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'''Ensemble coding''', also known as ensemble perception or summary representation, is the ability to see the average or variance of a group of objects. It is a theory that suggests that people process the general gist of their complex visual surroundings by grouping objects together based on shared properties. It has been demonstrated that individuals have the ability quickly and accurately encode ensembles and gather summary statistical information (like the mean and variance) from groups of stimuli. <ref>{{Cite journal|last=Alt|first=Nicholas P.|last2=Goodale|first2=Brianna|last3=Lick|first3=David J.|last4=Johnson|first4=Kerri L.|date=2019-03|title=Threat in the Company of Men: Ensemble Perception and Threat Evaluations of Groups Varying in Sex Ratio|url=http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1948550617731498|journal=Social Psychological and Personality Science|language=en|volume=10|issue=2|pages=152–159|doi=10.1177/1948550617731498|issn=1948-5506}}</ref> <ref>{{Cite journal|last=Alvarez|first=George|date=2011-03|title=Representing Multiple Objects as an Ensemble Enhances Visual Cognition|url=https://dash.harvard.edu/handle/1/41364280|journal=Trends in Cognitive Sciences|language=en-US|doi=10.1016/j.tics.2011.01.003|issn=1364-6613}}</ref> The world is filled with redundant information of which our visual systems have become particularly sensitive to. <ref name=":0" /> <ref>Whitney D, Haberman J, Sweeny T. 2014. From textures to crowds: multiple levels of summary statistical
perception. In The New Visual Neuroscience, ed. JS Werner, LM Chalupa, pp. 695–710. Cambridge, MA:
MIT Press</ref> Ensemble coding is an adaptive process that lightens cognitive effort in processing and storing visual representations through the use of heuristics. <ref>{{Cite journal|last=Haberman|first=Jason|last2=Whitney|first2=David|date=2009-6|title=Seeing the mean: Ensemble coding for sets of faces|url=https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2696629/|journal=Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance|volume=35|issue=3|pages=718–734|doi=10.1037/a0013899|issn=0096-1523|pmc=2696629|pmid=19485687}}</ref> <ref name=":6">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=Kw9pAgAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PA339&dq=haberman+&+whitney+2012&ots=a9dpYnaYBx&sig=s3mlaaflNeznaAM6tD75cmUIGpM#v=onepage&q&f=false|title=From Perception to Consciousness: Searching with Anne Treisman|last=Wolfe|first=Jeremy|last2=Robertson|first2=Lynn|date=2011-12-29|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-990984-1|language=en}}</ref>
== Ensemble Coding Defined ==
David Whitney and Allison Yamanashi Lieb developed an operational and flexible definition stating that, “...ensemble coding should include the following five concepts:
=== Limited visual capacity ===
Vision science has noted that although humans take in large amounts of visual information, adults are only able to process, attend to, and hold in memory up to roughly four items from the visual environment. <ref>{{Cite journal|last=Alvarez|first=G.A.|last2=Cavanagh|first2=P.|date=2004-02|title=The Capacity of Visual Short-Term Memory is Set Both by Visual Information Load and by Number of Objects|url=https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0963-7214.2004.01502006.x|journal=Psychological Science|language=en-US|volume=15|issue=2|pages=106–111|doi=10.1111/j.0963-7214.2004.01502006.x|issn=0956-7976}}</ref> <ref>{{Cite journal|last=Luck|first=Steven J.|last2=Vogel|first2=Edward K.|date=1997-11|title=The capacity of visual working memory for features and conjunctions|url=https://www.nature.com/articles/36846|journal=Nature|language=en|volume=390|issue=6657|pages=279–281|doi=10.1038/36846|issn=1476-4687}}</ref> Furthermore, scientists have found that this visual upper limit capacity exists across various phenomena including change blindness, <ref>{{Cite journal|last=O'Regan|first=J. Kevin|last2=Deubel|first2=Heiner|last3=Clark|first3=James J.