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Submitted by
Assigned_Reviewer_4
Q1: Comments to author(s).
First provide a summary of the paper, and then address the following
criteria: Quality, clarity, originality and significance. (For detailed
reviewing guidelines, see
http://nips.cc/PaperInformation/ReviewerInstructions)
COMMENTS BASED ON REVIEWER DISCUSSIONS AND AUTHOR
REBUTTAL:
I agree with the other reviewers that more could be done
to constrain the specifics of the cue integration mechanism. However, I
believe that if the data set is expanded, allowing the models to be better
constrained, then the paper is appropriate and interesting for the NIPS
community.
I have left my quality score as it was, but I agree
with the other reviewers that the paper merits a ``1'' rather than a ``2''
for impact score.
ORIGINAL REVIEW: Summary: This paper
extends an existing model for the perception of visual speed that uses a
Bayesian observer model acting on the activity of independent
spatiotemporal frequency channels. Previously, the model accounted for
illusions of perceived speed by postulating the Bayes-optimal combination
of noisy sensory representations with a prior for slow speeds. Here this
model is extended to operate on spatiotemporal filter outputs, allowing
the model to account for changes in perceived speed as a function of
spatial frequency. The revised model is shown to provide a good fit to
human speed discrimination data.
Strengths: The model is
elegantly simple and provides a good fit to data. The model is a useful
extension of previous work, providing a more general and
neurophysiologically plausible version. The behavioral experiment is
straightforward and clearly makes the case for the addition of the
normalization mechanism. The paper is concise and clearly written.
Weaknesses:
-- ``The perception of combined stimuli
can therefore be fully predicted by optimal combining responses from
individual spatiotemporal frequency channels.'' This statement
(``fully predicted'') seems too strong to me for two reasons: 1) while
bias is predicted really well, threshold fits are less impressive and 2)
no new data has been predicted (all data were used in the model fits). It
would be interesting to see the cross-validated area under the ROC between
the two models and the Gaussian fits to give the reader a better sense of
the scale of the prediction improvement.
On thresholds, while it's
hard to say from three data points, is there a plausible reason for my
impression that the discrimination thresholds for combined stimuli seem to
decline more steeply before plateauing (e.g. power law or exponential)
rather than the more linear predictions of the model? That is, the
threshold predictions at high contrasts are good, but thresholds at low
contrasts might be under-predicted whereas thresholds at medium contrasts
are over-predicted. Would the ``Foley function'' with the exponent of the
numerator set to 2.4 (instead of 2 in your CRF) provide a better fit to
those data due to the accelerating contrast response early in the
function?
If I understand correctly, the channel variances
\sigma^2 correspond to (or can be transformed to give) the bandwidths of
the hypothetical channels. Can the authors comment on whether the
bandwidths estimated in their model fits correspond to bandwidths of
spatiotemporally-oriented filters measured elsewhere (e.g. physiology,
psychophysical masking paradigms)?
Line 367: ``The model also
fully supports previous accounts on the shape of the prior for speed: the
slope of the linear approximation of the prior probability density is
negative and conforms to previously reported values.'' Where in the
manuscript is the slope of the prior reported (or any fitted model
parameters for that matter)? A small table of best-fitting model
parameters and their standard errors would be of use here.
-- How
easily can the two-channel model derivation be extended? Will
multi-channel (> 3) responses require numerical approximations?
Minor points:
Line 85: grammar... "proposing that the
visual system treats the responses in individual spatiotemporal frequency
channel as independent cues". Line 103: grammar... "only those unit"
should be "units" Line 107: grammar... "An moving stimulus" should be
"A moving stimulus" Line 131: typo "r2," Line 242: typo "agains
data"
I found the paragraph beginning Line 256 unclear, and I
didn't really understand the stimulus combinations until reading the
results. I think it would be clearer to write something like: ``There
were four simple stimuli: a 0.5 c/deg grating presented at 22.5% contrast,
and three 1.5 c/deg gratings presented at 7.5, 22.5 and 67.5% contrast
respectively. Combined stimuli were superpositions of the lower and higher
frequency simple stimuli, in either a ``peaks-add'' or ``peaks-subtract''
configuration.''
Line 261:``We used a broadband stimulus regulated
by an adaptive staircase as reference.'': it would be useful to explicitly
state here that it is the speed of the reference that is under adaptive
control.
