Aging and the perceptual organization of 3-D scenes.

Abstract

In the current study, the authors investigated whether the ground dominance effect (the use of ground surface information for the perceptual organization of scenes) varied with age. In Experiment 1, a scene containing a ground, a ceiling, and 2 vertical posts was presented. The scene was either in its normal orientation or rotated to the side. In Experiment 2, a blue dot was attached to each post, with location varied from bottom to top of the posts. In Experiment 3, a scene similar to that in Experiment 1 was presented in different locations in visual field. Observers judged which of the 2 objects (posts in Experiments 1 and 3, blue dots in Experiment 2) appeared to be closer. The results indicated that both younger (mean age = 22 years) and older observers (mean age = 73 years) responded consistently with the ground dominance effect. However, the magnitude of the effect decreased for older observers. These results suggest a decreased use of ground surface information by older observers for the perceptual organization of scene layout.

Environmental surfaces and the compression of perceived visual space

“…In a follow-up study, Bian et al (2006) showed that the ground dominance effect was mainly due to the differences in the projections of ground and ceiling surfaces, with visual field location having a minor effect. Recent research has also found a ground dominance effect for older observers, although the magnitude of the effect was smaller than that found for younger observers (Bian & Andersen, 2008). Finally, using a change detection paradigm, Bian and Andersen (2010) found that changes to a ground surface or objects on a ground surface were detected faster than changes to a ceiling surface or objects attached to a ceiling surface and that this advantage was mainly due to superior encoding, rather than retrieval and comparison, of ground surface information.…”

Gaze Behavior Consistency among Older and Younger Adults When Looking at Emotional Faces

“…Surprisingly, relatively few studies have explored the possibility that perceptual factors might explain facial emotion recognition difficulties in healthy aging (Orgeta and Phillips, 2007), in spite of many studies indicating age-related changes in visual perception (Bian and Andersen, 2008; Andersen, 2012), especially in face processing (Firestone et al, 2007; Habak et al, 2008; Chaby et al, 2011; Konar et al, 2013). In particular, we showed in a previous study that aging affects some aspects of configural face-encoding processes (e.g., older adults were worse than younger adults at detecting configural changes in the eye region of the face only, but not in the nose–mouth region) which could be related to problems with face recognition (Chaby et al, 2011); see also (Slessor et al, 2013; Meinhardt-Injac et al, 2015).…”

Aging and the perception of egocentric distance.

“…Previous research has found age-related decrements in various perceptual tasks, suggesting that older adults, compared to younger adults, may use different depth cues or assign different weights to the depth cues to determine perceived egocentric distances of objects in a scene. For instance, Bian and Andersen (2008) found that older observers depend less on the information on the ground surface in determining layout in 3-D scenes as compared to younger observers. Given the importance of the ground surface in perceptual organization of scene layout (Bian, Braunstein & Andersen, 2005, 2006; Bian & Andersen, 2010; Gibson, 1950; He & Ooi, 2000; He et al, 2004; McCarley & He, 2000, 2001), one possible pattern of results is that older observers, as compared to younger observers, will have decreased accuracy in judging egocentric distance.…”