Object salience is transiently represented whereas object presence is not: Evidence from Temporal Order Judgment

We investigated the temporal dynamics in the processing of object salience and object presence by using a temporal-order-judgment task. In two experiments, observers were presented with displays containing one or two orientation singletons embedded in a background of homo- geneously oriented lines. Observers had the task to indicate the temporal order of two colour changes which occurred either at two singleton locations differing in salience (experiment 1) or at two locations differing in singleton presence (experiment 2). Singleton displays were presented for a short or a long duration prior to the colour changes. The results demonstrated that salience affects the perceived temporal order of two colour changes more strongly after a short than after a long presentation duration (experiment 1). Singleton presence affects the perceived temporal order of two colour changes equally after a short and a long presentation duration (experiment 2). The results suggest that object salience and object presence are differently represented in the visual system. © 2011 a Pion publication.