Eight experiments involving 99 college students examined the role of edge-assignment in a contour matching task. Edge-matching performance was not based solely on a raw description of the edges themselves. Results suggest a pervasive tendency within the visual system to go beyond the edges toward figural shapes. (SLD)

Preferences for moving versus static bars were assessed in 8-, 16-, and 20-week-old infants. Findings revealed that at both 16 and 20 weeks, preferences were affected only by the velocity of the bar's movement. This effect persisted at 20 weeks even when static reference features were added to the display. (RH)

Argues that "persistence of vision" myth (the succession of still images perceived as continuous motion) has a place in the history of film scholarship but can no longer be given currency in film theory. Suggests replacement of the concept of the passive viewer implied by the myth by an enlightened understanding of how viewers actually…

Memory for object motion in three-month-old infants was investigated across different time intervals in three studies using a novelty preference method. Results indicated a significant preference for the novel motion after a one-minute delay, a significant preference for the familiar motion after a one-month delay, and no preferences at the…

The role of occlusion configurations in binocular vision was studied in 4 experiments with 10 adult observers. Results reveal that occlusion relationships are sensed during the earliest stages of binocular processing. A simple theoretical framework that unifies fusion, stereopsis, and occlusion is advanced. (SLD)

In this study, the looking behavior of 16 autistic and 14 non-autistic children toward cartoon-like scenes that included a human figure was measured quantitatively using an infrared eye-tracking device. Fixation behavior of autistic children was similar to that of their age-and IQ-matched normal peers. Results do not support the idea that autistic…

Humans are fast and accurate at performing an animal categorization task with natural photographs briefly flashed centrally. Here, this central categorization task is compared to a three position task in which photographs could appear randomly either centrally, or at 3.6 [degrees] eccentricity (right or left) of the fixation point. A mild…

Four visual imagery tasks were presented to three groups of adolescents with or without spastic diplegic cerebral palsy. The first group was composed of six adolescents with cerebral palsy who had associated visual-perceptual deficits (CP-PD), the second group was composed of five adolescents with cerebral palsy and no associated visual-perceptual…

Quantitative depth based on binocular resolution of visibility constraints is demonstrated in a novel stereogram representing an object, visible to 1 eye only, and seen through an aperture or camouflaged against a background. The monocular region in the display is attached to the binocular region, so that the stereogram represents an object which…

The perception of 2nd-order, texture-contrast-defined motion was studied for apparent-motion stimuli composed of a pair of spatially displaced, simultaneously visible checkerboards. It was found that background-relative, counter-changing contrast provided the informational basis for the perception of 2nd-order apparent motion; motion began where…

The authors studied the influence of canonical orientation on visual search for object orientation. Displays consisted of pictures of animals whose axis of elongation was either vertical or tilted in their canonical orientation. Target orientation could be either congruent or incongruent with the object's canonical orientation. In Experiment 1,…

The use of multiple familiar views of objects to facilitate recognition of novel views has been addressed in a number of behavioral studies, but the results have not been conclusive. The present study was a comprehensive examination of view combination for different types of novel views (internal or external to the studied views) and different…

Participants were required to detect spot stimuli briefly presented to the upper, central, or lower visual fields. The stimuli were presented either on a green or a red background. Results showed that reaction time (RT) was shorter for the lower visual field (LVF) compared to the upper visual field (UVF). Furthermore, this LVF advantage was…

Viewing a distorted face induces large aftereffects in the appearance of an undistorted face. The authors examined the processes underlying this adaptation by comparing how selective the aftereffects are for different dimensions of the images including size, spatial frequency content, contrast, and color. Face aftereffects had weaker selectivity…

Three experiments were conducted to investigate the role of object representations in object substitution masking (OSM). OSM occurs when a very sparse mask is presented simultaneously with a target stimulus and the target offsets first, leaving the mask to linger in the display for some time. Results confirm earlier claims that there is an…