Line 315: ``we plot the peaks-add conditions as black
squares, and the peaks-subtract conditions as black triangles.'' I see no
black triangles in the figure; I assume these were separated into separate
panels.
Line 320: ``independent on phase'' should be ``independent
of phase''
Line 375: ``This decrease is nicely reflected in the
measured discrimination thresholds for the combined stimuli where the
threshold for both individual gratings were of the same size (Fig. 4b)'':
I think this figure reference must be wrong because 4b refers to bias, not
thresholds.
Line 377: ``predicts that the perceived speed are''
should be ``speeds are'' or ``speed is''.
Line 378: ``sensory
system in general processes'' should be ``systems in general processes''
or ``system in general process''. Same for ``question'' on line 380.
Q2: Please summarize your review in 1-2
sentences
A clearly-written paper fitting an elegant model of
channel combination in the context of human speed discrimination, combined
with solid psychophysics. Submitted by
Assigned_Reviewer_5
Q1: Comments to author(s).
First provide a summary of the paper, and then address the following
criteria: Quality, clarity, originality and significance. (For detailed
reviewing guidelines, see
http://nips.cc/PaperInformation/ReviewerInstructions)
The paper takes a step towards understanding visual
motion processing of complex, multidimensional stimuli. The approach taken
by the authors is to decompose one dimension of the stimulus space (ie
spatial frequency) into channels containing independent information about
the other stimulus dimension (ie speed), and so solve a problem analogous
to multisensory cue integration.
- Quality First, the
authors derive the predictions from a Bayesian ideal observer model that
integrates the cues optimally (ie, weights each cue by its reliability).
The Bayesian model is sound, extending previously published work (ref 15).
The variant with divisive normalization makes sense, but the consequences
of the nonlinearity on the probabilistic representation should be explored
and described more: Exactly how does the posterior variance depend on
contrast after vs before normalization? What are the implications for the
predicted biases and thresholds?
Then the authors compare model
predictions with psychophysical data. They conclude that information is
indeed processed independently, and then combined optimally, across
frequency channels. Furthermore, they claim that divisive normalization
improves the fits to the data. However, the data shown do not provide
strong evidence to support those claims, and the incomplete analysis does
not entirely rule out simpler models, as explained below.
The main
prediction of optimal cue combination is that the variance of the estimate
from the combined cues (superposition of two spatial frequencies) is
smaller than for each individual cue alone, and the authors state in the
abstract that: "the perceptual biases and discrimination thresholds are
always smaller for the combined stimuli, supporting the cue combination
hypothesis." However, 1) the thresholds did not decrease when
contrasts were not matched (first and third data points in 4a-center,
right, compared to 4a-left; this is also true for the biases in 4b), which
accounts for 4 out of 6 data points! 2) None of the fitted models captured
the decrease in threshold when it was present in the data (second data
point in 4a-center, right)! 3) given 1 and 2, there is also no evidence
for the following claim "Although we did not discuss alternative models,
it is apparent that the data from our psychophysical experiments
eliminates some obvious candidates. For example, a winner-take-all model,
where the observer only uses the most reliable cue, or the averaging
model, where cues are weighted in equal ratios, would significantly
diverge from the data. Both these models do not predict a decrease in
uncertainty for the combined stimulus, which is a key feature of optimal
cue-combination." I think the authors should show those simpler models.
The claim that normalization improves the fits is also not
quantified, and the reason for the supposed improvement is not explained.
From Figure 4 alone, it is hard to judge by eye which model does better.
It is true that "this model [without normalization] only partially fits
the data, with significant discrepancy in test conditions where the
difference in contrast of component stimuli is high." But the model with
normalization is a worse fit to (and deviates significantly from) the data
for the simple stimuli with high SF (fig 4a); and it fails significantly
for the combined stimuli with matched contrast.
- Clarity The
paper is clearly written, well organized, and contains all the information
necessary to understand the model and the results. Here are some minor
suggestions: line 131, typo: "r2" should be "r_2" around line 131:
state that r_i is deterministic, there is no intrinsic channel noise
line 144: "a ’channel’ represents a large number of similarly tuned
neurons" I assume they are similarly tuned wrt frequency, but span the
entire range of speeds; this should be stated explicitly to avoid
confusion. line149: "the change in the slope of the prior within a
likelihood width centered at speed s is expected to be small" can only be
true if s is far from the peak of the prior. line 150: "the prior by
its logarithm" should be "the logarithm of the prior" line 315: "we
plot the peaks-add conditions as black squares, and the peaks-subtract
conditions as black triangles." There are only black circles in the
plot. line 333: "r_ref" not defined. lins 332-337: which of the
two models was actually used? line 376: "Fig. 4b" should be "Fig. 4a"
- Originality This is an interesting extension of previously
published work (ref 15) that uses simple analytical results derived in
refs 4,10.
