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Transformation of the visual-line value in binocular vision: stimuli on corresponding points can be seen in two different directions.

We examined Wheatstone's (1838 Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London 128 371-394) claim that images falling on retinally corresponding points can be seen in two different directions, in violation of Hering's law of identical visual direction. Our analyses showed that random-dot stereograms contain stimulus elements that are conceptually equivalent to the line stimuli in the stereogram from which Wheatstone made his claim. Our experiment demonstrated that two lines embedded in a random-dot stereogram appeared in two different directions when they stimulated retinally corresponding points, if the disparity gradient value of the lines was infinity relative to adjacent elements. To ensure that the two lines stimulated corresponding points, observers made vergence eye movements while maintaining the perception of the two lines in two different directions.

Convergence, Ocular↗

The effects of phase on the perception of 3D shape from texture: psychophysics and modeling.

Two experiments are reported in which observers judged the apparent shapes of elliptical cylinders with eight different textures that were presented with scrambled and unscrambled phase spectra. The results revealed that the apparent depths of these surfaces varied linearly with the ground truth in all conditions, and that the overall magnitude of surface relief was systematically underestimated. In general, the apparent depth of a surface is significantly attenuated when the phase spectrum of its texture is randomly scrambled, though the magnitude of this effect varies for different types of texture. A new computational model of 3D shape from texture is proposed in which apparent depth is estimated from the relative density of edges in different local regions of an image, and the predictions of this model are highly correlated with the observers' judgments.

Depth Perception↗

Facilitation of stereopsis from a large disparity random-dot stereogram by various monocular features: further findings (a short note).

This experiment examined the effects of adding five different kinds of prominent monocular features to a large-disparity random-dot stereogram. It was found that features which enclosed the disparate area produced the shortest initial perception times for fusion. The longer initial perception times for stimuli containing features without this enclosing property are explained in terms of less-helpful guidance of saccadic eye movements prior to the establishment of fusion. Subsequent reductions in perception times for these latter stimuli could be due to perceptual learning within the eye movement control system.

Depth Perception↗

Stereokinesis with moving visual phantoms.

When a flat pattern composed of a solid ellipse with two symmetrical semirings (corresponding to the visible parts of a contour ellipse whose major axis is perpendicular to that of the solid ellipse) is slowly rotated in the frontoparallel plane, a compelling three-dimensional impression occurs. Subjects report seeing an egg-shaped object that is inserted into a circular ring: the two objects move solidly into three-dimensional space and a moving visual phantom is generated so that the ring appears completed by an illusory curved bar in the region closest to the observer during rotation. A number of variations of this illusion are presented. It is shown that stereokinetic phantoms (i) maintain the shape of the inducing elements; (ii) appear only after the stereokinetic transformation has taken place; and (iii) depend on the organization of the three-dimensional percept as a whole. Relations between stereokinetic phantoms and other completion phenomena are presented and discussed.

Depth Perception↗

The salience of vertical symmetry.

It has long been accepted that amongst patterns which are bilaterally symmetrical, those which have their axis of symmetry vertical are more saliently symmetrical than patterns whose axis of symmetry is at some other orientation. The evidence regarding the relative salience of other orientations of axis of symmetry is somewhat more equivocal. In experiment 1, subjects were required to discriminate between symmetric or random-dot patterns when the axis of symmetry was at one of eighteen different orientations, spaced 10 degrees apart, both clockwise and counterclockwise of vertical to horizontal. The data indicated that vertical was most salient, then horizontal but that, unlike in the classical oblique effect for contrast sensitivity, performance for precisely diagonal axes was better than that for surrounding axis orientations. Additional data (from experiments 2 and 3) also showed that the salience of vertical and horizontal axes of symmetry can be manipulated extensively by varying the range of stimuli presented, presumably by manipulating the scanning or attentional strategy adopted by the observer. Many previous studies of symmetry perception may have confounded hard-wired salience for vertical symmetry with scanning or attentional strategies.

Adult↗

A new stereoscopic illusion: eyes popping out and sinking in.

A stereoscopic illusion is produced by manipulating the binocular disparity of the irises in stereo pairs of human faces. These stimuli elicit unnatural percepts of the irises popping out of the face or sinking in inside the head.

Depth Perception↗

[Effect of light intensity on binocular distance perception].

