Feldman J
Department of Psychology, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ 08903, USA.
Vision Res. 1997 Oct;37(20):2835-48. doi: 10.1016/s0042-6989(97)00096-5.
A curvilinear pattern among a series of visual items (e.g., dots) can be regarded as a kind of probabilistic inference, in which each consecutive angle, regarded independently, is more nearly collinear than would be expected by chance alone. This paper investigates judgments of curvilinearity as a function of the joint distribution of successive inter-dot angles. Subjects were asked to classify 4- and 5-dot configurations as having been generated by a curvilinear generating process, vs independently. Their results are distributed as a gaussian over the inter-dot angles with mean 0 deg (collinear), with a negative correlation between successive angles, but negligible correlation between non-successive angles. This suggests that curvilinearity is evaluated in a 4-dot window moving along the chain of dots, evaluating collinearity and smoothness but ignoring higher-order relationships. Moreover, the probabilistic model provides a remarkably precise numeric prediction of the magnitude of the correlation. Subjects also showed a reliable preference for equal spacing of dots along the virtual curve.
一系列视觉元素（如圆点）之间的曲线模式可被视为一种概率推理，其中，若独立看待每个连续角度，它们比仅由随机因素预期的情况更接近共线。本文研究了作为连续点间角度联合分布函数的曲线性判断。受试者被要求将4点和5点构型分类为是由曲线生成过程产生的，还是独立产生的。他们的结果在点间角度上呈高斯分布，均值为0度（共线），连续角度之间呈负相关，但非连续角度之间的相关性可忽略不计。这表明，曲线性是在沿着点链移动的4点窗口中进行评估的，评估共线性和平滑性，但忽略高阶关系。此外，概率模型对相关性的大小提供了非常精确的数值预测。受试者还表现出对沿虚拟曲线等间距排列点的可靠偏好。
