title: Retinotopic sensitisation to spatial scale: evidence for flexible spatial frequency processing in scene perception.
abstract: Observers can use spatial scale information flexibly depending on categorisation task and on their prior sensitisation. Here, we explore whether attentional modulation of spatial frequency processing at early stages of visual analysis may be responsible. In three experiments, we find that observers' perception of spatial frequency (SF) band-limited scene stimuli is determined by the SF content of images previously experienced at that location during a sensitisation phase. We conclude that these findings are consistent with the involvement of relatively early, retinotopically mapped, stages of visual analysis, supporting the attentional modulation of spatial frequency channels account of sensitisation effects.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Bilkent University, Bilkent, Ankara 06800, Turkey. Eozgen@bilkent.edu.tr
authors.forename: Emre
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Ozgen
authors.forename: Helen E
authors.initials: HE
authors.lastname: Payne
authors.forename: Paul T
authors.initials: PT
authors.lastname: Sowden
authors.forename: Philippe G
authors.initials: PG
authors.lastname: Schyns
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D011601:Psychophysics; D012160:Retina / Q000502:physiology*; D013028:Space Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D014794:Visual Fields / Q000502:physiology