Comparing model predictions of response bias and variance in cue combination

We explore a recently proposed mixture model approach to understanding interactions between conflicting sensory cues. Alternative model formulations, differing in their sensory noise models and inference methods, are compared based on their fit to experimental data. Heavy-tailed sensory likelihoods yield a better description of the interesting response behavior than standard Gaussian noise models. We study the underlying case for this result, and then present several testable predictions of these models.