Browsing by Author "Galmonte, Alessandra"
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Item Open Access Contrasting a Misinterpretation of the Reverse Contrast(MDPI, 2020) Agostini, Tiziano; Murgia, Mauro; Sors, Fabrizio; Prpic, Valter; Galmonte, AlessandraThe reverse contrast is a perceptual phenomenon in which the effect of the classical simultaneous lightness contrast is reversed. In classic simultaneous lightness contrast configurations, a gray surrounded by black is perceived lighter than an identical gray surrounded by white, but in the reverse contrast configurations, the perceptual outcome is the opposite: a gray surrounded by black appears darker than the same gray surrounded by white. The explanation provided for the reverse contrast (by different authors) is the belongingness of the gray targets to a more complex configuration. Different configurations show the occurrence of these phenomena; however, the factors determining this effect are not always the same. In particular, some configurations are based on both belongingness and assimilation, while one configuration is based only on belongingness. The evidence that different factors determine the reverse contrast is crucial for future research dealing with achromatic color perception and, in particular, with lightness induction phenomena.Item Open Access The contribution of early auditory and visual information to the discrimination of shot power in ball sports(Elsevier, 2017-04-05) Sors, Fabrizio; Murgia, Mauro; Santoro, Ilaria; Prpic, Valter; Galmonte, Alessandra; Agostini, TizianoObjective: It is well-established that early visual information has an important role in human ability to play ball sports, as its correct interpretation promotes accurate predictions concerning the ball motion. Other research highlights that auditory information provides relevant cues in various sport situations. The present study combines these two lines of research with the aim to investigate the contribution of early auditory and visual information to the discrimination of shot power in sport-specific situations. Design: Two experiments were run, one concerning soccer penalty kicks and the other concerning volleyball smashes. In both experiments there were three conditions: Audio, Audiovideo, and Video; a within subjects design was used, with the three conditions carried out in three different days and in a counterbalanced order among participants. Method: Participants’ task was to discriminate the power of two penalties/smashes presented in rapid sequence, on the basis of a two-alternative forced choice paradigm. Results: The results revealed that, for both penalties and smashes, response accuracy was above chance level in all the three conditions; moreover, while for the penalties no difference among the conditions was observed, for the smashes participants were more accurate in the Audio and Audiovideo conditions compared to the Video condition. As concerns the response times, for both penalties and smashes participants were faster in the Audio and Audiovideo conditions compared to the Video condition. Conclusions: Taken together, the results suggest that the discrimination of shot power was more easily performed on the basis of early auditory information than on the basis of the respective visual information.Item Open Access Ecological sounds affect breath duration more than artificial sounds(Springer, 2015-01-31) Murgia, Mauro; Santoro, Ilaria; Tamburini, Giorgia; Prpic, Valter; Sors, Fabrizio; Galmonte, Alessandra; Agostini, TizianoPrevious research has demonstrated that auditory rhythms affect both movement and physiological functions. We hypothesized that the ecological sounds of human breathing can affect breathing more than artificial sounds of breathing, varying in tones for inspiration and expiration. To address this question, we monitored the breath duration of participants exposed to three conditions: (a) ecological sounds of breathing, (b) artificial sounds of breathing having equal temporal features as the ecological sounds, (c) no sounds (control). We found that participants’ breath duration variability was reduced in the ecological sound condition, more than in the artificial sound condition. We suggest that ecological sounds captured the timing of breathing better than artificial sounds, guiding as a consequence participants’ breathing. We interpreted our results according to the Theory of Event Coding, providing further support to its validity, and suggesting its possible extension in the domain of physiological functions which are both consciously and unconsciously controlled.Item Open Access Further Empirical Evidence on Patrick Hughes’ Reverspectives: A Pilot Study(MDPI, 2020-12-26) Galmonte, Alessandra; Murgia, Mauro; Sors, Fabrizio; Prpic, Valter; Agostini, TizianoReverspectives are paintings created by the English artist Patrick Hughes. They are 3D structures, for example, pyramids or prisms, which elicit an illusory depth perception that corresponds to the reverse of the physical depth layout. Rogers and Gyani state that “the perspective information provided by a simple grid of vertical and horizontal lines on a slanting surface can be just as powerful as the information provided by a rich, naturalistic scene”. The present experiment was aimed to further investigate this perspective reversal. Three independent variables were manipulated: (1) texture components (i.e., vertical, horizontal, and