Empirical evidence for independent dimensions in the visual representation of three-dimensional shape.
Three experiments investigated whether the human visual system can make independent estimations of 3-dimensional shape dimensions, as suggested by structural description models of human object recognition. Experiment 1 used a noise masking paradigm to investigate whether primary-axis curvature and aspect ratio are estimated independently. The results showed clear evidence that these 3-dimensional shape properties are estimated independently from the image. Experiment 2 investigated whether the visual system can treat any arbitrary set of independent shape dimensions independently. The dimensions used in Experiment 2 were linear combinations of aspect ratio and primary-axis curvature used in Experiment 1. Experiment 2 results showed that these 2 dimensions were not estimated independently. Using the same masking paradigm, Experiment 3 investigated whether an object's 3-dimensional shape is estimated independently of the object's viewpoint. This experiment found that shape properties are estimated independently of viewpoint.
Department of Psychology, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, USA. bstankie@psy.utexas.edu
Brian J
BJ
Stankiewicz
D000328:Adult; D036262:Empirical Research; D005260:Female; D005556:Form Perception; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009622:Noise; D010470:Perceptual Masking; D014796:Visual Perception