Biomedical subjects

Peter A van der Helm

Publications and source records attributed to Peter A van der Helm.

5 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2005

Effects of asynchrony on symmetry perception.

The effect of temporal image segmentation on symmetry perception was investigated by means of stimuli composed of one part surrounding another. The two parts could be presented synchronously or with a temporal offset (20-100 ms), and each part could be either symmetrical or random. The task was to discriminate completely symmetrical (S) stimuli (in Experiment 1) or completely random (R) stimuli (in Experiment 2) from partially symmetrical (PS) stimuli in which one part was symmetrical and the other random. The R stimuli showed an asynchrony effect but the S stimuli did not. Furthermore, in both experiments, the PS stimuli showed an asynchrony effect when the symmetrical part was presented last but not when the symmetrical part was presented first (independent of whether it was the surrounded part or the surrounding part). Both results suggest that symmetry is strong enough to override this kind of temporal image segmentation.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2005

Symmetry and repetition in perspective.

Although ecologically relevant, perspective views of symmetries and repetitions have hardly been investigated. Any symmetry or repetition that is not oriented orthogonally to the line of sight yields perspective distortions on the retina. In this study, these distortions are analyzed in terms of first-order structures (i.e., virtual lines between corresponding points) and second-order structures (i.e., correlation quadrangles formed by two virtual lines). In the literature, these structures have been proposed to guide the detection of fron to parallel symmetry and repetition. But what about perspective views? First, the analysis in this study shows that perspective distorts the retinal first-order and second-order structures of symmetry and repetition differently. Second, the results of two experiments on this distortion difference suggest that, in perspective views, symmetry and repetition detection is not preceded by normalization but occurs directly on the basis of the retinal first-order and second-order structures.

Adult↗

PubMed2004

Transparallel processing by hyperstrings.

Human vision research aims at understanding the brain processes that enable us to see the world as a structured whole consisting of separate objects. To explain how humans organize a visual pattern, structural information theory starts from the idea that our visual system prefers the organization with the simplest descriptive code, that is, the code that captures a maximum of visual regularity. Empirically, structural information theory gained support from psychological data on a wide variety of perceptual phenomena, but theoretically, the computation of guaranteed simplest codes remained a troubling problem. Here, the graph-theoretical concept of "hyperstrings" is presented as a key to the solution of this problem. A hyperstring is a distributed data structure that allows a search for regularity in O(2(N)) strings as if only one string of length N were concerned. Thereby, hyperstrings enable transparallel processing, a previously uncharacterized form of processing that might also be a form of cognitive processing.

Journal Article↗

PubMed2004

The force of symmetry revisited: symmetry-to-noise ratios regulate (a)symmetry effects.

Freyd and Tversky's [Am. J. Psychol. 97 (1984) 109] data suggested that human observers tend to overestimate relatively high levels of symmetry (symmetry effect), and tend to underestimate relatively low levels of symmetry (asymmetry effect). However, on the basis of their holographic approach to visual regularity, van der Helm and Leeuwenberg [Psychol. Rev. 103(3) (1996) 429] predicted that, at any level of symmetry, both symmetry and asymmetry effects may occur as a consequence of correct estimates of symmetry-to-noise ratios. This prediction was tested in two experiments, with tasks and stimuli similar to those in Freyd and Tversky's study. First, subjects had to judge whether a noisy symmetry is more similar to a slightly more symmetrical variant or to a slightly less symmetrical variant. Second, for every pair of stimuli in such a triadic comparison, subjects had to judge which stimulus is the more symmetrical one. The results from both experiments show that the occurrence of (a)symmetry effects indeed depends on symmetry-to-noise ratios.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2003

Blobs strengthen repetition but weaken symmetry.

The human visual system is more sensitive to symmetry than to repetition. According to the so-called holographic approach [J. Math. Psychol. 35 (1991) 151; Psychol. Rev. 103 (1996) 429; Psychol. Rev. 106 (1999) 622], however, this perceptual difference between symmetry and repetition depends strongly on spatial scaling. This was tested in three experiments, using symmetry and repetition stimuli that consisted of black and white patches, with patch size as the critical variable. In Experiment 1, patch size was increased in the entire pattern, yielding fewer but larger patches (or blobs). This is known to have hardly any effect on symmetry but, as found now, it does have a strengthening effect on repetition. In the second experiment, we increased patch size in subpatterns only, yielding salient blob areas. This again strengthens repetition but, as double-checked in experiment 3, it can weaken symmetry. These results agree with the holographic approach, and enable an integration of computational, algorithmic, and implementational aspects of vision.

Adolescent↗