aware of. This affective influence interacts but does not coincide with that of attention. Our focus is on how affectively valued stimuli or affective states can alter Gestalt perception, specifically grouping and object formation. In grouping studies, affective value of visual input has been neglected and covered upby the ceteris paribus principle. On the other hand, recent models of object recognition that fully appreciate top-down processing and its interaction with the bottom-up information flow4 can easily be extended to include a role of affect. We attempt to develop a coherent account of affect-perception interactions based on these research lines. To tackle important open questions in this relatively unexplored research area, we propose to adapt existing psychophysical and cognitive paradigms to incorporate a manipulation of affective stimulus value or affective state.

Keywords:Experimental psychology

Disciplines:Animal experimental and comparative psychology, Applied psychology, Human experimental psychology

Project type:PhD project