Evidence map›Paper›PMID 32128720›Full record

ReviewPsychonomic bulletin & review2020

Ensemble perception and focused attention: Two different modes of visual processing to cope with limited capacity.

Jongsoo Baek, Sang Chul Chong

Abstract readReview
PubMed Publisher
In one paragraph

Review in Psychonomic bulletin & review, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 24 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
24citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

24 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Article
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  3. Reappraising intuitions about consciousness.Frontiers in psychology · 2026
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  9. Time Course of Orientation Ensemble Representation in the Human Brain.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2025
    Article
  10. Article
  11. Article
  12. Article
  13. Article
  14. The Neural Dynamics of Face Ensemble and Central Face Processing.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2024
    Article
  15. Article
  16. Article
  17. Article
  18. Article
  19. Article
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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

2 authors.

Jongsoo BaekYonsei Institute of Convergence Technology, Yonsei University, Seoul, Korea.
Sang Chul ChongGraduate Program in Cognitive Science and Department of Psychology, Yonsei University, 50 Yonsei-ro Seodaemun-gu, Seoul, 03722, Korea. scchong@yonsei.ac.kr.

Funding

The National Research Foundation of Korea NRF-2019R1A2B5B01070038
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

The visual system has a limited capacity for dealing with complex and redundant information in a scene. Here, we propose that a distributed attention mode of processing is necessary for coping with this limit, together with a focused attention mode of processing. The distributed attention mode provides a statistical summary of a scene, whereas the focused attention mode provides relevant information for object recognition. In this paper, we claim that a distributed mode of processing is necessary because (1) averaging performance improves with increased set-sizes, (2) even unselected items are likely to contribute to averaging, and (3) the assumption of variable capacity limits in averaging over different set-sizes is not plausible. We then propose how the averaging process can access multiple items over the capacity limit of focused attention. The visual system can represent multiple items as population responses and read out relevant information using the two modes of attention. It can summarize population responses with a broad application of a Gaussian profile (i.e., distributed attention) and represent its peak as the mean. It can focus on relevant population responses with a narrow application of a Gaussian profile (i.e., focused attention) and select important information for object recognition. The two attention modes of processing provide a framework for incorporating two seemingly opposing fields of study (ensemble perception and selective attention) and a unified theory of a coping strategy with our limited capacity.

Indexed as

Adaptation, PsychologicalAttentionVisual PerceptionHumansModels, PsychologicalPsychological TheoryAveragingDistributed attentionEnsemble perceptionFocused attentionPopulation code

Identifiers

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.