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Brains Speed Up Perception by Guessing What’s Next

quantamagazine.org

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Re: Brains Speed Up Perception by Guessing What’s Next

#2
Although they just discovered the mechanism, we've known that this happens for quite some time. It's something you can take advantage of in UX design, for example, because if you provide a subtle queue before something new happens to trigger the brain, the new thing will be perceived faster.

Re: Brains Speed Up Perception by Guessing What’s Next

#3
post #2

Although they just discovered the mechanism, we've known that this happens for quite some time. It's something you can take advantage of in UX design, for example, because if you provide a subtle queue before something new happens to trigger the brain, the new thing will be perceived faster.

They have known it too. The first cited experiments in this article were done in 2012. I wonder how long it's existed as a theory in neuroscience.

Re: Brains Speed Up Perception by Guessing What’s Next

#5
post #2

Although they just discovered the mechanism, we've known that this happens for quite some time. It's something you can take advantage of in UX design, for example, because if you provide a subtle queue before something new happens to trigger the brain, the new thing will be perceived faster.

They have known it too. The first cited experiments in this article were done in 2012. I wonder how long it's existed as a theory in neuroscience.

In cognitive psychology, I've worked with a method known as "masked priming" [0], which is relatively well-known in the field to influence reaction times. Reaction time is a complex measure as it includes both "processing speed" as well as physical reaction times. The "prime" is considered subliminal, as one would not necessarily notice it being presented (although the mask definitely is noticeable). Interestingly, at short enough time scales, e.g. 16 ms duration times, the effect of the priming reverse, and it makes reaction times increase[1].

[0] http://www.u.arizona.edu/~kforster/priming/ [1] https://link.springer.com/article/10.3758%2FBF03196307

Re: Brains Speed Up Perception by Guessing What’s Next

#7
post #2

Although they just discovered the mechanism, we've known that this happens for quite some time. It's something you can take advantage of in UX design, for example, because if you provide a subtle queue before something new happens to trigger the brain, the new thing will be perceived faster.

Progress bars make my application run 50% faster without touching the rest of the code. :)

Re: Brains Speed Up Perception by Guessing What’s Next

#8
post #2

Although they just discovered the mechanism, we've known that this happens for quite some time. It's something you can take advantage of in UX design, for example, because if you provide a subtle queue before something new happens to trigger the brain, the new thing will be perceived faster.

They have known it too. The first cited experiments in this article were done in 2012. I wonder how long it's existed as a theory in neuroscience.

>I wonder how long it's existed as a theory in neuroscience.

Probably since a few minutes after the first time a neuroscientist saw a magician's act.

Re: Brains Speed Up Perception by Guessing What’s Next

#10

Wow this explains a lot. I think this is a huge subconscious source of anxiety for me.

More generally, it's becoming accepted that a major part of brain's function is predictive, because it's an important aspect of closed-loop control.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Predictive_coding

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