Foundations of Visual Perception

Kubovy, M., Epstein, W., & Gepshtein, S. (2003). Foundations of visual perception. In A. F. Healy & R. W. Proctor (Eds.), Experimental Psychology. Volume 4 in I. B. Weiner (Editor-in-Chief) Handbook of psychology (87-119). New York: John Wiley & Sons.

ABSTRACT This chapter contains three tutorial overviews of theoretical and methodological ideas that are important to students of visual perception. From the vast scope of the material that we could have covered, we have chosen a small set of topics that form the foundations of vision research. To help fill the inevitable gaps, we have provided pointers to the literature, giving preference to works written at a level accessible to a beginning graduate student. First we provide a sketch of the theoretical foundations of our field. We lay out four major research programs (in the past they might have been called "schools") and then discuss how they address eight foundational questions that promise to occupy our discipline for many years to come. Second we discuss psychophysics, which offers indispensable tools for the researcher. Here we lead the reader from the idea of threshold to the tools of signal detection theory. To illustrate our presentation of methodology we have not focused on the classics that appear in much of the secondary literature. Rather, we have chosen recent research that showcases the current practice in the field and the applicability of these methods to a wide range of problems. The contemporary view of perception maintains that perceptual theory requires an understanding of our environment as well as the perceiver. That is why in the third section we ask what the regularities of the environment are, how may they be discovered, and to what extent perceivers use them. Here too we use recent research to exemplify this approach. CONTENTS Theories and foundational questions -- Four theories -- Eight foundational questions Psychophysical methods -- Threshold theories -- Signal detection theory -- The ROC curve; estimating d' -- Energy thresholds and observer thresholds -- Some methods for threshold determination The “structure" of the visual environment and perception -- Regularities of the environment -- Redundancy and covariation -- Co-occurrence statistics of natural contours -- Predicting human performance from the statistics of natural images