Three theories for reconciling the linearity of egocentric distance perception with distortion of shape on the ground plane

ABSTRACT

The focus here is on the paradoxical finding that whereas visually perceived egocentric distance is proportional to physical distance out to at least 20 m under full-cue viewing, there are large distortions of shape within the same range, reflecting a large anisotropy of depth and frontal extents on the ground plane. Three theories of visual space perception are presented, theories that are relevant to understanding this paradoxical result. The theory by Foley, Ribeiro-Filho, and Da Silva is based on the idea that when the visual system computes the length of a visible extent, the effective visual angle is a non-linear increasing function of the actual visual angle. The theory of Durgin and Li is based on the idea that two angular measures, optical slant and angular declination, are over-perceived. The theory of Ooi and He is based on both a default perceptual representation of the ground surface in the absence of visual cues and the "sequential surface integration process" whereby an internal representation of the visible ground surface is constructed starting from beneath the observer's feet and extending outward.