oblique lines components), (2) texture spatial arrangement (i.e., Hughes-type “perspective” grid vs. equidistant “no perspective” grid), and (3) illumination direction (i.e., homogeneous illumination, light from above, and light from below). The dependent variable was the “critical distance”, namely, the distance between an approaching observer and the stimulus at which the illusory depth perception of concavity/convexity switched to the actual perception of convexity/concavity. The results showed that a stronger illusion is elicited by: (a) a Hughes-type texture spatial arrangement; (b) a complete grid texture composition, having both vertical and horizontal, and oblique components; and (c) illumination from below, as opposed to the condition in which light is coming from above.Item Open Access Loudness, but not shot power, influences simple reaction times to soccer penalty sounds(Drustvo psihologa Srbije, 2018) Sors, Fabrizio; Prpic, Valter; Santoro, Ilaria; Galmonte, Alessandra; Agostini, Tiziano; Murgia, MauroObjective: The aim of the present study was to investigate how ecological sport sounds (i.e., foot-ball impacts of soccer penalty kicks) affect simple reaction times. Design: Three within-subjects, simple reaction time experiments were carried out; they differed among each other for the manipulations performed on the stimuli. Method: In Experiment 1, the loudness of the stimuli was manipulated; instead, in Experiment 2 and 3 shot power was manipulated, using as stimuli impacts of shots with different speeds. Results: The results highlighted an inverse relation between stimuli loudness and reaction times; instead, the natural differences among shots with different power were not sufficient to influence reaction times. Conclusions: Sounds associated to different shot power seem to differ in parameters which are not actually relevant for simple reaction times. Future studies should further investigate on similar issues, better clarifying whether the properties of ecological sounds can naturally influence reaction times.Item Metadata only Modality and Perceptual-Motor Experience Influence the Detection of Temporal Deviations in Tap Dance Sequences(Frontiers Media, 2017-08-02) Murgia, Mauro; Prpic, Valter; O, Jenny; McCullagh, Penny; Santoro, Ilaria; Galmonte, Alessandra; Agostini, TizianoAccurate temporal information processing is critically important in many motor activities within disciplines such as dance, music, and sport. However, it is still unclear how temporal information related to biological motion is processed by expert and non-expert performers. It is well-known that the auditory modality dominates the visual modality in processing temporal information of simple stimuli, and that experts outperform non-experts in biological motion perception. In the present study, we combined these two areas of research; we investigated how experts and non-experts detected temporal deviations in tap dance sequences, in the auditory modality compared to the visual modality. We found that temporal deviations were better detected in the auditory modality compared to the visual modality, and by experts compared to non-experts. However, post hoc analyses indicated that these effects were mainly due to performances obtained by experts in the auditory modality. The results suggest that the experience advantage is not equally distributed across the modalities, and that tap dance experience enhances the effectiveness of the auditory modality but not the visual modality when processing temporal information. The present results and their potential implications are discussed in both temporal information processing and biological motion perception frameworks.Item Open Access Octave Bias in Pitch Perception: The Influence of Pitch Height on Pitch Class Identification(Sage, 2016-05-31) Prpic, Valter; Murgia, Mauro; De Tommaso, Matteo; Boschetti, Giulia; Galmonte, Alessandra; Agostini, TizianoPitch height and pitch class are different, but strictly related, percepts of music tones. To investigate the influence of pitch height in a pitch class identification task, we systematically analyzed the errors—in terms of direction and amount—committed by a group of musicians. The aim of our study was to verify the existence of constant errors in the identification of pitch classes across consecutive octaves. Stimuli were single piano tones from the C major scale executed in two consecutive octaves. Participants showed different response patterns in the two octaves. The direction of errors revealed a constant tendency to underestimate pitch classes in the lowest octave and to overestimate pitch classes in the highest octave. Thus, pitch height showed to influence pitch class identification. We called this bias ‘‘pitch class polarization’’, since the same pitch class was judged to be respectively lower and higher, depending on relatively low or high pitch height.Item Open Access Panic disorder patients and healthy people differently identify their own heart frequency through sound(Drustvo psihologa Srbije, 2015) Santoro, Ilaria; Murgia, Mauro; Tamburini, Giorgia; Prpic, Valter; Sors, Fabrizio; Galmonte, Alessandra; Agostini, TizianoThe ability to detect the perceptual cues related to cardiac activity is an important aspect related to the onset and maintenance of some psychopathological disorders, such as panic disorder. We tested two groups – panic disorder (PD) patients and healthy participants – in