Near Their Thresholds for Detection, Shapes Are Discriminated by the Angular Separation of Their Corners

dc.contributor.authorDickinson, J. Edwin
dc.contributor.authorBell, Jason
dc.contributor.authorBadcock, David Russell
dc.date.accessioned2015-11-24T23:58:00Z
dc.date.available2015-11-24T23:58:00Z
dc.date.issued2013-05-31
dc.date.updated2015-12-11T08:09:18Z
dc.description.abstractObservers 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.
dc.description.sponsorshipFunding came from Australian reserch council grants DP0666206, DP1097003 and DP110104553 to DRB and DP110101511 to JB, www.arc.gov.au. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscripten_AU
dc.identifier.issn1932-6203en_AU
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/1885/16708
dc.publisherPublic Library of Science
dc.relationhttp://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/DP0666206
dc.relationhttp://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/DP1097003
dc.relationhttp://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/DP110104553
dc.relationhttp://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/DP110101511
dc.rights© 2013 Dickinson et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
dc.sourcePLoS ONE
dc.subjectdiscrimination (psychology)
dc.subjecthumans
dc.subjectpattern recognition, visual
dc.subjectphotic stimulation
dc.subjectdifferential threshold
dc.titleNear Their Thresholds for Detection, Shapes Are Discriminated by the Angular Separation of Their Corners
dc.typeJournal article
local.bibliographicCitation.issue5en_AU
local.bibliographicCitation.startpagee66015en_AU
local.contributor.affiliationDickinson, J. Edwin, University of Western Australia, Australiaen_AU
local.contributor.affiliationBell, Jason, College of Medicine, Biology and Environment, CMBE Research School of Psychology, School of Psychology, The Australian National Universityen_AU
local.contributor.affiliationBadcock, David Russell, University of Western Australia, Australiaen_AU
local.contributor.authoruidBell, Jason, u5003292
local.description.notesImported from ARIESen_AU
local.identifier.absfor170100en_AU
local.identifier.ariespublicationf5625xPUB3464en_AU
local.identifier.citationvolume8en_AU
local.identifier.doi10.1371/journal.pone.0066015en_AU
local.identifier.essn1932-6203en_AU
local.identifier.scopusID2-s2.0-84878542434
local.identifier.thomsonID000319799900234
local.identifier.uidSubmittedByu3488905en_AU
local.type.statusPublished Versionen_AU

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