Is prior knowledge of object geometry used in visually guided reaching?

Full Abstract

We investigated whether humans use prior knowledge of the geometry of faces in visually guided reaching. When viewing the inside of a mask of a face, the mask is often perceived as being a normal (convex) face, instead of the veridical, hollow (concave) shape. In this "hollow-face illusion," prior knowledge of the shape of faces dominates perception, even when in conflict with information from binocular disparity. Computer images of normal and hollow faces were presented, such that depth information from binocular disparity was consistent or in conflict with prior knowledge of the geometry. Participants reached to touch either the nose or cheek of the faces or gave verbal estimates of the corresponding distances. We found that reaching to touch was dominated by prior knowledge of face geometry. However, hollow faces were estimated to be flatter than normal faces. This suggests that the visual system combines binocular disparity and prior assumptions, rather than completely discounting one or the other. When comparing the magnitude of the hollow-face illusion in reaching and verbal tasks, we found that the flattening effect of the illusion was similar for verbal and reaching tasks.

Author information

Author/s: Hartung, Bruce (B); Schrater, Paul R (PR); Bülthoff, Heinrich H (HH); Kersten, Daniel (D); Franz, Volker H (VH);

Affiliation: Department of Computer Science & Engineering, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA. bruce(-atsign-)bahsoftware.com

Grants: R01 EY015261-01 (Agency:NEI NIH HHS) ; R01 EY11507 (Agency:NEI NIH HHS)

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't; Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.

Journal: Journal of vision (J Vis), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2005-; vol 5 (issue 6) : pp 504-14

Dates: Created 2005/08/15; Completed 2006/01/27; Revised 2008/04/29;

PMID: 16097863, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 2/18/2009, IMS Date: )

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

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