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Global visual processing in macaques studied using Kanizsa illusory shapes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 April 2010

KIMBERLY A. FELTNER  and
LYNNE KIORPES
KIMBERLY A. FELTNER*
Affiliation:
Center for Neural Science, New York University, New York, New York, USA
LYNNE KIORPES
Affiliation:
Center for Neural Science, New York University, New York, New York, USA
*
*Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Kimberly A. Feltner, Center for Neural Science, New York University, 4 Washington Place, Room 809, New York, NY 10003. E-mail: kf42@nyu.edu
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Abstract

The ability to extract form information from a visual scene, for object recognition or figure–ground segregation, is a fundamental visual system function. Many studies of nonhuman primates have addressed the neural mechanisms involved in global form processing, but few have sought to demonstrate this ability behaviorally. In this study, we probed global visual processing in macaque monkeys (Macaca nemestrina) using classical Kanizsa illusory shapes as an assay of global form perception. We trained three monkeys on a “similarity match-to-sample” form discrimination task, first with complete forms embedded in fields of noncontour-inducing “pacman” elements. We then tested them with classic Kanizsa illusory shapes embedded in fields of randomly oriented elements. Two of the three subjects reached our criterion performance level of 80% correct or better on four of five illusory test conditions, demonstrating clear evidence of Kanizsa illusory form perception; the third subject mastered three of five conditions. Performance limits for illusory form discrimination were obtained by manipulating support ratio and by measuring threshold for discriminating “fat” and “thin” illusory squares. Our results indicate that macaque monkeys are capable of global form processing similarly to humans and that the perceptual mechanisms for “filling-in” contour gaps exist in macaques as they do in humans.

Keywords

Kanizsa illusory contoursMacaque monkeyGlobal form perceptionPerceptual completionContour integration
Type
Research Articles
Information
Visual Neuroscience , Volume 27 , Issue 3-4 , July 2010 , pp. 131 - 138
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

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