title: Eidolons: Novel stimuli for vision research.
abstract: Meanings and qualities are fundamental attributes of visual awareness. We propose "eidolons" as a tool for establishing equivalence classes of appearance along meaningful dimensions. The "eidolon factory" is an algorithm that generates stimuli in such a meaningful and transparent way. The algorithm allows us to focus on location, scale, and size of perceptually salient structures, proto-objects, and perhaps even semantics rather than global overall parameters, such as contrast and spatial frequency. The eidolon factory is based on models of the psychogenesis of visual awareness. It affects the image in terms of the disruption of image structure across space and spatial scales. This is a very general method with many potential applications. We illustrate a few instances. We present results for the example of tarachopic amblyopia, showing that scrambled vision is indeed an apt interpretation.
authors.affiliation: Justus-Liebig Universität Giessen, Abteilung Allgemeine Psychologie, Giessen, GermanyKU Leuven, Laboratory of Experimental Psychology, Leuven, BelgiumUtrecht University, Department of Experimental Psychology, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Jan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Koenderink
authors.affiliation: Justus-Liebig Universität Giessen, Abteilung Allgemeine Psychologie, Giessen, Germany.
authors.forename: Matteo
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Valsecchi
authors.affiliation: Justus-Liebig Universität Giessen, Abteilung Allgemeine Psychologie, Giessen, GermanyUtrecht University, Department of Experimental Psychology, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: van Doorn
authors.affiliation: KU Leuven, Laboratory of Experimental Psychology, Leuven, Belgium.
authors.forename: Johan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wagemans
authors.affiliation: Justus-Liebig Universität Giessen, Abteilung Allgemeine Psychologie, Giessen, Germany.
authors.forename: Karl
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Gegenfurtner
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D000550:Amblyopia / Q000503:physiopathology*; D001364:Awareness; D035843:Biomedical Research / Q000379:methods; D015350:Contrast Sensitivity / Q000502:physiology; D005556:Form Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D012684:Sensory Thresholds / Q000502:physiology