3d Shape Its Unique Place in Visual Perception by Zygmunt Pizlo

3D SHAPE
Its Unique Place in Visual Perception

ZYGMUNT PIZLO

3D Shape

3D Shape
Its Unique Place in Visual Perception

Zygmunt Pizlo

The MIT Press Cambridge, Massachusetts London, England

© 2008 Massachusetts Institute of Technology All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any electronic or mechanical means (including photocopying, recording, or information storage and retrieval) without permission in writing from the publisher. For information about special quantity discounts, please email special_sales@ mitpress.mit.edu This book was set in Stone Sans and Stone Serif by SNP Best-set Typesetter Ltd., Hong Kong. Printed and bound in the United States of America. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Pizlo, Zygmunt. 3D shape : its unique place in visual perception / Zygmunt Pizlo. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-262-16251-7 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Form perception. 2. Visual perception. I. Title. BF293.P59 2008 152.14′23—dc22 2007039869 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

This book is dedicated to Prof. Robert M. Steinman, teacher, collaborator, and friend, whose questions and suggestions made this book possible.

Contents

Preface 1

ix

Early Theories of Shape and the First Experiments on Shape 1
1 8

Constancy

1.1 Shape Is Special

1.2 Explaining Visual Constancies with a “Taking into Account” Principle 1.3 Helmholtz’ Influence When the Modern Era Began 1.4 Thouless’ Misleading Experiments 16 14

1.5 Stavrianos’ (1945) Doctoral Dissertation Was the First Experiment to Show That Subjects Need Not Take Slant into Account to Achieve Shape Constancy 22 1.6 Contributions of Gestalt Psychology to Shape Perception (1912–1945) 27

2

The Cognitive Revolution Leads to Neo-Gestaltism and 39
40 46 49 56

Neo-Empiricism
2.2

2.1 Hochberg’s Attempts to Define Simplicity Quantitatively Attneave’s Experiment on 3D Shape

2.3 Perkins’ Contribution: Emphasis...