EXAMINING THE ROLE OF FIGURE-GROUND ASSIGNMENT IN OBJECT-BASED WARPING
Date
2025-05
Authors
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Publisher
University of Delaware
Abstract
Object perception is a top priority for the visual system as well as an essential
product of the perceptual process. Figure-ground organization and perceptual grouping
are two processes that aid the processing and formation of objects. To learn more
about the inner workings of object perception, we can explore perceptual illusions,
particularly object-based illusions that cannot be explained by simpler processes, such
as depth or size cues, and instead, depend on the object itself. Object-based warping is
one prominent example where the space inside of an object is warped when compared
to the surrounding space. As object-based warping affects the perception of an object,
we propose that it could be useful as a tool to study figure-ground perception to better
understand the impact of different figure cues, such as symmetry and object-recognition. For our study, we conducted two experiments. Experiment 1 examined
whether symmetry, a cue known to produce figural perception, also results in object-based warping. Experiment 2 explored whether object recognition in figure-ground
displays impacted object-based warping. For experiment 1, we found that regions
bounded by symmetric contours resulted in a larger warping effect than asymmetric
ones, implying they were perceived as the object by participants. As for experiment 2,
high denotative regions demonstrated a larger warping effect, indicating object
recognition impacted perception. From these results, this study showed object-based
warping can be used as an implicit measure of figure perception to better understand
object perception. Additionally, symmetry and object recognition both seem to serve
as figure cues that influence the perception of a scene and result in object-like
perceptions.