Rubric For Group Journal Club Reports: Perceptual Characteristics

Group Journal Club Report #3 Focus has been turned to investigating the “perceptual characteristics” of steam/bounce displays. In recent times, studies have been directed at attempting to identify moving objects. Matsuno & Tomonaga (2011) conducted a study to determine the effect of depth cues and stream/bounce perception on chimpanzees. The researchers used chimpanzees in object tracking in order to determine their stream bounce perception characteristics. The authors note that stream/bounce perception refers to an uncertain motion event where two identical objects move towards one another, completely overlap and then pass each other. The objects are perceived to have bounced off each other or streamed past one another. They arrived at the conclusion that stream perception of chimpanzees was not dominant. However, the researchers established that using cues could help promote their stream perception. The study established that there were significant similarities and differences in stream/bounce perception between chimpanzees and humans. The experiment involved using six chimpanzees that were either under 5 years old or in their late twenties. I believe this is not a good distribution of age and could not be used to depict the whole chimpanzee population. The researchers should have gone with chimpanzees that were also in their teens to determine if they would depict the same behavior. Visual perception normally slows with age where older chimpanzees experience visual inhibition that might affect the speed with which they process information. Additionally, not all the chimpanzees were involved in the experiments for unavailability. The choice of the apparatus was also critical for the experiment. The researchers used CRT monitors with wave touch screens. This was critical because the accuracy of the experiment depended a lot on the effectiveness of the apparatus. The results of the experiment can be relied upon because the apparatus used did correctly and accurately ...