Document Type
Article
Publication Date
3-1-2024
Published In
Vision
Abstract
Prior work has shown that perceived angular elevation relative to a visible horizon/ground plane is exaggerated with a gain of about 1.5. Here, we investigated whether estimates of angular elevation remain exaggerated when no such visual gravitational reference is provided. This was investigated using a series of five experiments, with most using a novel apparatus to view a large field-of-view stereoscopic virtual environment while lying supine, looking straight up. Magnitude estimation methods were used as well as psychometric matches to internal standards with a total of 133 human participants. Generally, it was found that the exaggerated scaling of elevation seemed to be a default for 3D space, even if testing was performed in virtual environments that were nearly empty. Indeed, for supine observers, a strong exaggeration was found even for azimuthal judgments, which is consistent with the idea that, when looking upward, all deviations are in elevation. This suggests that the overarching gravitational frame often serves as a default reference frame.
Keywords
horizon, angular declination, intrinsic bias
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
Prince U. D. Tardeh , '25; Crystal Xu , '23; and Frank H. Durgin.
(2024).
"Default Reference Frames For Angular Expansion In The Perception Of Visual Direction".
Vision.
Volume 8,
Issue 1.
DOI: 10.3390/vision8010007
https://works.swarthmore.edu/fac-psychology/1208
Comments
This work is freely available under a Creative Commons license.