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Related Experiment Videos

The shape of holes.

Marco Bertamini1, Camilla J Croucher

  • 1Department of Psychology, University of Liverpool, Eleanor Rathbone Building, Bedford Street South, Liverpool L69 7ZA, UK. m.bertamini@liv.ac.uk

Cognition
|December 25, 2002
PubMed
Summary

The shape of a hole is perceived indirectly through the surrounding object. This research reveals how visual perception assigns contours to objects, not holes, impacting shape encoding.

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Area of Science:

  • Visual Perception
  • Cognitive Psychology
  • Computational Neuroscience

Background:

  • The perception of shape is well-studied for objects, but the perception of "holes" presents a paradox.
  • Holes enclose background regions, which are typically not represented as having shape.
  • This raises the question of how we perceive the shape of a hole.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the perceptual representation of hole shapes.
  • To resolve the paradox between recognizing hole shapes and background regions not having shape.
  • To understand how visual contours are assigned to objects versus holes.

Main Methods:

  • Utilized the known difference in visual processing speed between convex and concave vertices.
  • Employed a figural manipulation of figure/ground assignments.
  • Presented identical contours as either objects or holes to observers.

Main Results:

  • A reversal in the relative processing speeds of convex versus concave vertices was observed when contours were perceived as holes compared to objects.
  • This suggests that contours bounding a hole are automatically assigned to the surrounding object.
  • The perception of a region as a hole, rather than an object, significantly alters encoded visual information.

Conclusions:

  • The shape of a hole is not directly perceived but is inferred from the shape of the surrounding object.
  • The visual system prioritizes assigning contours to objects, influencing how holes are perceived.
  • Further study of holes offers significant insights into the fundamental mechanisms of shape perception.

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