Perceivinglayoutandknowingdistances-PeterM.Vishton.PDFVIP

Cutting Vishton 1 In W. Epstein S. Rogers (eds.) Handbook of perception and cognition, Vol 5; Perception of space and motion. (pp. 69-117). San Diego, CA: Academic Press. Perceiving layout and knowing distances: The integration, relative potency, and contextual use of different information about depth James E. Cutting and Peter M. Vishton The layout in most natural environments can be perceived through the use of nine or more sources of information. This number is greater than that available for the perception of any other property in any modality of perception. Oddly enough, how perceivers select and/or combine them has been relatively unstudied. This chapter focuses briefly on the issues inhibiting its study, and on what is known about integration, then in detail on an assessment of nine sources of information—occlusion, relative size, relative density, height in the visual field, aerial perspective, motion perspective, binocular disparities, convergence, and accommodation— and their relative utility at different distances. From a comparison of their ordinal depth-threshold functions, we postulate three different classes of distance around an observer--personal space, action space, and vista space. Within each space, we suggest a smaller number of sources act in consort, with different relative strengths, in offering the perceiver information about layout. We then apply this system to the study of representations of layout in art, to the development of the perception of layout by infants, and to an assessment of the scientific study of layout.