|last4=Rensink|first4=Ronald A.|date=2000-01-01|title=Picture Changes During Blinks: Looking Without Seeing and Seeing Without Looking|url=https://doi.org/10.1080/135062800394766|journal=Visual Cognition|volume=7|issue=1-3|pages=191–211|doi=10.1080/135062800394766|issn=1350-6285}}</ref> <ref>{{Cite journal|last=Simons|first=Daniel J.|last2=Chabris|first2=Christopher F.|date=1999-09-01|title=Gorillas in Our Midst: Sustained Inattentional Blindness for Dynamic Events:|url=https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1068/p281059|journal=Perception|language=en|doi=10.1068/p281059}}</ref> object-tracking, <ref>Scholl, Scholl, B. J., Pylyshyn, B. J. (1999). Tracking Multiple Items Through Occlusion: Clues to Visual Objecthood. Cognitive psychology, 38(2), 259-290. </ref> and feature representation. <ref>{{Cite journal|last=Luck|first=Steven J.|last2=Vogel|first2=Edward K.|date=1997-11|title=The capacity of visual working memory for features and conjunctions|url=https://www.nature.com/articles/36846|journal=Nature|language=en|volume=390|issue=6657|pages=279–281|doi=10.1038/36846|issn=1476-4687}}</ref>
=== Low resolution representations and limited capacity ===
Additional theories in vision science propose that stimuli are represented in the brain individually as small, low resolution, icons stored in templates with limited capacities and are organized through associative links. <ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=xGJ_DxN3eygC&oi=fnd&pg=PA411&dq=The+iconic+bottleneck+and+the+tenuous+link+between+early+visual+processing+and+perception.+&ots=VtUSEGXtvE&sig=7Q6FbzFnbGsHP6ngmn2b8xpFD98#v=onepage&q=The%20iconic%20bottleneck%20and%20the%20tenuous%20link%20between%20early%20visual%20processing%20and%20perception.&f=false|title=Vision: Coding and Efficiency|last=Adler|first=K.|last2=Pointon|first2=M.|date=1993-05-13|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-44769-0|language=en}}</ref> <ref>Neisser, U. (1967). Cognitive psychology. New York: Appleton-Cent</ref>
== History ==
Throughout its history ensemble coding has taken on many names. Interest in the topic began to emerge in the early 20th century. <ref name=":6" /> In its earliest years ensemble coding was known as Gestalt grouping. <ref name=":6" /> In 1923, Max Wertheimer, a Gestalt theorist, was addressing how we perceive our visual world holistically rather than individually. <ref>Wertheimer, M. (1923). Untersuchungen zur Lehre von der Gestalt. Psychologische Forschung, 4, 301-350.</ref>
== Current era ==
== Levels ==
People have the ability to encode summary statistics along various dimensions of ensemble coding. <ref name=":0" />
=== Low ===
Low-level ensemble coding has been observed in the perception of size, <ref name=":2" /> motion, <ref>{{Cite journal|last=Watamaniuk|first=Scott N. J.|last2=Sekuler|first2=Robert|last3=Williams|first3=Douglas W.|date=1989-01-01|title=Direction perception in complex dynamic displays: The integration of direction information|url=http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0042698989901739|journal=Vision Research|volume=29|issue=1|pages=47–59|doi=10.1016/0042-6989(89)90173-9|issn=0042-6989}}</ref> <ref>{{Cite journal|last=Watamaniuk|first=Scott N. J.|last2=McKee|first2=Suzanne P.|date=1998-01-01|title=Simultaneous encoding of direction at a local and global scale|url=https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03206028|journal=Perception & Psychophysics|language=en|volume=60|issue=2|pages=191–200|doi=10.3758/BF03206028|issn=1532-5962}}</ref> number, <ref name=":5" /> line orientation, <ref name=":3" /> and spacial ___location. <ref name=":4" /> <ref name=":0" />
=== High ===
High-level ensemble coding involves social perception. <ref name=":0" />
== Social ensemble coding ==
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