A model of self-consistent perception

Human perception is context-dependent. In addition to sensory context, two recent psychophysical studies have shown that context can also include previous perceptual decisions [1, 2]. In both studies, subjects were asked to estimate a stimulus parameter (orientation [1], or direction of motion [2]) after being forced to make a categorical decision (orientation to the left or right of vertical [1], direction of motion to left or right of a visual reference [2]). On each individual trial, the subjects’ estimates were consistent with their preceding decision (i.e., a decision of ”left of the reference” was followed by an estimated direction to the left of the reference). The distribution of estimates were bimodal, indicating repulsion away from the decision boundary (middle panel data from [2] for a single subject).