Psychophysical Studies of Visual Cortical Function
Abstract
Our goal has been to understand visual cortical function using psychophysical techniques. In particular, we examined visual attention, visual search, visual surface representation and color filling in. In visual attention, we found evidence to suggest two components of focal attention, a transient and a sustained process. We also provided evidence for the role of attention in saccadic eye movements by showing rapid deployment of attention in the gap paradigm. In visual search, we found a particular situation where increasing distractor number led to decreasing reaction times, suggesting a different role for attention in such tasks. In visual surface representation, we outlined the role of surface encoding (border ownership, modal and amodal completion, transparency) in many visual tasks. From these studies we postulated the principle of generic image sampling, a hypothesis which provides a geometric tool to understand visual surface learning. We also have investigated the perception of depth from unpaired points (DaVinci stereopsis), showing that such points lead to depth and subjective contours. In color filling in, we have explored spatial-temporal dynamics and have created a neural model.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 12, 1992
- Accession Number
- ADA246962
Entities
People
- Ken Nakayama
Organizations
- Harvard University