Perception

We have observed quantitative depth perception with a dichoptic stimulus which possessed no contrast-defined binocular corresponding features (phantom stereogram). The depth perception can be the result of appreciation of a partial-occlusion situation depicted by the stimulus, or the result of activities of low-level disparity detectors which are capable of combining dissimilar local features in the stimulus. Although both mechanisms predict similar depth perception, they predict different vergence eye-movement outputs, especially in the vertical dimension. To identify the underlying mechanisms of the phantom stereopsis, we recorded vergence tracking eye movements to four types of dichoptic stimuli: (a) conventional stereogram with horizontal disparity (HD); (b) horizontal phantom stereogram (HP); (c) conventional stereogram with vertical disparity (VD); and (d) vertical phantom stereogram (VP). We found that HD, HP, and VD stimuli could elicit robust vergence tracking eye movements but VP stimulus could not. While the success of HP stimulus in eliciting vergence tracking may be explained by proximal vergence, the failure of VP stimulus in eliciting vergence tracking clearly indicates that phantom stereogram could not elicit coherent responses among low-level disparity detectors. Partial occlusion, therefore, has to play an important role in the depth perception from the phantom stereogram.

Unpleasant somatic and perceptual side effects can be induced when viewing striped repetitive patterns, such as a square wave or a page of text. This sensitivity is greater in participants with higher scores on a scale of visual discomfort. In three experiments the effect that this sensitivity has on performance efficiency in a reading-like visual search task was investigated. In experiments 1 and 2, the ‘global’ structure of the patterns was manipulated to produce a square-wave, a checkerboard, and a plaid pattern. It was found that the group that suffered severe visual discomfort took significantly longer than other groups to perform the task, with interference greatest with presentation of the square-wave-like pattern. This supports the prediction of greatest distraction of visual attention from the local target elements with presentation of the pattern structure inducing greatest visual discomfort. In experiment 3, the internal pattern components were manipulated and task difficulty reduced. A no-interference and two interference patterns, one with a global characteristic only and the second made up of distracting line elements, containing global and local components were used. The global pattern structure produced interference effects on the visual-search task. All groups performed with the same speed and accuracy on the task involving the no-interference pattern, a finding attributed to reduced task difficulty McConkie and Zola's model of visual attention was used to explain these results.

Two experiments are reported in which the relationship between perceived similarity amongst simple geometric solids and the set of projections arising from rotation of the typical contour of the solids about a vertical axis in its plane are examined. The results indicate (1) that judgments of similarity are affected by pronouncedness of typical contours, (2) similarity of simple geometrical solids is an asymmetrical attribute, in that where a set of possible projections of model X contains a set of possible projections of model Y, then model Y is judged as more similar to model X than X is to Y. The implications of this asymmetry for perceptual constancy and theories of object recognition are discussed.

The effect of stimulus factors such as interobject similarity and stimulus density on the recognition of objects across changes in view was investigated in five experiments. The recognition of objects across views was found to depend on the degree of interobject similarity and on stimulus density: recognition was view dependent when both interobject similarity and stimulus density were high, irrespective of the familiarity of the target object. However, when stimulus density or interobject similarity was low recognition was invariant to viewpoint. It was found that recognition was accomplished through view-dependent procedures when discriminability between objects was low.

The findings are discussed in terms of an exemplar-based model in which the dimensions used for discriminating between objects are optimised to maximise the differences between the objects. This optimisation process is characterised as a perceptual ‘ruler’ which measures interobject similarity by stretching across objects in representational space. It is proposed that the ‘ruler’ optimises the feature differences between objects in such a way that recognition is view invariant but that such a process incurs a cost in discriminating between small feature differences, which results in view-dependent recognition performance.

An unfamiliar configuration lying in depth and viewed from a distance is typically seen as foreshortened. The hypothesis motivating this research was that a change in an observer's viewpoint even when the configuration is no longer visible induces an imaginal updating of the internal representation and thus reduces the degree of foreshortening. In experiment 1, observers attempted to reproduce configurations defined by three small glowing balls on a table 2 m distant under conditions of darkness following ‘viewpoint change’ instructions. In one condition, observers reproduced the continuously visible configuration using three other glowing balls on a nearer table while imagining standing at the distant table. In the other condition, observers viewed the configuration, it was then removed, and they walked in darkness to the far table and reproduced the configuration. Even though the observers received no additional information about the stimulus configuration in walking to the table, they were more accurate (less foreshortening) than in the other condition. In experiment 2, observers reproduced distant configurations on a nearer table more accurately when doing so from memory than when doing so while viewing the distant stimulus configuration. In experiment 3, observers performed both the real and imagined perspective change after memorizing the remote configuration. The results of the three experiments indicate that the continued visual presence of the target configuration impedes imaginary perspective-change performance and that an actual change in viewpoint does not increase reproduction accuracy substantially over that obtained with an imagined change in viewpoint.

Depth interactions between a frontal test surface and an adjacent induction surface were measured as a function of the type of disparity in the induction surface and of the vertical/horizontal orientation of the boundary between the surfaces. The types of disparity were 4° horizontal-shear disparity, 4° vertical-shear disparity, and 4° rotation disparity; 4% horizontal-size disparity, 4% vertical-size disparity, and 4% overall-size disparity. Depth contrast in a frontal surface was produced by surfaces containing horizontal-size disparity but not by those containing horizontal-shear disparity. Vertical-shear and vertical-size disparities produced induced effects in both the induction and the test surface, which is here explained in terms of deformation-disparity processing. Effects of rotation disparity on the test surface can be accounted for in terms of cyclovergence, deformation disparity, and perhaps also depth contrast. The fact that horizontal-size disparity produced more depth contrast than horizontal-shear disparity is due to an anisotropy of disparity processing rather than the relative orientation of the surfaces. Ground surfaces appeared more slanted than ceiling surfaces. Surfaces containing horizontal disparities produced a sharp boundary with the test surface because horizontal disparities are processed locally. Surfaces with vertical disparities produced a gradual boundary with the test surface because vertical disparities are processed over a wider area.

A study is reported of the effect of early visual experience on the development of auditory space perception. The spatial hearing of thirty-five children with visual disabilities (twenty-two with congenital total blindness) was compared with that of eighteen sighted children and seventeen sighted adults. The tests provided a comprehensive assessment of spatial-hearing ability, including psychophysical estimates of spatial resolution in the horizontal, vertical, and distance dimensions, as well as measures of reaching and walking to the locations of sound sources. The spatial hearing of the children with visual disabilities was comparable to or some-what better than that of the sighted children and adults. This pattern held even when the group with visual disabilities was restricted to those children with congenital total blindness; in fact, some of those children had exceptionally good spatial hearing. These findings imply that the developmental calibration of human spatial hearing is not dependent on a history of visual experience. It seems likely that this calibration arises from the experience of changes in sound-localization cues arising from self-motion, such as turning the head or walking. As a practical matter, orientation and mobility instructors may reasonably assume that individuals with visual disabilities can use their hearing effectively in day-to-day travel situations.