Psy 627: Advanced Topics in Visual Perception

Spring 2007

Last update: March 19, 2007.

Time and Place: Tu, Th: 3:00 - 4:15 PM, PRCE 277

Prerequisites: Basic math (matrix algebra, calculus, probability, elementary geometry).

Instructor: Dr. Zygmunt Pizlo (pizlo@psych.purdue.edu)

The course will cover most of the important aspects of visual perception with an emphasis on mathematical and computational models. The material covered in "Readings" will be presented and discussed in class. Each topic will be illustrated by demos. Students are expected to read the papers and book chapters listed in "Readings". "References", listed at the end, contain supplementary material.

There will be two exams. Each exam counts 50% towards the final grade.

Readings:

Week 1: Perception viewed as an inverse problem.

Pizlo, Z. (2001) Perception viewed as an inverse problem. Vision Research 41, 3145-3161.

Poggio T., Torre V. & Koch C. (1985) Computational vision and regularization theory. Nature 317, 314-319.

Week 2: Psychophysical methods.

Macmillan, N.A. & Creelman, C.D. (2005) Detection theory: a user’s guide. Erlbaum.

Week 3: Nativism vs. empiricism.

Hess E.H. (1956) Space perception in the chick. Scientific American 195, 71-80.

Hubel D.H. & Wiesel T.N. (1963) Receptive fields of cells in striate cortex of very young, visually inexperienced kittens. Journal of Neurophysiology 26, 994-1002.

Rock I. & Harris C.S. (1967) Vision and touch. Scientific American 216, 96-104.

Hochberg J. & Brooks V. (1962) Pictorial recognition as an unlearned ability: a study of one child’s performance. American Journal of Psychology 75, 624-628.

Slater A. & Morison V. (1985) Shape constancy and slant perception at birth. Perception 14, 337-344.

Week 4: Euclidean, similarity, affine, and projective groups. Invariants.

Mundy, J.L. & Zisserman, A. (1992) Geometric invariance in computer vision. MIT Press: Cambridge, MA (Chapter 1: Introduction – towards a new framework for vision).

Week 5: Color vision - trichromatic vs. opponent process theory.

Helmholtz H. von (1852) On the theory of compound colours. Philosophical Magazine 4, 519-534.

Maxwell J.C. (1856) On the theory of colours in relation to colour-blindness. Transactions of the Royal Scottish Society of Arts 4, 394-400.

Hecht S. (1928) On the binocular fusion of colors and its relation to theories of color vision. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 14, 237-241.

Hurvich L.M. & Jameson D. (1951) The binocular fusion of yellow in relation to color theories. Science 114, 199-202.

Week 6: Lightness and color perception.

Wallach, H. (1948) Brightness constancy and the nature of achromatic colors. Journal of Experimental Psychology 38, 310-324.

Gilchrist A.L. & Jacobsen A. (1983) Lightness constancy through a veiling luminance. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance 9, 936-944.

Wandell B.A. (1995) Foundations of Vision. Sunderland, MA: Sinauer. (Chapter 9)

Week 7: Visual organization – the minimum principle.

Steinman R.M., Pizlo Z & Pizlo F.J. (2000) Phi is not beta and why Wertheimer's discovery launched the Gestalt revolution. Vision Research 40, 2257-2264.

Wertheimer M. (1923/1958) Principles of perceptual organization. In Beardslee D.C. & Wertheimer M. (Eds.) Readings in Perception (pp. 115-135). Princeton NJ: van Nostrand.

Pomerantz J.R. & Kubovy M. (1986) Simplicity and likelihood principles. In Boff K.R., Kaufman L. & Thomas, J.P. (Eds.) Handbook of Perception and Human Performance (Chapter 36). New York: Wiley.

Week 8: Visual organization – symmetry perception.

Barlow, H. & Reeves, B.C. (1979) The versatility and absolute efficiency of detecting mirror symmetry in random dot displays. Vision Research, 19, 783-793.

Jenkins, B. (1983) Component processes in the perception of bilaterally symmetric dot textures. Perception & Psychophysics, 34, 433-440.

Wagemans J. (1997) Characteristics and models of human symmetry detection. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 1, 346-352.

Week 9: Visual organization – pyramid models.

Pizlo Z., Rosenfeld A. & Epelboim J. (1995) An exponential pyramid model of the time-course of size processing. Vision Research 35, 1089-1107.

Graham S.M., Joshi A. & Pizlo Z. (2000) The traveling salesman problem: a hierarchical model. Memory & Cognition 28, 1191-1204.

Week 10: Perspectivity in art (3D to 2D) and vision (3D to 2D and 2D to 2D).

