Perceiving topological structure of 2-D patterns

Four experiments investigated observers' sensitivity to the topological structure of visual stimuli. Three factors were taken to capture the topological structure of 2-D patterns: The number of disconnected components, the number of holes (connections), and inclusion relationships. If studied in isolation, any given topological property is typically confounded with the presence of particular features such as line terminations and contour length, or with Gestalt principles of perceptual organization. We went beyond existing studies and attempted to systematically remove potential confounds from the stimulus displays. Results showed that processing speeds for two-dimensional patterns are a function of their topological properties. The more patterns differ in their topological structure the easier they can be discriminated. Not only do all three topological factors contribute to pattern discriminability, they also can be combined to provide an overall measure of structural complexity. Forced choice comparison techniques agreed well with similarity judgments. Topological structure thus contributed to discriminability above and beyond many confounding variables. Claims suggesting a general topological analyzer in visual processing are discussed.