title: Mechanisms of contour curvature discrimination.
abstract: Visual processing of contour curvature was investigated by measuring increment thresholds for curvatures from 0.31 to 25.4 deg-1. Curvature discrimination was assessed for three classes of stimuli: simple curved contours, high-frequency bandpass-filtered contours, and low-pass-filtered contours. High-frequency bandpass filtering had no effect on discrimination at low curvatures and only a modest effect at high curvatures. In contrast, low-pass filtering caused substantial threshold elevations at all curvatures. Thus the data lead to the surprising conclusion that high-spatial-frequency, orientation-selective mechanisms dominate curvature processing over the entire range of curvatures tested, a conclusion at odds with previous suggestions that large, low-spatial-frequency filters are involved in analyzing low curvatures. The data are explained accurately by a two-process model for curvature extraction: at high curvatures the local-processing model proposed by Wilson [J. Opt. Soc. Am. A. 2, 1191 (1985)] fits the data well, whereas at low curvatures orientations are compared at points displaced a fixed distance along the tangent to the curve.
authors.affiliation: Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Science, University of Chicago, Illinois 60637.
authors.forename: H R
authors.initials: HR
authors.lastname: Wilson
authors.forename: W A
authors.initials: WA
authors.lastname: Richards
mesh_terms: D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D004192:Discrimination, Psychological / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008960:Models, Psychological; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D012684:Sensory Thresholds; D014792:Visual Acuity; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*