Serial dependence in visual perception

Abstract

Visual input often arrives in a noisy and discontinuous stream, owing to head and eye movements, occlusion, lighting changes, and many other factors. Yet the physical world is generally stable—objects and physical characteristics rarely change spontaneously. How then does the human visual system capitalize on continuity in the physical environment over time? Here we show that visual perception is serially dependent, using both prior and present input to inform perception at the present moment. Using an orientation judgment task, we found that even when visual input changes randomly over time, perceived orientation is strongly and systematically biased toward recently seen stimuli. Further, the strength of this bias is modulated by attention and tuned to the spatial and temporal proximity of successive stimuli. These results reveal a serial dependence in perception characterized by a spatiotemporally tuned, orientation-selective operator—which we call a continuity field—that may promote visual stability over time.