Expectation generation and its effect on subsequent pain and visual perception.

ABSTRACT: Bayesian accounts of perception, such as predictive processing, suggest that perceptions integrate expectations and sensory experience, and thus assimilate to expected values. Furthermore, more precise expectations should have stronger influences on perception. We tested these hypotheses using a within-subject paradigm with social cues consisting of what participants were told were ratings from 10 prior participants, but which were actually constructed to independently manipulate the cue mean, variance (precision), and skewness independent of the actual stimulus intensity delivered. Forty-five participants reported their expectations regarding the painfulness of thermal stimuli or the visual contrast of flickering checkerboards. In a second session, similar (sham) cues were each followed b

SUBMITTER: Botvinik-Nezer R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12136418 | biostudies-literature | 2025 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature