Abstract
Texton theory defines textons as such local features as elongated blobs, terminators, and line crossings. The theory states that effortless visual texture discrimination may occur between two regions only if they differ in texton density, irrespective of the spatial relationships among textons. It is argued here that line-crossing and terminator textons have not been demonstrated to function independently of configurational differences between micropatterns. Four experiments tested whether line crossings and terminators actually elicit effortless discrimination independently of configurational differences. Subjects were required to detect a disparate textured region embedded in an unpredictable quandrant of a textural display. The textural displays were presented for brief durations, ranging from 67 to 167 msec, and followed by a random dot mask. In general, when configuration was controlled, micropatterns differing in terminators and line crossings elicited relatively poor discrimination. Ease of discrimination, as measured by the probability of a correct detection, was largely associated with differences in micropattern size (measured by the minimum enclosing circle). In addition, for certain texture pairs, ease of discrimination depended crucially upon which member of the pair formed the embedded region and which formed the background. This foregroundVbackground asymmetry was also related to size differences between micropatterns forming the textures. In many cases, performance improved at longer stimulus durations, although the rate of increase and absolute level of performance depended on the particular texture pair being tested. Qualitative differences in performance between naive subjects and a highly practiced subject were also observed.
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This research was supported by a grant from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (A2427).
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Gurnsey, R., Browse, R.A. Micropattern properties and presentation conditions influencing visual texture discrimination. Perception & Psychophysics 41, 239–252 (1987). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03208222
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03208222