Extensive amounts of information are available to the [[visual system]]. Ensemble coding is a theory that suggests that people process the general gist of their complex visual surroundings by grouping objects together based on shared properties. The world is filled with redundant information of which the human [[visual system]] has become particularly sensitive.<ref name="Whitney_2014" /><ref>{{cite book | vauthors = Whitney D, Haberman J, Sweeny T | date = 2014 | chapter = From textures to crowds: multiple levels of summary statistical perception. | title = In The New Visual Neuroscience | veditors = Werner JS, Chalupa LM | pages = 695–710 | ___location = Cambridge, MA | publisher = MIT Press }}</ref> The brain exploits this redundancy and condenses the information. For example, the leaves of a tree or blades of grass give rise to the percept of 'tree-ness' and 'lawn-ness'.<ref name="Haberman_2012">{{cite book |last1=Haberman |first1=Jason |last2=Whitney |first2=David| name-list-formatstyle = vanc | chapter = Ensemble Perception |date = May 2012 | title = From Perception to Consciousness |pages=339–349 |editor-last=Wolfe |editor-first=Jeremy |editor2-last=Robertson |editor2-first=Lynn |publisher=Oxford University Press |doi=10.1093/acprof:osobl/9780199734337.003.0030 |isbn=978-0-19-973433-7}}</ref> It has been demonstrated that individuals have the ability to quickly and accurately encode ensembles of objects, like leaves on a tree, and gather summary statistical information (like the mean and variance) from groups of stimuli.<ref name=":5">{{cite journal| vauthors = Alt NP, Goodale B, Lick DJ, Johnson KL |date= March 2019 |title=Threat in the Company of Men: Ensemble Perception and Threat Evaluations of Groups Varying in Sex Ratio|journal=Social Psychological and Personality Science|volume=10 |issue=2 |pages=152–159 |doi=10.1177/1948550617731498 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Alvarez GA | title = Representing multiple objects as an ensemble enhances visual cognition | language = en-US | journal = Trends in Cognitive Sciences | volume = 15 | issue = 3 | pages = 122–31 | date = March 2011 | pmid = 21292539 | doi = 10.1016/j.tics.2011.01.003 | url = https://dash.harvard.edu/handle/1/41364280 }}</ref> Some research suggests that this process provides rough visual information from the entire [[visual field]], giving way to a complete and accurate picture of the visual world.<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Chong SC, Treisman A | title = Representation of statistical properties | journal = Vision Research | volume = 43 | issue = 4 | pages = 393–404 | date = February 2003 | pmid = 12535996 | doi = 10.1016/S0042-6989(02)00596-5 }}</ref><ref name="Seeing the mean: ensemble coding fo">{{cite journal | vauthors = Haberman J, Whitney D | title = Seeing the mean: ensemble coding for sets of faces | journal = Journal of Experimental Psychology. Human Perception and Performance | volume = 35 | issue = 3 | pages = 718–34 | date = June 2009 | pmid = 19485687 | pmc = 2696629 | doi = 10.1037/a0013899 }}</ref> Although the individual details of this accurate picture might be inaccessible, the 'gist' of the scene remains accessible.<ref name="Haberman_2012" /> Ensemble coding is an adaptive process that lightens the [[cognitive load]] in the processing and storing of visual representations through the use of [[heuristic]]s.<ref name="Seeing the mean: ensemble coding fo"/><ref name="Wolfe_2011">{{cite book |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=Kw9pAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA339 |title=From Perception to Consciousness: Searching with Anne Treisman |last1=Wolfe |first1=Jeremy |last2=Robertson |first2=Lynn | name-list-formatstyle = vanc |date= December 2011 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-990984-1|language=en}}</ref>
== Operational definition ==
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=== 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 retain up to roughly four items from the visual environment.<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Alvarez GA, Cavanagh P | title = The capacity of visual short-term memory is set both by visual information load and by number of objects | language = en-US | journal = Psychological Science | volume = 15 | issue = 2 | pages = 106–11 | date = February 2004 | pmid = 14738517 | doi = 10.1111/j.0963-7214.2004.01502006.x | url = http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:41302706 }}</ref><ref name="Luck_1998">{{cite journal | vauthors = Luck SJ, Vogel EK | title = The capacity of visual working memory for features and conjunctions | journal = Nature | volume = 390 | issue = 6657 | pages = 279–81 | date = November 1997 | pmid = 9384378 | doi = 10.1038/36846 | bibcode = 1997Natur.390..279L }}</ref> Furthermore, scientists have found that this visual upper limit capacity exists across various phenomena including [[change blindness]],<ref>{{cite journal |last1=O'Regan |first1=J. Kevin |last2=Deubel |first2=Heiner |last3=Clark |first3=James J. |last4=Rensink |first4=Ronald A. | name-list-formatstyle = vanc |date=2000-01-01|title=Picture Changes During Blinks: Looking Without Seeing and Seeing Without Looking|journal=Visual Cognition|volume=7|issue=1–3|pages=191–211|doi=10.1080/135062800394766|issn=1350-6285}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Simons DJ, Chabris CF | s2cid = 1073781 | title = Gorillas in our midst: sustained inattentional blindness for dynamic events | journal = Perception | volume = 28 | issue = 9 | pages = 1059–74 | date = 1999-09-01 | pmid = 10694957 | doi = 10.1068/p281059 }}</ref> object tracking,<ref name="Scholl_1999">{{cite journal | vauthors = Scholl BJ, Pylyshyn ZW | s2cid = 17447994 | title = Tracking multiple items through occlusion: clues to visual objecthood | journal = Cognitive Psychology | volume = 38 | issue = 2 | pages = 259–90 | date = March 1999 | pmid = 10090804 | doi = 10.1006/cogp.1998.0698 }}</ref> and feature representation.<ref name="Luck_1998"/>
=== Low resolution representations and limited capacity ===