order to examine the ability to estimate participants’ own heart frequency. We used an auditory identification task, based on the administration of auditory tracks representative of ecological sounds of heartbeat. Results showed that all healthy participants underestimated their own heart frequency, whereas the majority of PD patients overestimated it. This different response tendency could influence the development of psychopathologies such as panic disorder. These outcomes suggest the possible development of training for PD patients based on the use of auditory stimulation.Item Open Access Perceptual belongingness determines the direction of lightness induction depending on grouping stability and intentionality(Elsevier, 2016-05-30) Murgia, Mauro; Prpic, Valter; Santoro, Ilaria; Sors, Fabrizio; Agostini, Tiziano; Galmonte, AlessandraContrast and assimilation are two opposite perceptual phenomena deriving from the relationships among perceptual elements in a visual field. In contrast, perceptual differences are enhanced; while, in assimilation, they are decreased. Indeed, if contrast or assimilation occurs depends on various factors. Interestingly, Gestalt scientists explained both phenomena as the result of perceptual belongingness, giving rise to an intriguing paradox. Benary suggested that belongingness determines contrast; conversely, Fuchs suggested that it determines assimilation. This paradox can be related both to the grouping stability (stable/multi-stable) and to the grouping intentionality (intentional/non-intentional). In the present work we ran four experiments to test whether the contrast/assimilation outcomes depend on the above-mentioned variables. We found that, intentionality and multi-stability elicit assimilation; while, non-intentionality and stability elicit contrast.Item Open Access SNARC-like compatibility effects for physical and phenomenal magnitudes: A study on visual illusions(Springer, 2018-12-03) Prpic, Valter; Soranzo, Alessandro; Santoro, Ilaria; Fantoni, Carlo; Galmonte, Alessandra; Agostini, Tiziano; Murgia, MauroBoth numerical and non-numerical magnitudes elicit similar Spatial-Numerical Association of Response Codes (SNARC) effects, with small magnitudes associated with left hand responses and large magnitudes associated with right hand responses (Dehaene, Bossini, Giraux, 1993). In the present study, we investigated whether the phenomenal size of visual illusions elicits the same SNARC-like effect revealed for the physical size of pictorial surfaces. Four experiments were conducted by using the Delboeuf illusion (Experiment 1) and the Kanizsa triangle illusion (Experiments 2, 3 & 4). Experiment 1 suggests the presence of a SNARC-like compatibility effect for the physical size of the inducers, while this effect was not revealed for the phenomenal size of the induced elements, possibly masked by a stronger effect of the inducers. A SNARC-like effect for the phenomenal size of the Kanizsa triangle was revealed when participants directly compared the size of the triangles (Experiment 4). Conversely, when participants performed an indirect task (orientation judgment), the SNARC-like effect was present neither for the illusory nor for the physical displays (Experiments 2 & 3). The effect revealed for the size of illusory triangles was comparable to that of real triangles with physical contours, suggesting that both phenomenal and physical magnitudes similarly elicit SNARC-like effects.Item Metadata only Using perceptual home-training to improve anticipation skills of soccer goalkeepers(Elsevier, 2014-07-31) Murgia, Mauro; Sors, Fabrizio; Muroni, Alessandro Franco; Santoro, Ilaria; Prpic, Valter; Galmonte, Alessandra; Agostini, TizianoObjective: This study aims to test the effectiveness of a perceptual training concerning the anticipatory skills of soccer goalkeepers, by assessing their performances while engaged in predicting the direction of penalty kicks. Design: Forty-two skilled goalkeepers were randomly assigned to three training groups: Experimental, placebo, and control. All the groups were tested at the beginning of the experiment and re-tested after a period of eight weeks. Method: The pre-test consisted of the presentation of temporally occluded videos of penalties recorded from the goalkeeper's perspective, and participants had to predict the direction of the ball. The experimental group practiced with an interactive home-training, based on video analogous to those of the test, with the addition of both positive and negative feedback. The placebo group viewed television footage of penalty kick shoot-outs. Participants of both groups were free to schedule their own training/placebo sessions. Finally, the control group did not receive any treatment. Results: The results demonstrated the effectiveness of the home-training protocol, evidencing significant accuracy improvements between pre-test and post-test only for the experimental group. Conclusions: The outcomes indicate that skilled athletes can benefit from perceptual training, which was not investigated before among soccer goalkeepers. Indeed, all the previous training studies concerning soccer penalty predictions were run on participants with either recreational or no goalkeeping experience at all. Moreover, the present training protocol is innovative because learners can schedule training sessions on their own. Finally, its usability suggests numerous potential applications.