Phillips Flip, Voshell Martin G
Department of Psychology, Skidmore College, Vision Laboratories, Saratoga Springs, NY 12866-1632, USA.
Perception. 2009;38(7):1045-52. doi: 10.1068/p6166.
The study of spatial vision is a long and well traveled road (which, of course, converges to a vanishing point at the horizon). Its various distortions have been widely investigated empirically, and most concentrate, pragmatically, on the space anterior to the observer. The visual world behind the observer has received relatively less attention and it is this perspective the current experiments address. Our results show systematic perceptual distortions in the posterior visual world when viewed statically. Under static viewing conditions, observer's perceptual representation was consistently 'spread' in a hyperbolic fashion. Directions to distant, peripheral locations were consistently overestimated by about 11 degrees from the ground truth and this variability increased as the target was moved toward the center of the observer's back. The perceptual representation of posterior visual space is, no doubt, secondary to the more immediate needs of the anterior visual world. Still, it is important in some domains including certain sports, such as rowing, and in vehicular navigation.
空间视觉的研究是一条漫长且已被充分探索的道路（当然，它在地平线上汇聚于一个消失点）。其各种扭曲现象已通过实证研究得到广泛调查，并且大多数研究从实用角度出发，集中关注观察者前方的空间。观察者后方的视觉世界受到的关注相对较少，而当前的实验正是针对这一视角展开的。我们的研究结果表明，当静态观察时，后方视觉世界存在系统性的感知扭曲。在静态观察条件下，观察者的感知表征始终以双曲线的方式“展开”。与实际情况相比，远处周边位置的方向始终被高估约11度，并且随着目标向观察者背部中心移动，这种偏差会增大。毫无疑问，后方视觉空间的感知表征相对于前方视觉世界更直接的需求来说是次要的。不过，它在某些领域仍然很重要，包括某些运动项目，如划船，以及在车辆导航中。
