Visual Features in the Perception of Liquids.

ABSTRACT: Perceptual constancy-identifying surfaces and objects across large image changes-remains an important challenge for visual neuroscience [1-8]. Liquids are particularly challenging because they respond to external forces in complex, highly variable ways, presenting an enormous range of images to the visual system. To achieve constancy, the brain must perform a causal inference [9-11] that disentangles the liquid's viscosity from external factors-like gravity and object interactions-that also affect the liquid's behavior. Here, we tested whether the visual system estimates viscosity using "midlevel" features [12-14] that respond more to viscosity than other factors. Observers reported the perceived viscosity of simulated liquids ranging from water to molten glass exhibiting diverse behaviors

SUBMITTER: van Assen JJR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5807092 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature