Near Their Thresholds for Detection, Shapes Are Discriminated by the Angular Separation of Their Corners
Date
2013-05-31
Authors
Dickinson, J. Edwin
Bell, Jason
Badcock, David Russell
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Public Library of Science
Abstract
Observers make sense of scenes by parsing images on the retina into meaningful objects. This ability is retained for line drawings, demonstrating that critical information is concentrated at object boundaries. Information theoretic studies argue for further concentration at points of maximum curvature, or corners, on such boundaries [1]-[3] suggesting that the relative positions of such corners might be important in defining shape. In this study we use patterns subtly deformed from circular, by a sinusoidal modulation of radius, in order to measure threshold sensitivity to shape change. By examining the ability of observers to discriminate between patterns of different frequency and/or number of cycles of modulation in a 2x2 forced choice task we were able to show, psychophysically, that difference in a single cue, the periodicity of the corners (specifically the polar angle between two points of maximum curvature) was sufficient to allow discrimination of two patterns near their thresholds for detection. We conclude that patterns could be considered as labelled for this measure. These results suggest that a small number of such labels might be sufficient to identify an object.
Description
Keywords
discrimination (psychology), humans, pattern recognition, visual, photic stimulation, differential threshold
Citation
Collections
Source
PLoS ONE
Type
Journal article
Book Title
Entity type
Access Statement
License Rights
Restricted until
Downloads
File
Description
Published Version