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The chromatic Cornsweet effect.

The Cornsweet effect was measured using equiluminous chromatic gradients as well as with an achromatic gradient. The chromatic Cornsweet effect is smaller than the achromatic effect.

Color Perception↗

Stereopsis from disparity of complex grating patterns.

Vertical grating patterns containing more than one spatial frequency component were presented stereoscopically. The depth percepts resulting from differences in relative horizontal position (or phase) in left- and right-eye views were measured using a depth-matching procedure. When the frequency components were similar in contrast, the depth percept was mediated by the overall disparity of the compound. However, a relatively low contrast component could make no contribution to the depth percept while still remaining clearly visible in the grating pattern. When two frequency components were equal in contrast but carried different individual disparities derived from local edge and spatial frequency information, the resulting percept contained multiple depth planes.

Depth Perception↗

Evidence on the local character of spatial frequency channels in the human visual system.

The question has been raised as to whether there exists any transfer of information between neighboring retinal areas following presentation of spatially limited optical stimuli. Our experiments were aimed at mechanisms by which spatial frequency information could be transferred from one part of the visual field to another. Within a 0.9 degree X 2.5 degree section of the 3.6 degree X 2.5 degree testfield the observers adapt to a number of moving sinusoidally-modulated brightness or hue gratings of different spatial frequencies. As known by many publications the sensitivity to spatial frequencies changes in the adapted area. We find that this influence on the contrast threshold decreases as the distance to the adaptation section increases. Hence our results suggest mechanisms within the visual system mathematically best described by a local spectrum analysis.

Adaptation, Ocular↗

Positional acuity with chromatic stimuli.

Theoretical reasons are presented for expecting a high precision spatial acuity task (vernier acuity) to be more difficult with an equiluminous stimulus than with stimuli containing luminance cues. This prediction was verified in Experiment 1. In a second experiment, it was shown that the result of the first experiment could not be explained by reduced detectability of the equiluminous target bar. We explain these results by the conflicting demands of chromatic and spatial differencing within a single mechanism, and propose that this also explains the similarities between long and medium wavelength cones in their spectral sensitivities.

Color Perception↗

Interaction of stereo, texture and outline cues in the shape perception of three-dimensional ridges.

We report five psychophysical experiments that employed a cue conflict paradigm to investigate integration by the human visual system of surface shape information from stereo, texture and outline cues. The experiments used convex parabolic and triangular three-dimensional ridge stimuli, with amplitudes (base to peak) in the range 3-9 cm, viewed from 57 cm. The observers' task was to judge ridge amplitude using a scale of two-dimensional drawings of ridge profiles. Cue integration was studied using both vertically and horizontally oriented ridges and both real ridges and stereograms of ridges. The main findings were: (a) stereo strongly dominated all horizontal ridge stereograms; (b) texture and outline cues strongly dominated low (3-6 cm) but not high (9 cm) amplitude vertical ridge stereograms; (c) stereo strongly dominated all real ridge stimuli. These results are evidence against explanations of the vertical/horizontal stereo anisotropy which propose that it derives from stereo mechanisms being tuned only to disparity cues with non-zero second-order spatial derivatives or to disparity discontinuities. They also show that radically different results can be obtained when stereo mechanisms are explored using stereograms and real surfaces and possible reasons for this are discussed.

Adult↗

Measurements of geometric illusions, illusory contours and stereo-depth at luminance and colour contrast.

We investigated four geometric optical illusions (Zöllner, Müller-Lyer, Ponzo and Delboeuf), plus illusory contour/border induction (Kanizsa) and depth in random-dot stereograms (Julesz). Two different display conditions were compared: equiluminance with chromaticity contrast and heteroluminance without chromaticity contrast. The main results are as follows. (1) The strength of the four geometric optical illusions is the same under both display conditions. The Zöllner illusion reaches its maximum and levels off at a luminance contrast of about 80%; it disappears at luminance contrasts of less than 15%. (2) No illusory contours are perceived in equiluminant Kanizsa figures. The minimum luminance contrast for illusory contour induction in the Kanizsa square is on average 1.8%, for illusory border induction in the abutting grating illusion it is 5.3%. (3) Random-dot stereograms were found to induce depth equally well in both display modes. The disparity threshold for perceiving depth in isochromatic random-dot stereograms levels off at a luminance contrast of 30%. With larger disparities, depth is perceived down to about 10% contrast. The findings suggest that geometric optical illusions of parallelness (orientation), length and size are mediated by the parvocellular system; furthermore, that stereoscopic depth is mediated both by the magnocellular and the parvocellular systems; and that illusory contours are mediated by the magnocellular system.

Color Perception↗

Integration of stereopsis and motion shape cues.

A global shape judgement task was used to investigate the combination of stereopsis and kinetic depth. With both cues present, there were no distortions of shape perception, even under conditions where either cue alone did show such distortions. We suggest that the addition of motion information overcomes the stereo distance scaling problem. However, when incongruent combinations of disparity and motion were used, the results did not match predictions of a number of combination theories. These data could be described by a model which used weighted linear combination after correctly scaling disparities for viewing distance. When the motion cue was weakened by presenting only two frames of each motion sequence, stereo was weighted more heavily.

