Beliefs About Perception Shape Perceptual Inference

What is it about?

We propose a new way to model perceptual detection decisions (decisions about whether something is present or absent). Our model has only one sensor that is sensitive to the presence of a target image, and participants are assumed to observe this sensor and make decisions based on its output. This model exemplifies two principles. First, deciding that something is not there based on the sensor not activating is what philosophers call “an argument from ignorance”. And second, this makes decisions about absence strongly dependent on beliefs about the probability that the sensor would activate when the target image is present. The model fits well data from three detection experiments, and reveals that people vary in how much they take into account the properties of the sensor when making decisions about absence.

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Why is it important?

While previous work showed that our perception is sensitive to prior beliefs we hold about the world, here we demonstrate that perception is also sensitive to beliefs we hold about perception itself.