Weight illusions explained by efficient coding based on correlated natural statistics.

ABSTRACT: In our everyday experience, the sizes and weights of objects we encounter are strongly correlated. When objects are lifted, visual information about size can be combined with haptic feedback about weight, and a naive application of Bayes' rule predicts that the perceived weight of larger objects should be exaggerated and smaller objects underestimated. Instead, it is the smaller of two objects of equal weight that is perceived as heavier, a phenomenon termed the Size-Weight Illusion (SWI). Here we provide a normative explanation of the SWI based on principles of efficient coding, which dictate that stimulus properties should be encoded with a fidelity that depends on how frequently those properties are encountered in the environment. We show that the precision with which human observers es

SUBMITTER: Bays PM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11659157 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature