title: Preattentive perception of elementary three-dimensional shapes.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: California Institute of Technology, Pasadena 91125, USA. jensun@-vision.caltech.edu
authors.forename: J Y
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Perona
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D003867:Depth Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D005556:Form Perception / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology*; D010470:Perceptual Masking / Q000502:physiology; D011594:Psychometrics