The effect of deviations from linearity on the detection of dotted line patterns.

Abstract Four experiments were carried out to determine the detectability of dotted line stimulus patterns embedded in backgrounds of randomly dotted visual noise. The results indicate that straight lines are more easily detected than curves or angles. This finding holds robustly even though interdot spacings (local geometry) are held constant in each experiment. The global organization of the stimulus, therefore, is a strong determinant of the ease of visual pattern detection. The implications of these findings for pattern recognition theory are considered using an optical computer.

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