Judging spatial properties of simple figures.

Full Abstract

Discrimination was measured for height, area, and aspect ratio of ovals and rectangles. Random jittering of the orthogonal property (width, aspect ratio, and area) was used to control the observers' criterion. Weber fractions for aspect ratio were consistently lower than those for area, and about the same as those for height. Performance with ovals and rectangles did not differ significantly. Two different methods were employed to assess the side effects of jittering. It was found that jittering reduces the discriminability of each property, though less for aspect ratio than for height or area. The hypothesis that judgements of both area and aspect ratio are linear combination of noisy estimates of height and width predicts Weber fractions for aspect ratio and for area to be 2(1/2) times higher than those for height. Results from unjittered trials clearly reject the hypothesis with respect to aspect ratio but not for area.

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Author information

Author/s: Nachmias, Jacob (J);

Affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, Room 302C, 3401 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA. nachmias(-atsign-)psych.upenn.edu

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Randomized Controlled Trial

Journal: Vision research (Vision Res), published in England. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2008-May; vol 48 (issue 11) : pp 1290-6

Dates: Created 2008/05/12; Completed 2008/07/24;

PMID: 18407313, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 11/6/2008)

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

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MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Judgment
Motion Perception - physiology
Psychometrics
Psychophysics

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