Amodal Completion and the Perception of Depth without Binocular Correspondence

Half-occlusions and illusory contours have recently been used to show that depth can be perceived in the absence of binocular correspondence and that there is more to stereopsis than solving the correspondence problem. In the present study we show a new way for depth to be assigned in the absence of binocular correspondence, namely amodal completion. Although an occluder removed all possibility of direct binocular matching, subjects consistently assigned the correct depth (convexity or concavity) to partially occluded ‘folded cards’ stimuli. Our results highlight the importance of more global, surface-based processes in stereopsis.

[1]  K. Nakayama,et al.  Toward a general theory of stereopsis: binocular matching, occluding contours, and fusion. , 1994, Psychological review.

[2]  L. Pessoa,et al.  Finding out about filling-in: a guide to perceptual completion for visual science and the philosophy of perception. , 1998, The Behavioral and brain sciences.

[3]  Ken Nakayama,et al.  Quantitative depth for a phantom surface can be based on cyclopean occlusion cues alone , 1999, Vision Research.

[4]  G. Nyman,et al.  Occlusion Constraints and Stereoscopic Slant , 1997, Perception.

[5]  C. Koch,et al.  Consciousness and neuroscience. , 1998, Cerebral cortex.

[6]  P. Perona,et al.  Where is the sun? , 1998, Nature Neuroscience.

[7]  K. Nakayama,et al.  Real world occlusion constraints and binocular rivalry , 1990, Vision Research.

[8]  P J Kellman,et al.  Surface Completion Complements Boundary Interpolation in the Visual Integration of Partly Occluded Objects , 1997, Perception.

[9]  D G Pelli,et al.  The VideoToolbox software for visual psychophysics: transforming numbers into movies. , 1997, Spatial vision.

[10]  B. Gillam,et al.  Panum's Limiting Case: Double Fusion, Convergence Error, or ‘Da Vinci Stereopsis’ , 1995, Perception.

[11]  K Nakayama,et al.  Stereoscopic Depth: Its Relation to Image Segmentation, Grouping, and the Recognition of Occluded Objects , 1989, Perception.

[12]  Barton L Anderson,et al.  Stereoscopic Surface Perception , 1999, Neuron.

[13]  P. Panum.  Physiologische Untersuchungen über das Sehen mit zwei Augen , 1858 .

[14]  Lei Liu,et al.  Quantitative stereoscopic depth without binocular correspondence , 1994, Nature.

[15]  D H Brainard,et al.  The Psychophysics Toolbox. , 1997, Spatial vision.

[16]  P. Kellman,et al.  A theory of visual interpolation in object perception , 1991, Cognitive Psychology.

[17]  B Gillam,et al.  The Role of Monocular Regions in Stereoscopic Displays , 1988, Perception.

[18]  Shinsuke Shimojo,et al.  Interocularly unpaired zones escape local binocular matching , 1994, Vision Research.

[19]  Jochen Braun,et al.  Blindsight in normal observers , 1995, Nature.

[20]  B. Anderson.  Stereovision: beyond disparity computations , 1998, Trends in Cognitive Sciences.

[21]  Barton L. Anderson,et al.  The role of partial occlusion in stereopsis , 1994, Nature.

[22]  F A Wichmann,et al.  Ning for Helpful Comments and Suggestions. This Paper Benefited Con- Siderably from Conscientious Peer Review, and We Thank Our Reviewers the Psychometric Function: I. Fitting, Sampling, and Goodness of Fit , 2001 .

[23]  D. Todd,et al.  The Sun , 1870, Nature.

[24]  P. Mamassian,et al.  Prior knowledge on the illumination position , 2001, Cognition.

[25]  Walter Gerbino,et al.  Amodal completion: Seeing or thinking? , 1982 .

[26]  Philip J Kellman,et al.  Surface integration influences depth discrimination , 2000, Vision Research.

[27]  Felix Wichmann,et al.  The psychometric function: II. Bootstrap-based confidence intervals and sampling , 2001, Perception & psychophysics.

[28]  K Nakayama,et al.  Experiencing and perceiving visual surfaces. , 1992, Science.

[29]  Shinsuke Shimojo,et al.  Da vinci stereopsis: Depth and subjective occluding contours from unpaired image points , 1990, Vision Research.

[30]  Shinsuke Shimojo,et al.  Visual surface representation: a critical link between lower-level and higher level vision , 1995 .