Studies of the Perception of Incomplete Outline Images of Different Sizes

• Published in: Neuroscience and behavioral physiology 2009-11, Vol.39 (9), p.841-849
• Main Authors: Vakhrameeva, O. A., Shelepin, Yu. E., Mezentsev, A. Yu, Pronin, S. V.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Behavioral Sciences; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Biomedicine; Female; Humans; Laboratories; Male; Neurobiology; Neurosciences; Pattern Recognition, Visual - physiology; Physiology; Retina - physiology; Visual Acuity - physiology; Visual perception
• ISSN: 0097-0549; 1573-899X
• DOI: 10.1007/s11055-009-9209-4

The aim of the present work was to assess the range of angular sizes of fragmented images of objects at which perception of the images was scale-independent. Measurements were made of human subjects’ recognition thresholds for the shapes of the objects over a wide range of angular sizes (0.19–50°). The experiments used the Gollin test – a method for studying the recognition of fragmented outline images of objects with which the observer is familiar. The results obtained demonstrated that there is a wide range of angular sizes, from 1.0° to 50°, over which the perception thresholds of incomplete outline images do not change with changes in size, along with a narrow range of stimulus sizes, 0.19–1.0°, over which there is a significant size dependence. We suggest that the increase in thresholds and the failure to recognize images of small size occur as a result of an increased contribution of sampling noise at the level of the human retina.