The Effect of Retinal and Phenomenal Orientation on the Perception of Form

Rock, Irvin; Heimer, Walter

doi:10.2307/1419441

Cited by 72 publications

(65 citation statements)

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“…In another series of experiments (Rock & Heimer, 1957), novel figures were first shown to an upright observer in a training session and were later presented in a test period, along with new figures. In the test, the observer's head was tilted, and each old figure was presented twice, once in the environmentally upright orientation and once tilted by the same amount as the observer's head.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Rock's experiments also showed that when there was no salient environmental frame of reference, perceived shape was determined by the figure's orientation with respect to the observer. For example, if a figure was viewed on a horizontal surface through a circular aperture, the egocentrically uppermost region was perceived as the top (Rock & Heimer, 1957). More recent investigations (e.g., Friedman & Hall, 1996;McMullen & Jolicoeur, 1990) have shown that Rock (1973) might have underestimated the importance of retinal orientation in the perception of form.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Systems of Spatial Reference in Human Memory

Shelton

McNamara

2001

Cognitive Psychology

424

386

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Seven experiments examined the spatial reference systems used in memory to represent the locations of objects in the environment. Participants learned the locations of common objects in a room and then made judgments of relative direction using their memories of the layout (e.g., ''Imagine you are standing at the shoe, facing the lamp; point to the clock''). The experiments manipulated the number of views that observers were allowed to experience, the presence or absence of local and global reference systems (e.g., a rectangular mat on which objects were placed and the walls of the room, respectively), and the congruence of local and global reference systems. Judgments of relative direction were more accurate for imagined headings parallel to study views than for imagined headings parallel to novel views, even with up to three study views. However, study views misaligned with salient reference systems in the environment were not strongly represented if they were experienced in the context of aligned views. Novel views aligned with a local reference system were, under certain conditions, easier to imagine than were novel views misaligned with the local reference system. We propose that learning and remembering the spatial structure of the surrounding environment involves interpreting the layout in terms of a spatial reference system. This reference system is imposed on the environment but defined by egocentric experience. © 2001 Elsevier Science Spatial reference systems are essential for the specification of location and orientation in space. The location of Nashville, for example, can be specified by describing its position with respect to the boundaries of the state (e.g., Nashville is in the middle of Tennessee), by providing coordinates of latitude The authors thank Jeffrey Schall, Kyle Cave, Jeffery Franks, and Ted Payne for various contributions to the research. We also thank the reviewers for comments on earlier drafts.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Systems of Spatial Reference in Human Memory

Shelton

McNamara

2001

Cognitive Psychology

424

386

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Reference frames, which are a means of specifying locations in space, were investigated in cognitive psychology over a long period of time (e.g., Larsen & Bundesen, 1978;Marr & Nishihara, 1978;Rock, 1973Rock, , 1974Rock & Heimer, 1957; for reviews, see Farah, 2000;Jolicoeur & Humphrey, 1998;Palmer, 1999). A reference frame can be regarded as a specific coordinate system.…”

Section: Congruency Effects In Object Recognition and The Adjustment mentioning

confidence: 99%

Coordinate transformations in object recognition.

Graf¹

2006

Psychological Bulletin

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A basic problem of visual perception is how human beings recognize objects after spatial transformations. Three central classes of findings have to be accounted for: (a) Recognition performance varies systematically with orientation, size, and position; (b) recognition latencies are sequentially additive, suggesting analogue transformation processes; and (c) orientation and size congruency effects indicate that recognition involves the adjustment of a reference frame. All 3 classes of findings can be explained by a transformational framework of recognition: Recognition is achieved by an analogue transformation of a perceptual coordinate system that aligns memory and input representations. Coordinate transformations can be implemented neurocomputationally by gain (amplitude) modulation and may be regarded as a general processing principle of the visual cortex.Keywords: alignment, coordinate transformations, gain modulation, object recognition, reference frames How can we recognize objects regardless of spatial transformations such as plane and depth rotation, size scaling, and position changes? This ability is often discussed under the label object constancy or shape constancy. Even young children recognize objects so immediately and effortlessly that it seems to be a rather ordinary and simple task. However, changes in the spatial relation between observer and object lead to large changes of the image that is projected onto the retina. Hence, to recognize objects regardless of orientation, size, and position is not a trivial problem. No computational system proposed so far can successfully recognize objects over wide ranges of object categories and contexts.Several different approaches have been proposed over the years (for reviews, see Palmeri & Gauthier, 2004;Ullman, 1996). A number of models rely on abstract object representations, which predict that recognition performance is typically invariant regarding spatial transformations (e.g., structural description models; see Hummel & Biederman, 1992;Marr & Nishihara, 1978). In contrast, image-based or view-based models propose that object representations are close to the format of the perceptual input and therefore depend systematically on image transformations (e.g.,

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“…When subjects tilt their heads, or look backwards through their legs, the egocentric axes are inconsistent with gravity and the visual frame. A series of experiments by Rock (Rock, 1956;Rock & Heimer, 1957) revealed that, to perceive unfamiliar shapes, gravity is often the most important axis and that the retinal axis is less important. Recently, this issue was dealt with in a more cognitive task such as mental rotation under head tilt (Corballis, Zbrodoff, & Roldan, 1976;Sekiyama, 1982).…”

Section: Stimulatioñmentioning

confidence: 99%

Importance of head axes in perception of cutaneous patterns drawn on vertical body surfaces

Sekiyama

1991

Perception & Psychophysics

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The "disembodied eye" phenomenon (Corcoran, 1977), that is, the observation that a cutaneous (tactile) pattern is perceived as right-left reversed or not, depending on whether it is presented on the forehead or the back of the head, was extended by incorporating a top-bottom axis into a model of the frame of reference in cutaneous-pattern perception. In two experiments, 21 and 15 subjects were asked to report the letter perceived when one of four letters (p, q, b, or d) was tactually presented. The sites studied were vertical body surfaces (Experiment 1) and hands alongside the body (Experiment 2). The positions for the presentations varied according to the height (head, shoulder, waist, thigh, and calflevels) and the orientation ofthe surface: forward-, backward-, and side-facing. Although the results for the head and back surfaces supported the notion of a "disembodied eye" behind the individual, other frames were needed: On the forward-facing surfaces below the waist, the prevailing perception was 180 0 rotated, as if the subjects were looking at the surface by bending forward. An additional frame of reference was introduced for the forwardfacing surfaces in lower positions and was described as head axes projected onto body surfaces within the possibility of actual body movements.

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The Effect of Retinal and Phenomenal Orientation on the Perception of Form

Cited by 72 publications

References 0 publications

Systems of Spatial Reference in Human Memory

Systems of Spatial Reference in Human Memory

Coordinate transformations in object recognition.

Importance of head axes in perception of cutaneous patterns drawn on vertical body surfaces

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