Pirenne M.H. (1975) Vision and art. In: Carterette E.C. & Friedman M.P. (Eds.) Handbook of Perception, vo. V: Seeing. NY: Academic Press (pp. 433-490).

Mundy, J.L. & Zisserman, A. (1992) Geometric invariance in computer vision. MIT Press: Cambridge, MA (Chapter 23: Projective geometry for machine vision).

Burns J.B., Weiss, R.S. & Riseman E.M. (1992) The non-existence of general-case view-invariants. In: Mundy, J.L. & Zisserman, A. (Eds.) Geometric invariance in computer vision. MIT Press: Cambridge, MA (pp. 120-131).

Pizlo Z., Rosenfeld A. & Weiss I. (1997) The geometry of visual space: about the incompatibility between science and mathematics. Dialogue. Computer Vision & Image Understanding 65, 425-33.

Week 11: Size and shape constancy.

Holway A.H. & Boring E.G. (1941) Determinants of apparent visual size with distance variant. American Journal of Psychology 51, 21-37.

Thouless R.H. (1931) Phenomenal regression to the real object. I & II. British Journal of Psychology 21, 339-359; 22, 1-30.

Stavrianos B.K. (1945) The relation of shape perception to explicit judgments of inclination. Archives of Psychology, No. 296.

Mishkin, M., Ungerleider, L.G. & Macko, K.A. (1983) Object vision and spatial vision: two cortical pathways. Trends in Neurosciences 6, 414-417.

Week 12: Perception of three-dimensional shape – the minimum principle.

Hochberg J. & McAlister E. (1953) A quantitative approach to figural "goodness". Journal of Experimental Psychology 46, 361-364.

Attneave F. & Frost R. (1969) The determination of perceived tridimensional orientation by minimum criteria. Perception & Psychophysics 6, 391-396.

Perkins D.N. (1976) How good a bet is good form. Perception 5, 393-406.

Week 13: Space perception: binocular disparity.

McKee S.P., Levi D.M. & Bowne S.F. (1990) The imprecision of stereopsis. Vision Research 30, 1763-1779.

Longuet-Higgins H.C. (1981) A computer algorithm for reconstructing a scene from two projections. Nature 293, 133-135.

Pizlo Z., Li Y. & Francis G. (2005) A new look at binocular stereopsis. Vision Research 45, 2244-2255.

Weeks 14 & 15: Shape constancy from novel views.

Rock I. & DiVita J. (1987) A case of viewer-centered object perception. Cognitive Psychology 19, 280-293.

Biederman I. & Gerhardstein P.C. (1993) Recognizing depth rotated objects: evidence and conditions for three-dimensional view-point invariance. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human perception & Performance 19, 1162-1182.

Farah M.J., Rochlin R. & Klein K.L. (1994) Orientation invariance and geometric primitives in shape recognition. Cognitive Science 18, 325-344.

Chan, M.W., Stevenson, A.K., Li, Y. & Pizlo, Z. (2006) Binocular shape constancy from novel views: the role of a priori constraints. Perception & Psychophysics (in press).

References:

Boring E.N. (1942) Sensation and Perception in the History of Experimental Psychology. New York: Appleton.

Boring E.N. (1950) A History of Experimental Psychology. New York: Appleton.

Brindley G.S. (1960) Physiology of the Retina and Visual Pathway. Baltimore: Williams & Wilkins (Chapter 4: Introduction to sensory experiments).

Helmholtz H. von (1910/2000) Treatise on Physiological Optics. J.P.C.Southall (Ed.). Bristol: Thoemmes.

Howard I.P. & Rogers B.J. (1995) Binocular Vision and Stereopsis. New York: Oxford University Press.

Hubel, D.H. (1988) Eye, brain, and vision. Freeman: NY (chapters 1-7).

Jolion, J.M. & Rosenfeld, A. (1994) A pyramidal framework for early vision. Boston: Kluwer.

Kaiser, P.K. & Boynton, R.M. (1996) Human color vision. Washington: OSA.

Knill, D.C. & Richards, W. (1996) Perception as Bayesian inference. Cambridge University Press: NY.

Koffka K. (1935) Principles of Gestalt Psychology. New York: Harcourt, Brace.

Mach E. (1906/1959) The Analysis of Sensations. New York: Dover.

Rosenblueth A., Wiener N. & Bigelow J. (1943) Behavior, purpose and teleology. Philosophy of Science 10, 18-24.

Warren, H.C. (1916) A study of purpose. I. The Journal of Philosophy, Psychology and Scientific Methods 13, 5-26.