The contribution of nonrigid motion and shape information to object perception in pigeons and humans

The ability to perceive and recognize objects is essential to many animals, including humans. Until recently, models of object recognition have primarily focused on static cues, such as shape, but more recent research is beginning to show that motion plays an important role in object perception. Mos...

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Main Authors: Nankoo, Jean-Francois, Madan, Christopher R., Sawalha, Jeffrey, Wylie, Douglas R., Friedman, Alinda, Spetch, Marcia L., Vuong, Quoc C.
Format: Article
Published: Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology 2017
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Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/46571/
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author Nankoo, Jean-Francois
Madan, Christopher R.
Sawalha, Jeffrey
Wylie, Douglas R.
Friedman, Alinda
Spetch, Marcia L.
Vuong, Quoc C.
author_facet Nankoo, Jean-Francois
Madan, Christopher R.
Sawalha, Jeffrey
Wylie, Douglas R.
Friedman, Alinda
Spetch, Marcia L.
Vuong, Quoc C.
author_sort Nankoo, Jean-Francois
building Nottingham Research Data Repository
collection Online Access
description The ability to perceive and recognize objects is essential to many animals, including humans. Until recently, models of object recognition have primarily focused on static cues, such as shape, but more recent research is beginning to show that motion plays an important role in object perception. Most studies have focused on rigid motion, a type of motion most often associated with inanimate objects. In contrast, nonrigid motion is often associated with biological motion and is therefore ecologically important to visually dependent animals. In this study, we examined the relative contribution of nonrigid motion and shape to object perception in humans and pigeons, two species that rely extensively on vision. Using a parametric morphing technique to systematically vary nonrigid motion and three-dimensional shape information, we found that both humans and pigeons were able to rely solely on either shape or nonrigid motion information to identify complex objects when one of the two cues was degraded. Humans and pigeons also showed similar 80% accuracy thresholds when the information from both shape and motion cues were degraded. We argue that the use of nonrigid motion for object perception is evolutionarily important and should be considered in general theories of vision at least with respect to visually sophisticated animals.
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spelling nottingham-465712020-05-04T18:51:11Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/46571/ The contribution of nonrigid motion and shape information to object perception in pigeons and humans Nankoo, Jean-Francois Madan, Christopher R. Sawalha, Jeffrey Wylie, Douglas R. Friedman, Alinda Spetch, Marcia L. Vuong, Quoc C. The ability to perceive and recognize objects is essential to many animals, including humans. Until recently, models of object recognition have primarily focused on static cues, such as shape, but more recent research is beginning to show that motion plays an important role in object perception. Most studies have focused on rigid motion, a type of motion most often associated with inanimate objects. In contrast, nonrigid motion is often associated with biological motion and is therefore ecologically important to visually dependent animals. In this study, we examined the relative contribution of nonrigid motion and shape to object perception in humans and pigeons, two species that rely extensively on vision. Using a parametric morphing technique to systematically vary nonrigid motion and three-dimensional shape information, we found that both humans and pigeons were able to rely solely on either shape or nonrigid motion information to identify complex objects when one of the two cues was degraded. Humans and pigeons also showed similar 80% accuracy thresholds when the information from both shape and motion cues were degraded. We argue that the use of nonrigid motion for object perception is evolutionarily important and should be considered in general theories of vision at least with respect to visually sophisticated animals. Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology 2017-06-23 Article PeerReviewed Nankoo, Jean-Francois, Madan, Christopher R., Sawalha, Jeffrey, Wylie, Douglas R., Friedman, Alinda, Spetch, Marcia L. and Vuong, Quoc C. (2017) The contribution of nonrigid motion and shape information to object perception in pigeons and humans. Journal of Vision, 17 (6). pp. 1-12. ISSN 1534-7362 object perception nonrigid motion Columba livia object recognition shape http://jov.arvojournals.org/article.aspx?articleid=2635012 doi:10.1167/17.6.17 doi:10.1167/17.6.17
spellingShingle object perception
nonrigid motion
Columba livia
object recognition
shape
Nankoo, Jean-Francois
Madan, Christopher R.
Sawalha, Jeffrey
Wylie, Douglas R.
Friedman, Alinda
Spetch, Marcia L.
Vuong, Quoc C.
The contribution of nonrigid motion and shape information to object perception in pigeons and humans
title The contribution of nonrigid motion and shape information to object perception in pigeons and humans
title_full The contribution of nonrigid motion and shape information to object perception in pigeons and humans
title_fullStr The contribution of nonrigid motion and shape information to object perception in pigeons and humans
title_full_unstemmed The contribution of nonrigid motion and shape information to object perception in pigeons and humans
title_short The contribution of nonrigid motion and shape information to object perception in pigeons and humans
title_sort contribution of nonrigid motion and shape information to object perception in pigeons and humans
topic object perception
nonrigid motion
Columba livia
object recognition
shape
url https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/46571/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/46571/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/46571/