Cues↗

Depth release of illusory contour shape in the Ehrenstein grid.

In the Ehrenstein grid, bright illusory patches delineated by illusory contours are seen. In order to assess whether the illusory patches possess shape constancy, the Ehrenstein grid was viewed straight on and at various angles of slant with respect to the observer. Observers matched the apparent shape of the illusory patches with a circle or an ellipse defined by real lines in a reference stimulus. Results show that, when viewed at a slanted angle, the shape of the bright patches was deformed and became oval. Such deformation was much less when the illusory contours were replaced by real contours. We label this dissociation of shape perception from depth cues depth release to contrast it with the previously described phenomenon of depth capture in which depth cues displace the illusory patches in depth. As a common explanation for both effects, it is proposed that the illusory contours induced by line ends or line ends themselves provide only weak or ineffective depth signals.

Adult↗

Fast perceptual learning in hyperacuity.

We investigated fast improvement of visual performance in several hyperacuity tasks such as vernier acuity and stereoscopic depth perception in almost 100 observers. Results indicate that the fast phase of perceptual learning, occurring within less than 1 hr of training, is specific for the visual field position and for the particular hyperacuity task, but is only partly specific for the eye trained and for the offset tested. Learning occurs without feedback. We conjecture that the site of learning may be quite early in the visual pathway.

Analysis of Variance↗

Disambiguating velocity estimates across image space.

A translating homogeneous edge viewed through an aperture is an ambiguous stimulus, while a translating edge discontinuity is unambiguous. Under what conditions does the visual system use unambiguous velocity estimates to interpret ambiguous velocity estimates? We considered a translating rectangle visible through a set of stationary apertures. One aperture displayed a rectangle edge while the other apertures displayed corners. Observers reported the direction in which the edge appeared to translate. The results suggest that collinearity and terminator proximity determine whether the unambiguous corner velocity was used to interpret the ambiguous edge velocity. These results suggest some of the ways in which the visual system controls the integration of velocity estimates across image space.

Cues↗

Human efficiency for recognizing 3-D objects in luminance noise.

The purpose of this study was to establish how efficiently humans use visual information to recognize simple 3-D objects. The stimuli were computer-rendered images of four simple 3-D objects--wedge, cone, cylinder, and pyramid--each rendered from 8 randomly chosen viewing positions as shaded objects, line drawings, or silhouettes. The objects were presented in static, 2-D Gaussian luminance noise. The observer's task was to indicate which of the four objects had been presented. We obtained human contrast thresholds for recognition, and compared these to an ideal observer's thresholds to obtain efficiencies. In two auxiliary experiments, we measured efficiencies for object detection and letter recognition. Our results showed that human object-recognition efficiency is low (3-8%) when compared to efficiencies reported for some other visual-information processing tasks. The low efficiency means that human recognition performance is limited primarily by factors intrinsic to the observer rather than the information content of the stimuli. We found three factors that play a large role in accounting for low object-recognition efficiency: stimulus size, spatial uncertainty, and detection efficiency. Four other factors play a smaller role in limiting object-recognition efficiency: observers' internal noise, stimulus rendering condition, stimulus familiarity, and categorization across views.

Contrast Sensitivity↗

Does the human visual system implement an ideal observer theory of slant from texture?

Texture information about surface shape can be decomposed into three constituents: compression, density and scaling. Blake, Bülthoff and Sheinberg's (1993, Vision Research, 33, 1723-1737) Ideal Observer theory of slant from texture predicts that the relative contribution of compression and density to the percept of planar surface slant should vary with field of view (FOV). The contribution of compression and density should both increase as FOV increases but statistical analysis shows that the reliability, and hence the expected contribution, of density increases at a greater rate than compression with increasing FOV. Specific predictions are that at FOV < 20 deg compression should be more effective than density, at FOV approximately 20 deg, compression and density should be equally effective, and at FOV > 20 deg, compression should be less effective than density. These predictions were tested by pitting these components of texture against one another. The method used was similar to that described in Frisby and Buckley [1992 In Orban, G. & Nagel H.-H. (Eds) Artificial and biological visual systems. Berlin: Springer]: observers judged binocularly the slant of a large table on to which was projected a texture created using computer graphics to contain various texture component cues to slant. The size of the projected texture patch determined the FOV which was by this means set to either 10, 20 or 30 deg. It was found that compression was the dominant cue irrespective of FOV, even if it was perturbed by noise. Possible reasons for this divergence of human observers from predictions of the Ideal Observer theory of slant from texture are discussed.

Adolescent↗

Preattentive perception of elementary three-dimensional shapes.

Experiments in which a single target pattern is discriminated from multiple background distractors show that certain shaded, two-dimensional (2-D) stimuli consistent with a top-lit, polyhedral interpretation can be processed fast (< 80 msec) and in parallel. Unshaded line drawings of the same shapes, however, are processed serially. Strong pop-out asymmetries and control experiments involving shaded patterns that do not have familiar 3-D interpretations suggest that such fast, parallel processing is dependent upon perception 3-D shape. Furthermore, this process can be influenced by contextual scene information, in a manner that is dependent upon whether the additional cues contribute to the perception of a consistent 3-D scene.

Adolescent↗