Figure-ground organization and object recognition processes: an interactive account.
Traditional bottom-up models of visual processing assume that figure-ground organization precedes object recognition. This assumption seems logically necessary: How can object recognition occur before a region is labeled as figure? However, some behavioral studies find that familiar regions are more likely to be labeled figure than less familiar regions, a problematic finding for bottom-up models. An interactive account is proposed in which figure-ground processes receive top-down input from object representations in a hierarchical system. A graded, interactive computational model is presented that accounts for behavioral results in which familiarity effects are found. The interactive model offers an alternative conception of visual processing to bottom-up models.
Vecera
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Department of Psychology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City 84112, USA. Shaun.Vecera@m.cc.utah.edu
O'Reilly
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D000465:Algorithms; D001288:Attention; D004193:Discrimination Learning; D005364:Field Dependence-Independence; D006801:Humans; D016571:Neural Networks, Computer; D009949:Orientation; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D011601:Psychophysics