- Significance The paper addresses an important
problem, that of visual motion processing of complex, multidimensional
stimuli, and takes a step in that direction by proposing to decompose
complex stimuli in independent channels, and then apply the results of
optimal cue combination. It will be interesting to see how the approach
can be scaled to more complex and realistic stimuli.
Q2: Please summarize your review in 1-2
sentences
The paper proposes to treat visual motion processing
of complex stimuli as optimal cue combination across independent frequency
channels. The approach is an interesting extension of previous work, but
both the experimental results and data analysis presented by the authors
provide only weak support. Submitted by
Assigned_Reviewer_6
Q1: Comments to author(s).
First provide a summary of the paper, and then address the following
criteria: Quality, clarity, originality and significance. (For detailed
reviewing guidelines, see
http://nips.cc/PaperInformation/ReviewerInstructions)
The paper demonstrates that human speed perception can
be described by a Bayesian model that 1) optimally combines signals from
normalized spatiotemporal channels, and 2) incorporates a prior that
prefers slow speed. It also shows that the model with normalization fits
human performance better than the model without normalization does. The
interesting part of the psychophysical results is that speed perception
does not ALWAYS depend on contrast (lines 316-319). When the effective
contrast of a composite grating is modulated by the phase difference
between the underlying gratings, perception of speed does not seem to be
different. This trend is nicely captured by their model. This finding
seems to suggest that the contrast-dependent phenomenon of speed
perception originates from individual spatiotemporal channels’
contrast-dependent responses, but not from a later stage of processing
that integrates the signals. The model is straightforward and
well-presented. The model with divisive normalization makes a good bridge
to connect to physiology. But I don’t understand why the authors used
different exponents for different channels in the normalization model
(line 338). This seems to be different from what standard divisive
normalization models do. Any advantage of using different exponents? Would
the two parameters play an important role in providing good fittings? I
also concerned about the results of model comparisons. It is not clear
whether the model with normalization (red) or the one without (blue) is
really“better”. Although the red model fits perceived speed better, the
blue model appears to do better in fitting thresholds. The authors should
report some objective measures of goodness of fit (e.g., AIC or BIC) to
compare the two models before jumping into conclusion that “… the
normalized model … better captures human behavior… (line 345)”. I also
have one comment on psychophysics. The author found that the thresholds
were lower for the combined gratings than for the simple gratings.
However, this comparison may not be fair, because a combined grating
(constructed by superposition, line 259) has a higher effective contrast
than its underlying simple gratings, regardless of whether it is peaks-add
or peaks-subtract. For a more fair comparison, the authors should use
simple gratings with a contrast level that is equal to the effective
contrast the combined gratings (or at least equal to the lower one between
the two combined gratings). Without these findings, it is hard to conclude
whether the decrease in threshold is due to a benefit from cue
combination, or simply due to higher effective contrast in the combined
gratings. This would undermine the argument to rule out other models, as
discussed in the third paragraph in Discussion. Minor points: I
recommend the authors to report the fitted parameters, so that 1) readers
can have a better understanding about what each parameter is doing. E.g.,
The magnitude of the local slope of the prior a can roughly imply how
important “slowness” is in the model; and 2) future researchers can follow
up with the model based on the explicitly reported parameter values.
The data plotted in Figure 4 represent the “average observer” (line
269). While the absolute values of thresholds and biases may differ across
individuals, the authors should at least report whether a trend that is
similar to that observed in the “average observer” was consistently
observed across individual observers. What is meant by “relative speed
biases”? At what percentage correct was the threshold determined?
Lines 376: I suppose it’s Figure 4a instead of 4b, as it’s about
thresholds, not speed bias Lines 315-316: It seems that the “black
squares/triangles” described in this sentence are not present in the
figures.
