Self as a prior: The malleability of Bayesian multisensory integration to social salience

Scheller, Meike; Fang, Huilin; Sui, Jie

Abstract

Our everyday perceptual experiences are grounded in the integration of information within and across our senses. Due to this direct behavioural relevance, cross-modal integration retains a certain degree of contextual flexibility, even to social relevance. However, how social relevance modulates cross-modal integration remains unclear. To investigate possible mechanisms, Experiment 1 tested the principles of audio-visual integration for numerosity estimation by deriving a Bayesian optimal observer model with perceptual prior from empirical data to explain perceptual biases. Such perceptual priors may shift towards locations of high salience in the stimulus space. Our results showed that the tendency to over- or underestimate numerosity, expressed in the frequency and strength of fission and fusion illusions, depended on the actual event numerosity. Experiment 2 replicated the effects of social relevance on multisensory integration from Scheller & Sui, 2022 JEP:HPP, using a lower number of events, thereby favouring the opposite illusion through enhanced influences of the prior. In line with the idea that the self acts like a prior, the more frequently observed illusion (more malleable to prior influences) was modulated by self-relevance. Our findings suggest that the self can influence perception by acting like a prior in cue integration, biasing perceptual estimates towards areas of high self-relevance. [Abstract copyright: © 2023 The Authors. British Journal of Psychology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of The British Psychological Society.]

Citation

Scheller, M., Fang, H., & Sui, J. (2024). Self as a prior: The malleability of Bayesian multisensory integration to social salience. British Journal of Psychology, 115(2), 185-205. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjop.12683

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Sep 11, 2023
• Online Publication Date: Sep 25, 2023
• Publication Date: 2024-05
• Deposit Date: Sep 6, 2023
• Publicly Available Date: Oct 2, 2023
• Journal: British Journal of Psychology
• Print ISSN: 0007-1269
• Electronic ISSN: 2044-8295
• Publisher: Wiley
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 115
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 185-205
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/bjop.12683
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1731711