The role of frame size on vertical and horizontal observers in the rod-and-frame illusion

doi:10.1016/0001-6918(92)90031-8

Acta Psychologica

Volume 79, Issue 2, March 1992, Pages 171-187

https://doi.org/10.1016/0001-6918(92)90031-8 Get rights and content

Abstract

The rod-and-frame illusion was used to examine a proposed distinction between the mechanism responsible for frame effects on rod-adjustment errors with large displays and the mechanism responsible for errors with small displays. It was suggested that visual-vestibular mechanisms are involved only when the rod is surrounded by a large tilted frame. Errors in the perceived vertical with small frame would instead be due to purely visual mechanisms. To examine this dual process model, we compared errors at small and large frame when the body was vertical or horizontal. There is evidence to suggest that tilting the body affects visual-vestibular interactions, but there is no reason to expect that body tilt would affect intravisual interactions. Hence, we hypothesized that body tilt would increase errors for large frame, but not for small frame. Eight subjects were tested in four different conditions, corresponding to the combination of two body orientations (vertical versus horizontal) and two frame sizes (47.5 versus 10.5 deg of visual angle). Fourier analysis of data was performed. Repeated measures ANOVA tested the hypothesis about frame size and body orientation. The hypothesis was not confirmed. More specifically, we found that tilting the body increased errors for the small frame as well as for the large frame. The interaction between frame size and body orientation was not significant. Results are discussed in relation to the proposed dual-process model.

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Cited by (33)

Visuospatial orientation: Differential effects of head and body positions
2022, Neuroscience Letters
Citation Excerpt :
The frame orientation can bias visual vertical estimate in the same direction, which is known as the rod-and-frame effect [15,22,30,31]. This visual effect also increases with tilting the body, indicating increased reliance on visual cues with reduced reliability of other sensory inputs that encode body position [22,32]. Usually frame tilts close to perceived vertical result in an ‘attractor bias’ towards the frame orientation, whereas a ‘detractor bias’ is seen at larger frame tilts [15,22,33].
To orientate in space, the brain must integrate sensory information that encodes the position of the body with the visual cues from the surrounding environment. In this process, the extent of reliance on visual information is known as the visual dependence. Here, we asked whether the relative positions of the head and body can modulate such visual dependence (VD). We used the effect of optokinetic stimulation (30°/s) on subjective visual vertical (SVV) to quantify VD as the average optokinetic-induced SVV bias in clockwise and counter-clockwise directions. The VD bias was measured in eight subjects with a head-on-body tilt (HBT) where only the head was tilted on the body, and also with a whole-body tilt (WBT) where the head and body were tilted together. The VD bias with HBT of 20° was in the same direction of the head tilt position (left tilt VD −1.35 ± 0.1.2°; right VD 1.60 ± 0.9°), whereas the VD bias with WBT of 20° was in a direction away from the body tilt position (left tilt VD 2.5 ± 1.1°; right tilt VD −2.1 ± 0.9°). These findings show differential effects of relative head and body positions on visual cue integration, a process which could facilitate optimal interaction with the surrounding environment for spatial orientation.
Visual-vestibular interactions
2019, Multisensory Perception: From Laboratory to Clinic
The human brain uses information from various sensory systems to gauge orientation of the body with respect to the external environment. Our perception of space is based on the image of the external world as registered by various senses and continuously updated and stabilized through sensory feedback from motor activities. In this process, multisensory integration can resolve ambiguities associated with the inherent “noise” from discrete sensory modalities. Accordingly, convergence of visual and vestibular inputs plays a significant role in our perceptions of spatial orientation and motion, which are essential for motor planning and interaction with the external environment. Once movements are generated, the visual–vestibular integration is imperative for optimizing vision and stabilizing the line of sight during movements of the head (i.e., gaze stabilization). Such visual–vestibular interactions are vital for maintaining a coherent perception of spatial orientation during static or dynamic changes in positions of the head and body. In this chapter, we will discuss the basic principles of visual–vestibular interaction within the frameworks of heading (e.g., walking or running) and head tilt with relation to gravity (e.g., a lateral tilt of the head on body). We first describe the fundamental aspects of multisensory integration in these processes along with the underlying physiological and anatomical correlates. We then discuss experimental hypotheses and research findings related to visual–vestibular interaction and outline their clinical applications in human diseases.
Slow changing postural cues cancel visual field dependence on self-tilt detection
2015, Gait and Posture
Interindividual differences influence the multisensory integration process involved in spatial perception. Here, we assessed the effect of visual field dependence on self-tilt detection relative to upright, as a function of static vs. slow changing visual or postural cues. To that aim, we manipulated slow rotations (i.e., 0.05° s⁻¹) of the body and/or the visual scene in pitch. Participants had to indicate whether they felt being tilted forward at successive angles. Results show that thresholds for self-tilt detection substantially differed between visual field dependent/independent subjects, when only the visual scene was rotated. This difference was no longer present when the body was actually rotated, whatever the visual scene condition (i.e., absent, static or rotated relative to the observer). These results suggest that the cancellation of visual field dependence by dynamic postural cues may rely on a multisensory reweighting process, where slow changing vestibular/somatosensory inputs may prevail over visual inputs.
Adaptation to leftward-shifting prisms enhances local processing in healthy individuals
2014, Neuropsychologia
In healthy individuals, adaptation to left-shifting prisms has been shown to simulate the symptoms of hemispatial neglect, including a reduction in global processing that approximates the local bias observed in neglect patients. The current study tested whether leftward prism adaptation can more specifically enhance local processing abilities. In three experiments, the impact of local and global processing was assessed through tasks that measure susceptibility to illusions that are known to be driven by local or global contextual effects. Susceptibility to the rod-and-frame illusion – an illusion disproportionately driven by both local and global effects depending on frame size – was measured before and after adaptation to left- and right-shifting prisms. A significant increase in rod-and-frame susceptibility was found for the left-shifting prism group, suggesting that adaptation caused an increase in local processing effects. The results of a second experiment confirmed that leftward prism adaptation enhances local processing, as assessed with susceptibility to the simultaneous-tilt illusion. A final experiment employed a more specific measure of the global effect typically associated with the rod-and-frame illusion, and found that although the global effect was somewhat diminished after leftward prism adaptation, the trend failed to reach significance (p=.078). Rightward prism adaptation had no significant effects on performance in any of the experiments. Combined, these findings indicate that leftward prism adaptation in healthy individuals can simulate the local processing bias of neglect patients primarily through an increased sensitivity to local visual cues, and confirm that prism adaptation not only modulates lateral shifts of attention, but also prompts shifts from one level of processing to another.
Spatiotemporal dynamics of visual vertical judgments: Early and late brain mechanisms as revealed by high-density electrical neuroimaging
2011, Neuroscience
Citation Excerpt :
The present behavioral analysis revealed that the perceived VV was accurate without disturbing visual references in the periphery, suggesting that participants relied on an accurate internal model of the vertical while performing the VV judgements. Our behavioral data also revealed that the VV was significantly deviated towards the tilted visual references in the RFT, thus confirming previous observations in healthy populations (Guerraz et al., 1998; Lopez et al., 2006; Marendaz, 1998; Witkin and Asch, 1948; Zoccolotti et al., 1992). These effects were absent in the control task.
Constructing and updating an internal model of verticality is fundamental for maintaining an erect posture and facilitating visuo-spatial processing. The judgment of the visual vertical (VV) has been intensively studied in psychophysical investigations and relies mainly on the integration of visual and vestibular signals, although a contribution of postural and somatosensory signals has been reported. Here we used high-density 192-channel evoked potential (EP) mapping and distributed source localization techniques to reveal the neural mechanisms of VV judgments. VV judgments (judging the orientation of visual lines with respect to the subjective vertical) were performed with and without a tilted visual frame. EP mapping revealed a sequence of neural processing steps (EP maps) of which two were specific for VV judgments. An early EP map, observed at ∼75–105 ms post-stimulus, was localized in right lateral temporo-occipital cortex. A later EP map (∼260–290 ms) was localized in bilateral temporo-occipital and parieto-occipital cortex. These data suggest that early VV-related neural processing involves the lateral and ventral visual stream and is related to visual processing concerning orientation, attention and comparison. The later, more dorsal, activation involves multimodal cortex subtending a constantly available and updated internal model of the vertical that we can refer to for the control of one's posture, actions, and visuo-spatial processing.
Individual differences in the ability to identify, select and use appropriate frames of reference for perceptuo-motor control
2010, Neuroscience
The causes of the interindividual differences (IDs) in how we perceive and control spatial orientation are poorly understood. Here, we propose that IDs partly reflect preferred modes of spatial referencing and that these preferences or “styles” are maintained from the level of spatial perception to that of motor control. Two groups of experimental subjects, one with high visual field dependency (FD) and one with marked visual field independency (FI) were identified by the Rod and Frame Test, which identifies relative dependency on a visual frame of reference (VFoR). FD and FI subjects were tasked with standing still in conditions of increasing postural difficulty while visual cues of self-orientation (a visual frame tilted in roll) and self-motion (in stroboscopic illumination) were varied and in darkness to assess visual dependency. Postural stability, overall body orientation and modes of segmental stabilization relative to either external (space) or egocentric (adjacent segments) frames of reference in the roll plane were analysed. We hypothesized that a moderate challenge to balance should enhance subjects' reliance on VFoR, particularly in FD subjects, whereas a substantial challenge should constrain subjects to use a somatic-vestibular based FoR to prevent falling in which case IDs would vanish. The results showed that with increasing difficulty, FD subjects became more unstable and more disoriented shown by larger effects of the tilted visual frame on posture. Furthermore, their preference to coalign body/VFoR coordinate systems lead to greater fixation of the head–trunk articulation and stabilization of the hip in space, whereas the head and trunk remained more stabilized in space with the hip fixed on the leg in FI subjects. These results show that FD subjects have difficulties at identifying and/or adopting a more appropriate FoR based on proprioceptive and vestibular cues to regulate the coalignment of posturo/exocentric FoRs. The FI subjects' resistance in the face of altered VFoR and balance challenge resides in their greater ability to coordinate movement by coaligning body axes with more appropriate FoRs (provided by proprioceptive and vestibular co-variance).

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^☆: This research was supported by grants from CNR and MPI.

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The role of frame size on vertical and horizontal observers in the rod-and-frame illusion☆

Abstract

Vision Research

Journal of Experimental Child Psychology

Eine scheinbare bedeutende Drehung von Objekten bei Neigung des Kopfes nach rechts oder links

Virkows Arch.

Effect of body tilt on apparent vertical, apparent body position, and their relations

Journal of Experimental Psychology

Optic-vestibular orientation to the vertical

An orientation illusion analog to the rod and frame: Relational effects in the magnitude of the distortion

Perception and Psychophysics

Optically induced eye torsion — II. Optostatic and optokinetic cycloversion

Albrecht v. Graefes Arch. Klinische Exp. Ophtal.

Visual modulation of otolith-dependent units in cat vestibular nuclei

Experimental Brain Research

The psychophysics of visually induced perception of self-motion and tilt

The rod-and-frame effect as a function of the righting of the frame

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance

Determinants of the rod and frame effect: The role of retinal size

Perception and Psychophysics

Absence of relational determination in the rod-and-frame effect

Perception and Psychophysics

Blur-modulated orientation perception in the rod-and-frame task

Perception and Psychophysics

The rod and frame effect and induced head tilt as a function of observation distance

Perception and Psychophysics

Modulation of the rod and frame effect: Retinal angle vs. apparent size

Psychological Research

Absence of depth processing in the rod-and-frame effect

Perception and Psychophysics

Depth adjacency and the rod-and-frame illusion

Perception and Psychophysics

An entry in the great frame-tilt judging contest

Perceptual and Motor Skills