Farell B, Julesz B
AT & T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, New Jersey 07974.
Perception. 1989;18(2):155-72. doi: 10.1068/p180155.
Visual sensitivity to spatial direction has classically been associated with motion perception. Yet humans are adept at deriving directional information in the absence of motion, as when they read maps, or follow arrows or animal tracks. Experiments are reported on the perception of parallel arrow-like forms in which a specific visual sensitivity to static direction is demonstrated. Global processing is operationally defined in terms of the relative discriminability of sets and subsets of stimulus elements; a set of parallel elements and a set in which one element is antiparallel to the rest are shown to be processed globally. The result of this global processing is a static analog of unidirectional optic flow. Global spatial direction differs fundamentally from other perceptions derived from static image processing. It involves long-range interactions in texture arrays, it does not carry information about stimulus location, and it is not reducible to the perception of component stimulus elements. Its likely function is in the construction of the layout of visual space.
对空间方向的视觉敏感度传统上一直与运动感知相关联。然而，人类擅长在没有运动的情况下获取方向信息，比如当他们阅读地图、跟随箭头或动物足迹时。本文报告了关于平行箭头状图形感知的实验，其中展示了对静态方向的特定视觉敏感度。整体加工在操作上是根据刺激元素的集合与子集的相对可辨别性来定义的；一组平行元素和一组其中一个元素与其他元素反平行的集合被证明是整体加工的。这种整体加工的结果是单向光流的静态类似物。整体空间方向与从静态图像处理中获得的其他感知有根本区别。它涉及纹理阵列中的远距离相互作用，不携带关于刺激位置的信息，并且不能简化为对组成刺激元素的感知。其可能的功能在于视觉空间布局的构建。
