Biology subjects

Revsine, C.

Publications and source records attributed to Revsine, C..

3 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2024

The Memorability of Voices is Predictable and Consistent across Listeners

Memorability, the likelihood that a stimulus is remembered, is an intrinsic stimulus property that is highly consistent across people--participants tend to remember and forget the same faces, objects, and more. However, these consistencies in memory have thus far only been observed for visual stimuli. We provide the first study of auditory memorability, collecting recognition memory scores from over 3000 participants listening to a sequence of different speakers saying the same sentence. We found significant consistency across participants in their memory for voice clips and for speakers across different utterances. Next, we tested regression models incorporating both low-level (e.g., fundamental frequency) and high-level (e.g., dialect) voice properties to predict their memorability. These models were significantly predictive, and cross-validated out-of-sample, supporting an inherent memorability of speakers voices. These results provide the first evidence that listeners are similar in the voices they remember, which can be reliably predicted by quantifiable voice features.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2023

Learning Image Memorability with Feedback-Based Training

Memorability, or the likelihood that an image is later remembered, is an intrinsic stimulus property that is remarkably consistent across viewers. Despite this consistency in what people remember and forget, previous findings suggest a lack of consistency in what individuals subjectively believe to be memorable and forgettable. We aimed to improve the ability of participants to judge memorability using a feedback-based training paradigm containing face images (Experiment 1) or scene images (Experiment 2 and its replication and control experiments). Overall, participants were fairly accurate at categorizing the memorability of images. In response to the training, participants were able to improve their memorability judgments of scenes, but not faces. Those who used certain strategies to perform the task, namely relying on characteristic features of the scenes, showed greater learning. Although participants improved slightly over time, they never reached the level of ResMem, the leading DNN for estimating image memorability. These results suggest that with training, human participants can better their understanding of image memorability, but may be unable to access its full variance.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2023

A unifying model for discordant and concordant results in human neuroimaging studies of facial viewpoint selectivity

Our ability to recognize faces regardless of viewpoint is a key property of the primate visual system. Traditional theories hold that facial viewpoint is represented by view-selective mechanisms at early visual processing stages and that representations become increasingly tolerant to viewpoint changes in higher-level visual areas. Newer theories, based on single-neuron monkey electrophysiological recordings, suggest an additional intermediate processing stage invariant to mirror-symmetric face views. Consistent with traditional theories, human studies combining neuroimaging and multivariate pattern analysis (MVPA) methods have provided evidence of view-selectivity in early visual cortex. However, contradictory results have been reported in higher-level visual areas concerning the existence in humans of mirror-symmetrically tuned representations. We believe these results reflect low-level stimulus confounds and data analysis choices. To probe for low-level confounds, we analyzed images from two popular face databases. Analyses of mean image luminance and contrast revealed biases across face views described by even polynomials--i.e., mirror-symmetric. To explain major trends across human neuroimaging studies of viewpoint selectivity, we constructed a network model that incorporates three biological constraints: cortical magnification, convergent feedforward projections, and interhemispheric connections. Given the identified low-level biases, we show that a gradual increase of interhemispheric connections across network layers is sufficient to replicate findings of mirror-symmetry in high-level processing stages, as well as view-tuning in early processing stages. Data analysis decisions--pattern dissimilarity measure and data recentering--accounted for the variable observation of mirror-symmetry in late processing stages. The model provides a unifying explanation of MVPA studies of viewpoint selectivity. We also show how common analysis choices can lead to erroneous conclusions.

neuroscience↗