Empirical investigations of perceived binocular distance often use an experimental setting in which real point-like light sources are presented in a completely dark surround. The results obtained, however, may be a consequence of the joint influence of binocular and monocular depth cues. Here, for the first time, the effect of (monocular) illumination cues on the locus of perceived equidistance is experimentally investigated by manipulating the luminous intensity of the stimuli. In a computer-controlled setup, small light-emitting diodes were presented in complete darkness. Five subjects judged the perceived distance of stimuli, which appeared in four directions and at five levels of luminous intensity, with respect to a fixed standard. Adaptive methods were used to determine perceived equidistance. Although the results show a significant effect of illumination cues, their influence on the locus of perceived equidistance turned out to be far less than previously supposed. For three subjects it was practically negligible.

Adult↗

[Do pilots need stereopsis ?].

Pilots so far are required to have a good quality of stereopsis. Many people do not meet this requirement. But is this requirement justified by research in aviation medicine and psychology of perception? This question is discussed on the basis of the theoretical and empirical literature. The answer is: No.

Aerospace Medicine↗

The first pictures: perceptual foundations of Paleolithic art.

Paleolithic representational art has a number of consistent characteristics: the subjects are almost always animals, depicted without scenic background, usually in profile, and mostly in outline; the means of representation are extremely economical, often consisting of only a few strokes that indicate the salient features of the animal which are sufficient to suggest the whole form; and it is naturalistic to a degree, but lacks anything like photographic realism. Two elementary questions are raised in this essay: (i) why did the earliest known attempts at depiction have just these characteristics and not others? and (ii) how are objects so minimally represented recognizable? The answers seem to lie with certain fundamental features of visual perception, especially figure-ground distinction, Gestalt principles of closure and good continuation, line surrogacy, component feature analysis, and canonical imaging. In the earliest pictures the graphic means used are such that they evoke the same visual responses as those involved in the perception of real-world forms, but eschew redundancies of color, texture, linear perspective, and completeness of representation.

Art↗

Lightness and perceptual transparency.

To estimate intrinsic descriptors of objects in the environment, effective biological vision systems must 'discount' extrinsic image properties that arise from changes in viewing conditions. In particular, to estimate the reflectance of surfaces, human vision must discount, or 'take account of', likely differences in the illumination of surfaces between one image region and another. If human vision possesses any significant degree of lightness constancy, then we would expect a target perceived to be in low illumination to appear lighter than an identical target perceived to be in higher illumination. In this paper, I present lightness illusions that run directly counter to this expectation. I suggest that mid-level and higher-level factors such as image junction structure and perceived illumination and transparency, are ineffective for generating strong lightness illusions on their own, and that these factors are not 'stronger' than luminance contrast in determining lightness. I discuss the implications of these results for current models of lightness perception. I also suggest a statistical justification for the highest-luminance anchoring rule for lightness.

Contrast Sensitivity↗

Perception of runway image shape and approach angle magnitude by pilots in simulated night landing approaches.

One cue for visual judgments of glidepath angle has been referred to as form ratio. Form ratio is defined as the ratio of vertical height of the runway to width of the far end in the runway retinal image. The ability of pilots to judge form ratios was compared with the ability to judge approach angles in the nighttime "black hole" situation in two experiments. Responses in both static and dynamic simulated approach conditions indicated a general tendency to overestimate form ratios and approach angles less than 3 degrees. Intersubject and intrasubject variability of form ratio and approach angle responses were comparable. These findings (i) do not support the utility of form ratio judgments as an aid in selecting approach angle, (ii) add to the empirical evidence of visual illusions and the danger of reliance on visual information for judgment of approach angle in the nighttime "black hole" situation where only runway light are visible, and (iii) point to variability in perception of approach angle as an important part of the problem.

Adult↗

Projective invariance and picture perception.

Four experiments test the assumption that, in the visual perception of pictures, observers have reliable and direct access to the equivalence of shapes in projective geometry. The assumption is that perception of projective equivalence is the basis of shape constancy ('the projective thesis'). Observers matched or reproduced abstract planar shapes under conditions of rotation in the picture plane, and pictured rotation in depth. Departure from projective equivalence was assessed in each study by measuring the planar analogue of cross ratio. Projective equivalence was not found to be perceived uniformly where Euclidean equivalence was not judged uniformly, either in recognition tasks or in production tasks. When the projective thesis is put to a suitably general test, confidence in the thesis is undermined.

