Surface integration influences depth discrimination.

C Yin; P J Kellman; T F Shipley

doi:10.1016/s0042-6989(00)00047-x

Home/Archive/PubMed

PubMed · 10828465

Surface integration influences depth discrimination.

C Yin·P J Kellman·T F Shipley

View original source ↗Export metadata ↓

Abstract

Image fragments arising from partial occlusion may be perceptually unified by a surface integration process on the basis of similar color or texture. In a new objective measure pitting surface feature similarity against binocular disparity, observers discriminated whether a colored circle had either crossed or uncrossed disparity relative to a surrounding gray rectangle. Sensitivity to disparity was impaired only when (1) the configuration of the other surface fragments in the display supported the integration of a surface behind the rectangle and circle, and (2) matched the color of the central circle. Results were consistent with the hypothesis that a surface integration process integrated similarly-colored surface fragments into a smooth surface, even when those fragments were at different depths. Surface integration caused small and reliable effects on depth perception despite unambiguous disparity information. Perceived depth does not depend solely upon disparity, and may be determined after three-dimensional figural unity is established.

Explore related subjects

Color Perception Contrast Sensitivity Depth Perception Female Form Perception Humans Male Vision Disparity Journal Article Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Keep this discovery

Explore connections, maps & timelines

BibTeX RIS

C Yin, P J Kellman, T F Shipley. 2000. Surface integration influences depth discrimination.. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0042-6989(00)00047-x

Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.

KEEP EXPLORING

Related citations

PubMed2002

Determinants of asynchronous processing in vision.

When a stimulus oscillates in both colour and direction of motion, changes in colour must lag behind those in direction if they are to be seen as concurrent. It has been argued that this lag is the consequence of asynchronous visual processing, with colour being processed more rapidly than motion. This proposal is contentious: it has been criticized on the basis that the time-course of cortical activity may not correlate directly with that of perceptual experience. Here, we demonstrate that the extent of the apparent asynchrony can vary according to the prevailing stimulus conditions. The apparent asynchrony is greatest if the stimulus is composed of opponent directions of motion and is reduced if the angular difference between the directions is reduced. This pattern of results suggests that asynchronous neural activity arises, in part, as a consequence of differential levels of inhibition within relatively independent cortical structures.

Color Perception↗

PubMed2002

Spatiochromatic properties of natural images and human vision.

The human visual system shows a relatively greater response to low spatial frequencies of chromatic spatial modulation than to luminance spatial modulation. However, previous work has shown that this differential sensitivity to low spatial frequencies is not reflected in any differential luminance and chromatic content of general natural scenes. This is contrary to the prevailing assumption that the spatial properties of human vision ought to reflect the structure of natural scenes. Now, colorimetric measures of scenes suggest that red-green (and perhaps blue-yellow) color discrimination in primates is particularly suited to the encoding of specific scenes: reddish or yellowish objects on a background of leaves. We therefore ask whether the spatial, as well as chromatic, properties of such scenes are matched to the different spatial-encoding properties of color and luminance modulation in human vision. We show that the spatiochromatic properties of a wide class of scenes, which contain reddish objects (e.g., fruit) on a background of leaves, correspond well to the properties of the red-green (but not blue-yellow) systems in human vision, at viewing distances commensurate with typical grasping distance. This implies that the red-green system is particularly suited to encoding both the spatial and the chromatic structure of such scenes.

Color Perception↗

PubMed2002

Marker correspondence, not processing latency, determines temporal binding of visual attributes.

BACKGROUND: When simultaneous visual events appear to occur at different times, the discrepancy has generally been ascribed to time differences in neural transmission or cortical processing that lead to asynchronous awareness of the events. RESULTS: We found, however, that an apparent delay of changes in motion direction relative to synchronous color changes occurs only for rapid alternations, and this delay is not accompanied by a difference in reaction time. We also found that perceptual asynchrony depends on the temporal structure of the stimuli (transitions [first-order temporal change] versus turning points [second-order temporal change]) rather than the attribute type (color versus motion). CONCLUSIONS: We propose that the perception of the relative time of events is based on the relationship of representations of temporal pattern that we term time markers. We conclude that the perceptual asynchrony effects studied here do not reflect differential neural delays for different attributes; rather, they arise from a faulty correspondence match between color transitions and position transitions (motion), which in turn results from a difficulty in detecting turning points (direction reversals) and a preference for matching markers of the same type.

Color Perception↗