Bayesian Inference Underpins Perception of Length A Binch |
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Department of Psychology, The University of Sheffield, United Kingdom
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| Vertical lines are perceived as longer than horizontal lines, which forms the basis of the line-length illusion (LLI). It has been proposed that the LLI is a side-effect of the brain’s attempt to compensate for the compression of line length that results from perspective projection of 3D lines onto the retina. However, this hypothesis depends critically on the assumption that observers have some knowledge regarding the amount of compression imposed on lines at different orientations. Such knowledge is implicit in the observer’s perceptual prior, which ideally should match the natural statistics of line length. Accordingly, we estimated observers’ perceptual priors, and found them to be almost identical to the natural statistics of length, suggesting that the computational reason for the form of this perceptual prior is to support Bayesian inference of length, based on the statistical structure of the natural world. |
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