Adult↗

Properties of cyclopean motion perception.

This study investigated the ability of human observers to discriminate the direction of laterally-moving cyclopean stimuli, in order to assess some of the properties of stereoscopic mechanisms that mediate the perception of cyclopean motion (motion existing at levels of binocular integration). The stimuli were moving grating patterns created from dynamic random-dot stereograms. Experiment 1 showed that duration thresholds for discrimination decrease with velocity; they are not governed by temporal frequency nor a constant spatial displacement. Experiment 2 revealed that discrimination thresholds increase with disparity magnitude, for both the crossed and uncrossed disparity directions equally. Experiment 3 showed that the rate of temporal variation at and above which direction discrimination fails (cyclopean upper limit of temporal resolution) is 8 Hz. Our results indicate that a mechanism for motion perception exists at binocular-integration levels of the visual system, which supports a model of motion perception that posits the existence of first-order and second-order processes.

Depth Perception↗

Visual learning by cue-dependent and cue-invariant mechanisms.

We examined learning at multiple levels of the visual system. Subjects were trained and tested on a same/different slant judgment task or a same/different curvature judgment task using simulated planar surfaces or curved surfaces defined by either stereo or monocular (texture and motion) cues. Taken as a whole, the results of four experiments are consistent with the hypothesis that learning takes place at both cue-dependent and cue-invariant levels, and that learning at these levels can have different generalization properties. If so, then cue-invariant mechanisms may mediate the transfer of learning from familiar cue conditions to novel cue conditions, thereby allowing perceptual learning to be robust and efficient. We claim that learning takes place at multiple levels of the visual system, and that a comprehensive understanding of visual perception requires a good understanding of learning at each of these levels.

Case-Control Studies↗

Attentional coding of categorical relations in scene perception: evidence from the flicker paradigm.

The purpose of the present investigation was to determine whether the positions of objects in a scene are coded relative to one another categorically (i.e., above, below, or side of; Experiment 1) and to determine whether spatial position in scene perception is coded preattentively or only under focused attention (Experiment 2). In Experiment 1, participants viewed alternating versions of a scene in which one of the objects in the scene changed its categorical relationship to the closest object in the scene, changed only its metric relationship to the closest object in a scene, or appeared and disappeared. Participants were faster at detecting changes that disrupted categorical relations than at detecting changes that disrupted only metric relations. In Experiment 2, this categorical advantage still occurred even when participants were cued to the location of the change. These results suggest that categorical spatial relations are being coded in scene perception and that attention is required in order to encode spatial relations.

Attention↗

Binocular beats: psychophysical studies of binocular interaction in normal and stereoblind humans.

We describe a psychophysical method for assessing binocular integration using dichoptically-presented uniform fields. By temporally modulating uniform field luminances at different frequencies between the eyes, a rhythmic beat is produced--a visual percept characterized by undulations in luminance at a frequency equal to the arithmetic difference between the two monocular stimulus frequencies. Using a signal detection paradigm, we studied the beat as a function of modulation depth in normal and binocularly deficient subjects. Normal subjects easily detected the beat, even at low modulation depths, while stereoblind subjects (with stereoacuity worse than 2000 sec arc) failed to detect beats at any modulation depth or with any combination of stimulus frequencies tested. The beat provides evidence for the confluence of monocular signals into binocular integrating mechanisms. Our results therefore suggest that the status of functioning binocular mechanisms is related to the detectability of the beat. This uniform-field stimulus does not require accurate accommodation, fixation, vergence or high spatial resolution, thus making this technique particularly attractive for the study of binocular interaction in developing infants and in binocularly deficient adults.

Adult↗

Adventures with gelatinous ellipses--constraints on models of human motion analysis.

An ellipse rotating rigidly about its center may appear to rotate rigidly or to deform nonrigidly so that it appears gelatinous. We use this ambiguous stimulus to study how motion information is propagated across space. We find that features that are quite far from the contour of the ellipse may have a strong influence on the percept of the ellipse, provided they move in a way consistent with the motion of the ellipse. We show that the percept cannot be accounted for by computational models that pool constraints over a local area only, or by models that propagate information along contours, or by models that indiscriminately propagate information across space. However, the percept can be accounted for by a class of models that assume smoothness in a layered representation.

Algorithms↗