Human Vision Reconstructs Time to Satisfy Causal Constraints

Bechlivanidis, Christos and Buehner, Marc J and Tecwyn, Emma C and Lagnado, David A and Hoerl, Christoph and McCormack, Teresa (2022) Human Vision Reconstructs Time to Satisfy Causal Constraints. Psychological Science. ISSN 0956-7976

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Abstract

The goal of perception is to infer the most plausible source of sensory stimulation. Unisensory perception of temporal order, however, appears to require no inference, since the order of events can be uniquely determined from the order in which sensory signals arrive. Here we demonstrate a novel perceptual illusion that casts doubt on this intuition: in three studies (N=607) the experienced event timings are determined by causality in real-time. Adult observers viewed a simple three-item sequence ACB, which is typically remembered as ABC (Bechlivanidis & Lagnado, 2016), in line with principles of causality. When asked to indicate the time at which events B and C occurred, points of subjective simultaneity shifted so that the assumed cause B appeared earlier and the assumed effect C later, despite full attention and repeated viewings. This first demonstration of causality reversing perceived temporal order cannot be explained by post-perceptual distortion, lapsed attention, or saccades.

Item Type:	Article
Identification Number:	https://doi.org/10.1177/09567976211032663
Dates:	Date Event 23 May 2021 Accepted 4 January 2022 Published Online
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Perception; Causality; Time; Temporal Order
Subjects:	CAH04 - psychology > CAH04-01 - psychology > CAH04-01-01 - psychology (non-specific)
Divisions:	Faculty of Business, Law and Social Sciences > School of Social Sciences > Dept. Psychology
Depositing User:	Emma Tecwyn
Date Deposited:	22 Jun 2021 15:39
Last Modified:	14 Jan 2022 16:02
URI:	https://www.open-access.bcu.ac.uk/id/eprint/11809

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