Q2: Please summarize your review in 1-2
sentences
This is a solid paper to combine both computational
model and psychophysical experiments to understand human motion
perception. Although the work is a bit incremental, I believe this work is
of sufficient theoretical merit.
Q1:Author
rebuttal: Please respond to any concerns raised in the reviews. There are
no constraints on how you want to argue your case, except for the fact
that your text should be limited to a maximum of 6000 characters. Note
however that reviewers and area chairs are very busy and may not read long
vague rebuttals. It is in your own interest to be concise and to the
point.
We would like to thank the reviewers for their effort
in reviewing our submission and for their valuable and constructive
feedback. Below listed are our replies to each reviewer's main concerns:
Assigned_reviewer_4 comments that our statement that the model
“fully predicts” the data is too strong because i) we do not predict new
data based on a fit model, and ii) the fits are not perfect. We did use
the term "prediction" rather deliberately and agree that this might be
misleading; we will change that in the revised version of the paper (e.g.
"accounts for"). Regarding the quality of the fit, we would like to point
out that our model accounts for the full psychometric curves of the
performed 2AFC experiments and is fit using maximum-likelihood procedure.
The plotted bias and discrimination thresholds therefore only represent
summary characteristics of the behavior, and while the thresholds are much
less constrained by the maximum-likelihood fit than the bias the
qualitative fits of both models are well accounting for the data. We think
that the quantitative imperfections of the fit are due to assumptions we
make (e.g. Gaussian noise) that are all reasonable, but not necessarily
true. We fully agree that a formal comparison of the two models and a
table with fitted parameters provides useful information which we will
include in the revised paper. Finally, we are currently extending our
dataset with more contrast levels that allow a better quantitative
characterization of the channels and the normalization parameters. It
is our ultimate goal to acquire behavioral data for more complex stimuli
and test models with more than two channels.
Assigned_reviewer_5 observes that only two out of six
thresholds for the combined stimuli show a substantial decrease compared
to the thresholds of the individual component stimuli. We would like to
point out that such behavior is typical for optimal (Bayesian)
integration: the largest decrease in threshold is expected when individual
cues have the same level of uncertainty (i.e. threshold) whereas the
decrease in threshold can be small or negligible if the difference in cue
uncertainty is large. This is well reflected in the presented data. We
acknowledge, however, that the current dataset is limited in the sense
that it only provides two conditions of integration where a large
improvement in threshold is expected. As mentioned above, we are currently
expanding the dataset and aim to include more conditions where optimal
integration predicts larger decreases in threshold. We note that our
proposed model well predicts the inverse relationship between bias and
threshold (due to the slow speed prior), which is fairly strong evidence
in favor of a Bayesian model of cue integration. We agree, however, that
the current dataset does not provide strong constraints of the exact form
of integration. The current expansion of the dataset will allow us to
further distinguish between different models in this context.
Assigned_reviewer_6 first comments on the need for two exponents
in the normalization model rather than having one exponent for both
channels. Unfortunately and as already mentioned in the responses to the
reviewers above, our current database can not fully constrain all aspects
of the normalization model, particularly given that data for one of the
channels is limited to one contrast level. We expect that the new dataset
we are currently collecting will allow us to better constrain the single
and combined responses resulting in a common exponent for both channels.
The reviewer also comments on the lack of a quantitative model comparison.
As mentioned above, we will include such comparison in the revised version
of the paper. Last, the reviewer argues that the combined stimuli in our
experiment have higher contrast and therefore a decrease in threshold is
expected even in the absence of cue combination. We show that the
perceived speed of the combined stimuli does not depend on the total
contrast by demonstrating the independence on phase between the two simple
cues. We agree, however, that testing complex stimuli with the same total
contrast as simple stimuli would be a striking demonstration, and we
will consider this option for future work. As previously suggested, we
will add the values of the fit model parameters and a quantitative model
comparison in the revised paper.
Finally, we thank all three
reviewers for the careful reading and their numerous minor comments that
we will incorporate in the revision of the paper.
In summary, we
think that our work proposes an interesting extension of the Bayesian
model of speed perception. We demonstrate that the perceived speed of more
complex stimuli is well described by a Bayesian observer that combines
information form different spatiotemporal frequency channels. We agree,
however, that the current dataset might not provide sufficiently strong
constraints to absolutely determine the specifics of the integration
mechanism. We are currently expanding our dataset to resolve this issue.
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