Individual differences in spatial frequency processing in scene perception: the influence of autism-related traits

ABSTRACT

Previous research suggested that coarse (High Spatial Frequency or HSF) and fine (Low Spatial Frequency or LSF) spatial information are flexibly used at different stages of processing during scene recognition in daily life. We tried to replicate and extend these findings by presenting non-social real-life scenes either as a normal picture, solely defined by LSF or HSF information, or using hybrid images consisting of overlaid LSF and HSF scene information. These were used as (in)congruent prime stimuli, modulating the rapid detection of a normal target picture in a 2-Alternative Forced Choice (2-AFC) categorization task (manmade versus natural). Our results indicated that coarse spatial information was more effective with shorter prime presentation times and fine spatial information required a longer prime presentation to influence participant performance. Interestingly, higher scores on the Autism-Spectrum Quotient questionnaire modified the impact of HSF prime information on target identification and influenced performance when ambiguous hybrid prime information preceded the categorization task.

KEYWORDS:

• Scene perception
• coarse-to-fine processing
• spatial frequency
• autism-spectrum questionnaire
• reverse hierarchy theory

Additional information

Funding

Supported by the Research Foundation-Flanders (FWO) to Steven Vanmarcke [grant number 11Q8516N] and long-term structural funding by the Flemish Government [grant number METH/14/02] to Johan Wagemans.