Aging and visual 3-D shape recognition from motion

Abstract

Two experiments were conducted to evaluate the ability of younger and older adults to recognize 3-D object shape from patterns of optical motion. In Experiment 1, participants were required to identify dotted surfaces that rotated in depth (i.e., surface structure portrayed using the kinetic depth effect). The task difficulty was manipulated by limiting the surface point lifetimes within the stimulus apparent motion sequences. In Experiment 2, the participants identified solid, naturally shaped objects (replicas of bell peppers, Capsicum annuum) that were defined by occlusion boundary contours, patterns of specular highlights, or combined optical patterns containing both boundary contours and specular highlights. Significant and adverse effects of increased age were found in both experiments. Despite the fact that previous research has found that increases in age do not reduce solid shape discrimination, our current results indicated that the same conclusion does not hold for shape identification. We demonstrated that aging results in a reduction in the ability to visually recognize 3-D shape independent of how the 3-D structure is defined (motions of isolated points, deformations of smooth optical fields containing specular highlights, etc.).

Temporal integration in the perception and discrimination of solid shape

“…From such 5 × 5 confusion matrices, d' values (the signal-detection measure of perceptual 5). This calculation of pairwise object discriminability (for 10 pairs of objects) from 5 × 5 confusion matrices was analogous to the procedures used in past research (e.g., Bell & Lappin, 1973;Norman et al, 2017;Norman et al, 2000). Figure 4 plots the observers' shape discrimination performances for the 10 different pairs of objects in terms of d' for both moving and stationary objects/cast shadows.…”

The Visual Perception of Large-Scale Distances Outdoors

“…Some functions, such as the ability to judge environmental distance, are well preserved with age, while other abilities deteriorate. A good example of this would be motion perception: Aging adversely affects the performance of many motion-related tasks (e.g., Andersen & Atchley, 1995; Ball & Sekuler, 1986; Billino et al., 2008; Billino & Pilz, 2019; Norman et al., 2017; Norman et al., 2003; Norman et al., 2020; Pilz et al., 2010; Shain & Norman, 2018). Given that aging has been shown to negatively affect the functionality of motion-sensitive cortical areas in the dorsal visual stream (e.g., cortical area MT, see Liang et al., 2010; Yang et al., 2009), it is not surprising that older adults exhibit behavioral deficits for tasks requiring the detection of coherent motion, perceived shape from motion, speed discrimination, and so on.…”

Aging and the Perception of Motion-Defined Form

“…While aging has widespread effects upon motion perception and also adversely affects the detection and recognition of three-dimensional shape from motion (e.g., Andersen & Atchley, 1995; Norman, Adkins, Dowell, Hoyng, et al., 2017; Norman et al., 2012, 2013;), it is interesting that aging does not necessarily negatively impact solid shape discrimination (Norman et al., 2006) or distance perception (Norman, Adkins, Dowell, Shain, et al., 2017; Norman, Adkins, Norman, Cox, & Rogers, 2015; Norman, Adkins, & Pedersen, 2016). Our present and past results therefore support the general conclusion of Billino et al.…”