The formation of visual objects

描述（由申请人提供）：感知分组是将最初的原始和早期视觉图像组织成感知“对象”的过程。哪些空间因素会诱发知觉分组？图像逐步组织的计算顺序是什么？建模这一过程的一个困难之处在于，与早期视觉的许多方面不同，感知分组本质上涉及非局部计算——整合来自图像中可能遥远位置的线索。理解感知分组的另一个困难是缺乏客观和时间上精确的方法来实际测量观察者对图像的主观组织。本提案旨在结合(a)在理解知觉分组中涉及的非局部计算方面的最新进展和(b)确定主观组织的新实验方法。实验方法是基于这样的发现，即感知对象具有某些客观可衡量的好处，包括在它们内部比在不同对象之间进行更有效的视觉比较。本提案试图利用这种效应来发现视觉系统实际上将什么视为感知对象，以及这种感知在处理过程中是如何发展的。大多数拟议的实验涉及精心构建的人工刺激，其中包含各种有效的分组线索，旨在详细比较每种潜在分组线索的强度、相互作用和时间过程。此外，几个实验涉及自然图像，以揭示知觉组织如何在更自然的条件下进行。这项研究可能会导致计算机视觉领域的技术进步，以及更好地理解知觉组织障碍，如视觉失认症和阅读障碍。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Perceptual grouping is the process by which the initially raw and inchoate visual image is organized into perceptual "objects". What spatial factors induce perceptual grouping? What is the sequence of computations whereby the image is progressively organized? One source of difficulty in modeling this process is that, unlike many aspects of early vision, perceptual grouping inherently involves non-local: computations - integration of cues from potentially distant locations in the image. Another difficulty in understanding perceptual grouping has been the lack of objective and temporally precise methods for actually measuring the observer's subjective organization of an image. This proposal seeks to combine (a) recent advances in understanding the non-local computations involved in perceptual grouping with (b) novel experimental methods for determining subjective organization. The experimental methods are based on the finding that perceptual objects enjoy certain objectively measurable benefits, including more efficient visual comparisons within them than between distinct objects. This proposal seeks to use this effect to discover what the visual system in fact treats as a perceptual object, and how this percept develops over the course of processing. Most of the proposed experiments involve carefully constructed artificial stimuli with various grouping cues in force, designed to allow detailed comparisons of the strength, interaction, and time-course of each potential grouping cue. In addition, several experiments involve natural images, in order to uncover how perceptual organization proceeds under more naturalistic conditions. This research may lead to technological advancement in the area of computer vision, as well as to better understanding of disorders of perceptual organization such as visual agnosia and dyslexia.