Recovering metric properties of objects through spatiotemporal interpolation

Spatiotemporal interpolation (STI) refers to perception of complete objects from fragmentary information across gaps in both space and time. It differs from static interpolation in that requirements for interpolation are not met in any static frame. It has been found that STI produced objective performance advantages in a shape discrimination paradigm for both illusory and occluded objects when contours met conditions of spatiotemporal relatability. Here we report psychophysical studies testing whether spatiotemporal interpolation allows recovery of metric properties of objects. Observers viewed virtual triangles specified only by sequential partial occlusions of background elements by their vertices (the STI condition) and made forced choice judgments of the object's size relative to a reference standard. We found that length could often be accurately recovered for conditions where fragments were relatable and formed illusory triangles. In the first control condition, three moving dots located at the vertices provided the same spatial and timing information as the virtual object in the STI condition but did not induce perception of interpolated contours or a coherent object. In the second control condition oriented line segments were added to the dots and mid-points between the dots in a way that did not induce perception of interpolated contours. Control stimuli did not lead to accurate size judgments. We conclude that spatiotemporal interpolation can produce representations, from fragmentary information, of metric properties in addition to shape.