The proposed research tests and extends a model of visual scene processing and spatial representation. The model takes into account the fact that input to the visual/cognitive system is comprised of partial views of a continuous visual world. It is proposed that spatial views activate a mental schema that extrapolates beyond the depicted view, allowing it to be understood within a larger context, and thus to help support the experience of a continuous visual world. This process affects memory, however, in that observers tend to remember having seen scene structure that was never presented but had only been inferred through schema activation alone. In one such distortion, called boundary extension, the observer remembers having seen a greater expanse of a scene than had been presented. The model raises specific predictions about the likelihood of various types of spatial distortions under a wide range of conditions. In addition to broadening the understanding of spatial representation, the proposed research has implications for individuals with brain damage whose visual/spatial capacities are compromised. The research is divided into seven sections: a) objects vs. scenes; b) scene """"""""decomposition;"""""""" c) imagination; d) memory for spatial relations within a picture; e) eye movements and the perceptual schema; f) tactile spatial representations; and g) changes in pictorial representations over time. The procedures involve presentation of visual or tactile depictions of scenes followed by tests of spatial recall and recognition. To test recall, subjects' drawings will be digitized and areas and distances within their drawing will be measured using a computer graphics system. Recognition tests will include distractors and rating scales that will be sensitive to subtle differences between the test item and the viewer's internal representation.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01MH054688-02
Application #
2655379
Study Section
Perception and Cognition Review Committee (PEC)
Project Start
1997-02-01
Project End
2000-01-31
Budget Start
1998-02-01
Budget End
1999-01-31
Support Year
2
Fiscal Year
1998
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
University of Delaware
Department
Psychology
Type
Schools of Arts and Sciences
DUNS #
059007500
City
Newark
State
DE
Country
United States
Zip Code
19716
Intraub, Helene; Morelli, Frank; Gagnier, Kristin M (2015) Visual, haptic and bimodal scene perception: evidence for a unitary representation. Cognition 138:132-47
Michod Gagnier, Kristin; Dickinson, Christopher A; Intraub, Helene (2013) Fixating picture boundaries does not eliminate boundary extension: implications for scene representation. Q J Exp Psychol (Hove) 66:2161-86
Gagnier, Kristin Michod; Intraub, Helene (2012) When less is more: Line-drawings lead to greater boundary extension than color photographs. Vis cogn 20:815-824
Dickinson, Christopher A; Intraub, Helene (2009) Spatial asymmetries in viewing and remembering scenes: consequences of an attentional bias? Atten Percept Psychophys 71:1251-62
Dickinson, Christopher A; Intraub, Helene (2008) Transsaccadic representation of layout: what is the time course of boundary extension? J Exp Psychol Hum Percept Perform 34:543-55
Intraub, Helene; Dickinson, Christopher A (2008) False memory 1/20th of a second later: what the early onset of boundary extension reveals about perception. Psychol Sci 19:1007-14
Intraub, Helene (2004) Anticipatory spatial representation of 3D regions explored by sighted observers and a deaf-and-blind-observer. Cognition 94:19-37