Shape Recognition and Figure-Ground Organization

从理论上试图理解视觉感知， 将感知过程划分为 同时执行的和必须执行的 先后 大多数理论家都认为图形背景 连续地执行组织和形状识别。 图形-背景组织是确定哪些区域 在视觉领域代表的数字，并构成了 这些数字被视为背景。 身材和 地面区域由等高线分隔; 轮廓被分配为看起来是可识别的图形， 而另一个区域似乎是一个未分化的地面 它看起来只是在图的后面继续。 尽管形状识别和图形背景之间存在联系， 组织，这些理论家认为， 组织必须先于形状识别， 明确地或含蓄地指出， 识别一个图形，直到有一个图形被识别。 因此，图形-背景关系通常被认为是 仅由刺激变量确定（即，变量 作为相对面积，对称性，凸性，和外壳， 轮廓两侧的两个区域）。 与此相反 然而，彼得森实验室以前的研究表明， 表明某些形状识别分析是事先进行的 来决定人物和背景。 这些实验可以 容易融入当前的理论方法， 形状识别，从而使这个论点过时。 计划中的实验将检查 形状识别过程可以有助于图形背景 计算。 一系列的实验将确定 特定类型的轮廓（例如，亮度等值线，双目的 视差轮廓和/或颜色轮廓）允许形状 识别计算将与 图形背景相关刺激变量分析 organization. 另一系列实验将测试 对应于两种解释的形状表示 一个可逆的图形-背景刺激被激活 同时在指定图形背景之前 轮廓 第三组实验将试图解释 形状识别之间相互作用的规则 变量和刺激变量的图形-背景计算。 这些实验将提供有关基本的信息 视觉处理的各个方面，包括 物理变量与认知变量相互作用的分析 在知觉组织中。 这些实验肯定会 与物理场景的替代物的设计相关。

Theoretical attempts to understand visual perception often partition perceptual processes into those processes that can be performed simultaneously and those that must be performed successively. Most theorists have assumed that figure-ground organization and shape recognition are performed successively. Figure-ground organization is the determination of which regions in the visual field represent figures and which constitute the backgrounds against which the figures are viewed. Figure and ground regions are separated by a contour; the region to which the contour is assigned appears to be the recognizable figure, whereas the other region appears to be an undifferentiated ground which simply appears to continue behind the figure. Despite the linkage between shape recognition and figure-ground organization, these theorists have argued that figure-ground organization must precede shape recognition, appealing either explicitly or implicitly to the argument that one cannot recognize a figure until there is a figure to be recognized. Consequently, figure-ground relationships are generally conceived to be determined by stimulus variables only (i.e., variables such as the relative areas, symmetries, convexities, and enclosure of the two regions on either side of a contour). Contrary to this argument, however, previous studies in Peterson's laboratory have shown that certain shape recognition analyses are conducted prior to the determination of figure and ground. These experiments can be readily integrated into current theoretical approaches to shape recognition, thereby rendering this argument obsolete. The planned experiments will examine the conditions under which shape recognition processes can contribute to figure-ground computations. One series of experiments will identify which specific types of contours (e.g., luminance contours, binocular disparity contours, and/or color contours) permit shape recognition computations to be performed simultaneously with the analysis of the stimulus variables relevant to figure-ground organization. Another series of experiments will test whether the shape representations corresponding to both interpretations of a reversible figure-ground stimulus are activated simultaneously prior to the assignment of the figure-ground contour. A third series of experiments will attempt to explicate the rules governing the interactions between shape recognition variables and stimulus variables in figure-ground computations. These experiments will provide information about fundamental aspects of visual processing, including the manner in which analyses of physical variables interact with cognitive variables in perceptual organization. These experiments are certain to be relevant to the design of surrogates for physical scenes.