Bruggen, Floor van (2025) The Influence of Perceived Reward Cues on Visual Detection Performance and Pupil Dilation under Varying Levels of External Noise. Bachelor thesis, Psychology.
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Abstract
Pupil size in a near-threshold detection research paradigm is an underreported subject in the pupillometry. The pupil responds to external factors, as changes in light (PLR) or changes in focal distance (PNR). However, pupils also respond to cognitive processes, as for example reward processing, but how these processes influence visual processing due to pupil size changes is not sufficiently covered in research. We performed a within-subjects design experiment to measure pupil size while participants performed a near-threshold visual detection task and reporting the presence of a faint peripherally presented stimulus. In this study we suggest that pupil dilation has an effect on visual detection performance. Furthermore, we suggest that perceived reward cues influence pupil size and therefore enhance visual detection performance in a near-threshold detection task. We found that more dilated pupils positively correlate with visual detection performance. Next to this result, we found that perceived reward cues do not significantly affect pupil size and visual detection performance. Summed up, our results show that when pupils are more dilated, participants perform better at detecting faint stimuli, suggesting the potential role of pupil size as an indicator of cognitive processes in visual tasks and detection performance.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Bachelor) |
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| Supervisor name: | Ruuskanen, V.H.S. |
| Degree programme: | Psychology |
| Differentiation route: | None [Bachelor Psychology] |
| Date Deposited: | 25 Feb 2025 10:42 |
| Last Modified: | 25 Feb 2025 10:42 |
| URI: | http://gmwpublic.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/id/eprint/4706 |
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