Internal surface representations approximated by reverse correlation

• Published in: Vision research (Oxford) Vol. 44; no. 21; pp. 2515 - 2520
• Main Authors: Gosselin, Frédéric, Bacon, Benoit A., Mamassian, Pascal
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Elsevier Ltd 01-01-2004; Elsevier Science
• Subjects: Adult; Binocular disparity; Biological and medical sciences; Depth Perception - physiology; Female; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Humans; Male; Optical Illusions; Pattern Recognition, Visual - physiology; Perception; Photic Stimulation - methods; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Psychophysics; Reverse correlation; Stereopsis; Superstitious perception; Surface; Vision; Vision Disparity - physiology; Superstitious perception; Reverse correlation; Stereopsis; Binocular disparity; Surface; Human; Visual stimulus; Information processing; Perception; Stereogram; Binocular vision; Experimental study
• ISSN: 0042-6989; 1878-5646
• DOI: 10.1016/j.visres.2004.05.016

We presented two naı¨ve observers with 20,000 random-dot stereograms. On each trial, the observers had to indicate the presence or absence of a complex 3D pattern (a large ‘+’ sign in relief). However, unbeknownst to them, the stereograms
did not contain any signal, but only disparity noise. Responses and verbal reports indicate that the observers ‘saw’ the suggested 3D surface configuration in roughly half the trials even though structured local low-level signal was never presented. Using reverse correlation, we derived an approximation of the internal surface-based representations, or templates, that best accounted for the observers’ responses. These templates were shown to be spatially well defined and temporally stable. We propose that the 3D surface-based representations that we derived are the first approximations and depictions of the intermediary process that allows the visual system to successfully link degraded, bottom–up signal and high-level, top–down object recognition.