Detection of symmetry and perceptual organization: The way a lock-and-key process works

Bertamini, Marco; Friedenberg, Jay; Kubovy, Michael

doi:10.1016/s0001-6918(96)00038-8

Cited by 66 publications

(96 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…It has often been observed (at least as far back as Mach; see Baylis & Driver, 1994 that humans are more sensitive to symmetry within a pattern than to repetition. This observation has been confirmed in many experiments (e.g., Bertamini, Friedenberg, & Kubovy, 1997;Bruce & Morgan, 1975;Corballis & Roldan, 1974;Friedenberg & Bertamini, 2000). More recently, Baylis and Driver (1994) have argued that whereas symmetry within a shape can be detected in parallel, repetition seems to involve a serial process.…”

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confidence: 63%

Early computation of part structure: Evidence from visual search

Singh

2002

Perception & Psychophysics

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The visual system represents object shapes in terms of intermediate-level parts. The minima rule proposes that the visual system uses negative minima of curvature to define boundaries between parts. We used visual search to test whether part structures consistent with the minima rule are computed preattentively-or at least, rapidly and early in visual processing. The results of Experiments 1 and 2 showed that whereas the search for a non-minima-segmentedshape is fast and efficient among minimasegmented shapes, the reverse search is slow and inefficient. This asymmetry is expected if parsing at negative minima occurs obligatorily. The results of Experiments 3 and 4 showed that although both minima-and non-minima-segmentedshapes pop out among unsegmented shapes, the search for minimasegmented shapes is significantly slower. Together, these results demonstrate that the visual system segments shapes into parts, using negative minima of curvature, and that it does so rapidly in early stages of visual processing.

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confidence: 63%

Early computation of part structure: Evidence from visual search

Singh

2002

Perception & Psychophysics

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“…For example, Makin, Wilton, Pecchinenda and Bertamini [45] used abstract stimuli similar to those used by Jacobsen and Höfel [47] (Figure 1), while Makin, Rampone, Pecchinenda and Bertamini [50] elicited the SPN with dot patterns (Figure 2). Rampone, Makin and Bertamini [51] recorded it with square field stimuli similar to those used by Royer [52], and Makin, Rampone, Wright, Martinovic and Bertamini [53] found it with line drawings (similar to those used in [54]). The latency of SPN onset varies from study to study, and different authors have used slightly different windows for analysis (different band-pass filtering of the EEG signal may also affect the apparent time course of the SPN).…”

Section: Question One: Is There An Automatic and Sustained Response Tmentioning

confidence: 93%

Brain Activity in Response to Visual Symmetry

2014

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Abstract:A number of studies have explored visual symmetry processing by measuring event related potentials and neural oscillatory activity. There is a sustained posterior negativity (SPN) related to the presence of symmetry. There is also functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) activity in extrastriate visual areas and in the lateral occipital complex. We summarise the evidence by answering six questions. (1) Is there an automatic and sustained response to symmetry in visual areas? Answer: Yes, and this suggests automatic processing of symmetry. (2) Which brain areas are involved in symmetry perception? Answer: There is an extended network from extrastriate areas to higher areas. (3) Is reflection special? Answer: Reflection is the optimal stimulus for a more general regularity-sensitive network. (4) Is the response to symmetry independent of view angle? Answer: When people classify patterns as symmetrical or random, the response to symmetry is view-invariant. When people attend to other dimensions, the network responds to residual regularity in the image. (5) How are brain rhythms in the two hemispheres altered during symmetry perception? Answer: Symmetry processing (rather than presence) produces more alpha desynchronization in the right posterior regions. Finally, (6) does symmetry processing produce positive affect? Answer: Not in the strongest sense, but behavioural measures reveal implicit positive evaluation of abstract symmetry.

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“…For instance, symmetry in dot patterns is easier to detect when the two elements of each symmetry pair are in the same depth plane than when they are spread across two different depth planes [38]. Correspondingly, symmetric contours are easier to detect when they belong to the same object than when they belong to two different objects [39][40][41]. This effect cannot be ascribed to attentional effects alone (two objects require divided attention), because the opposite result was found for repetition, that is, the detection of repetition is easier in two objects than in one object.…”

Section: Object Formationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Behind the Looking-Glass: A Review on Human Symmetry Perception

2010

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The human visual system is highly proficient in extracting bilateral symmetry from visual input. This paper reviews empirical and theoretical work on human symmetry perception with a focus on recent issues such as its neural underpinnings. Symmetry detection is shown to be a versatile, ongoing visual process that interacts with other visual processes. Evidence seems to converge towards the idea that symmetry detection is subserved by a preprocessing stage involving spatial filters followed by information integration across the visual field in higher-tier cortical areas.

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Detection of symmetry and perceptual organization: The way a lock-and-key process works

Cited by 66 publications

References 9 publications

Early computation of part structure: Evidence from visual search

Early computation of part structure: Evidence from visual search

Brain Activity in Response to Visual Symmetry

Behind the Looking-Glass: A Review on Human Symmetry Perception

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