title: Across-object relationships in perceived object orientation.
abstract: An orientation discrimination paradigm was used to determine whether the perceived orientation of extended objects is based on the distribution of edge-orientations or on the response of mechanisms that encode relationships across the object; specifically we considered large, second-stage filters and cores (the perceived middle of the object) as encoders of the across-object relationship. The stimuli were "rectangles" with sinusoidally modulated long edges. Manipulating the frequency and relative phase of the edge modulation allowed us to assess the importance of the across-object relationships. Evidence was found for the importance of such relationships in determining perceived orientation. No evidence was found for direct use of the distribution of responding edge detectors.
authors.affiliation: Department of Computer Science, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill 27599-3175, USA. burbeck@cs.unc.edu
authors.forename: C A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Burbeck
authors.forename: G S
authors.initials: GS
authors.lastname: Zauberman
mesh_terms: D004056:Differential Threshold; D005556:Form Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D012399:Rotation; D013028:Space Perception / Q000502:physiology*