Grant: Discovery Grants Program - Individual

Human visual attention is studied using behavioral methods, with the experiments informed by research and theory in human physiology, psychopathology, and computational modeling. Two distinct lines of research are outlined briefly as representative of the projects ongoing in the UBC Vision Lab. 1. A very exciting recent discovery in this lab is the unique pattern of responding that occurs when a search is interrupted and resumed. Instead of taking the usual ½ second between the onset of a display and a correct response, responses on subsequent looks occur with a mean of 200-300 milliseconds. The frequency of these rapid responses is influenced by several factors, but the most important is whether the participant has formed a perceptual hypothesis about one of the search items. This means we now have a way to quantify what a participant is expecting to see. Proposed experiments examine the relations between spatial attention and the rapid resumption, as well as individual differences in a large-scale developmental study. 2. We constantly make attributions about others enduring traits, based on their appearance and movement. It is time to examine this problem psychophysically. In this research, we present participants with avatars that convey realistic emotional expressions and movements. Participants rate the 'personality' of these avatars using standard scales. We have control over the frequency and combination of movements that the avatar faces make in a brief video. Experiments first assess the social aptitude of a large number of college students using a standardized autism spectrum scale. We then relate these scores to an individual's sensitivity to clues regarding the apparent 'dominance' and 'affiliation' of the avatars. In a second step, we collaborate with colleagues to give these personality perception tests to high-functioning individuals diagnosed with autism. This will help establish the validity of our approach to better understanding personality perception, as well as revealing how these individuals attribute personality to others.