We are not equal when it comes to visual perception: some people’s eyes may be able to see more images per second than others, according to researchers.
- The speed of visual perception can vary widely among people, and “some actually seem to see the world faster than others,” according to a new study.
- By measuring the visual temporal resolution of several volunteers, that is, the number of images per second that their eye can see, the researchers found that some participants were able to see more images per second than others.
- These differences in visual perception could explain why some people have an “innate advantage” for situations where one must track objects or scenes very quickly, such as in ball sports (such as tennis) or video game competitions.
“Because we only have access to our own subjective experience, we might naively expect that everyone visually perceives the environment in the same way. Examples like color blindness, however, show that this is not always true.”
And this is not the only one: the speed of visual perception can also vary widely depending on the person, “some really seem to see the world faster than others”according to a new study published in the scientific journal PLOS ONE.
A highly variable visual temporal resolution between participants
To achieve this observation, researchers from Trinity College Dublin, Ireland, relied on experiments carried out on a cohort of volunteers. To quantify their visual temporal resolution, that is, the number of frames per second their eye can see, they used the critical flicker fusion threshold, a measure of the maximum frequency at which an individual perceives a flashing light source.
However, the team of scientists noticed a “considerable variation” between participants: some reported that they saw the light as completely still when it was actually flashing about 35 times per second, while others were still able to perceive the light flashing up to 60 times per second . In other words, “some people are able to see more frames per second than others”can we read in a communicated.
Visual perception: some have an “innate advantage” for tracking fast objects
“We do not yet know how this variation in visual temporal resolution might affect our daily lives, note the researchersbut we believe that individual differences in perceptual speed might become apparent in situations where one needs to locate or track fast-moving objects.” As, for example, in the context of ball sports (like tennis) or video game competitions, where the speed of perception and reaction time are crucial and where some people have, in fact, a “innate advantage”.
These results could also provide a better understanding of the evolution of species, including ours. “As a zoologist, the consequences of variation in visual perception likely have profound implications for how predators and prey interact”assures Professor Andrew Jackson, who participated in the study.
