Congratulations to Laura van Zantwijk, whose first PhD paper, “The spatial specificity and recovery from visual adaptation in causality perception”, is now published in Cognition! Together with Sven Ohl and Martin, Laura studied how visual adaptation changes what we perceive as causal. When one disc moves up to another and the second disc moves off, we see the first one launch the second. After viewing many such launches, observers report fewer launches in ambiguous events.

In three experiments, Laura mapped where this adaptation applies and how long it lasts. Adaptation was strongest when the adapting and test events appeared at the same location, and absent when they were 3 degrees of visual angle apart. Long and short adaptation sequences were equally effective. In both cases, perception recovered gradually over a short time. A break in which participants listened to a podcast instead of watching the screen led to recovery over the same timespan.

Have a look at the paper, and congratulations, Laura!