space perception

Introduction

      process through which humans and other organisms become aware of the relative positions of their own bodies and objects around them. Space perception provides cues, such as depth and distance, that are important for movement and orientation to the environment.

      Human beings have been interested in the perception of objects in space at least since antiquity. It was popularly thought in ancient Greece that objects could be seen because they emitted what was imagined to be a continuous series of extremely thin “membranes” in their own image; these fell upon the eye and merged into the picture that was perceived.

 Centuries of experimental research led to a more tenable conception in which space was described in terms of three dimensions or planes: height (vertical plane), width (horizontal plane), and depth (sagittal plane). These planes all intersect at right angles, and their single axis of intersection is defined as being located within perceived three-dimensional space—that is, in the “eye” of the perceiving individual. Humans do not ordinarily perceive a binocular space (a separate visual world from each eye) but instead see a so-called Cyclopean space, as if the images from each eye fuse to produce a single visual field akin to that of Cyclops, a one-eyed giant in Greek mythology. The horizontal, vertical, and sagittal planes divide space into various sectors: something is perceived as “above” or “below” (the horizontal plane), as “in front of” or “behind” (the vertical plane), or as “to the right” or “to the left” (of the sagittal plane).

General considerations

 An early theory put forth by the Anglican bishop George Berkeley (Berkeley, George) at the beginning of the 18th century was that the third dimension (depth) cannot be directly perceived by the eyes because the retinal image of any object is two-dimensional, as in a painting. He held that the ability to have visual experiences of depth is not inborn but can result only from logical deduction based on empirical learning through the use of other senses such as touch. Although modern research fails to verify Berkeley's emphasis on reason as central to perception, contemporary theories still include both nativistic (inborn) and empirical (learned through experience) considerations.

      The study of perceptual learning developed rapidly in the second half of the 19th century and still more rapidly during the 20th. Many psychologists who deal with perceptual function hold that the study of space perception is rapidly becoming a distinct branch of psychology in its own right. This special field within psychology concentrates on the factors contributing to the perceived organization of objects in space (e.g., on cues to depth perception, movement, form, colour, and their interactions) or dwells on particularly interesting special problems such as that of amodal perception (e.g., the question of how one perceives that there are six sides to a cube, even though only three of them can be seen at a single time).

      Space perception research also offers insight into ways that perceptual behaviour (human behaviour) helps orient the individual to the environment. Specifically, orientation in space typically seems to reflect one's strivings (e.g., to seek food or to avoid injury). People could not orient themselves to their environments, however, unless the environmental information reaching them through the various sense organs offered a perception of space that corresponds to their physical “reality.” Such perception is called veridical perception—the direct perception of stimuli as they exist. Without some degree of veridicality concerning physical space, one cannot seek food, flee from enemies, or even socialize. Veridical perception also causes a person to experience changing stimuli as if they were stable: even though the sensory image of an approaching tiger grows larger, for example, one tends to perceive that the animal's size remains unchanged. In other words, one perceives objects in the environment as having relatively constant characteristics (as to size, colour, and so on) despite considerable variations in stimulus conditions.

Primary gravitational effects

      Not all perception of space, however, is veridical; instead, perception may fail to correspond to reality—often in some systematic way. These are cases of nonveridical perception. Experiments have shown that the three basic spatial planes (horizontal, vertical, and sagittal) dominate the ability of the individual to localize visual objects in nearby space. Often, objects can be perceived as lying closer to these basic dimensions or planes than they really are. (Part of the explanation of these perceptual discrepancies in visual experience may lie in the force of gravity.) Nonveridical perceptions do not generate chaos in one's perception of space. Instead, they clarify the perceived characteristics of surrounding space. If all of the mass of sensory information available at a given moment were perceived veridically, the flood of data might confuse the perceiver to the point of disorientation. In other words, some degree of selectivity in perception appears to guide the survival of the individual. Ideally, information about the environment is perceived only as it is relevant to the goals, needs, or physiological state of the individual at a given moment.

Visual factors in space perception

      On casual consideration, it might be concluded that the perception of space is based exclusively on vision. After closer study, however, this so-called visual space is found to be supplemented perceptually by cues based on auditory (sense of hearing), kinesthetic (sensory reception, human) (sense of bodily movement), olfactory (sensory reception, human) (sense of smell), and gustatory (sensory reception, human) (sense of taste) experience. Spatial cues, such as vestibular (nervous system, human) stimuli (sense of balance) and other modes for sensing body orientation, also contribute to perception. No single cue is perceived independently of another; in fact, experimental evidence shows these sensations combine to produce unified perceptual experiences.

 Despite all this sensory input, most individuals receive the bulk of the information about their environment through the sense of sight, while balance (proprioception) or equilibrium (vestibular sense) apparently ranks next in importance. (For example, in a state of total darkness, an individual's orientation in space depends mainly on sensory data derived from vestibular stimuli.) Visual stimuli most likely dominate human perception of space because vision is a distance sense; it can supply information from extremely distant points in the environment, reaching out to the stars themselves. Hearing is also considered a distance sense, as is smell, though the space they encompass is considerably more restricted than that of vision. All the other senses, such as touch and taste, are usually considered to be proximal senses, because they typically convey information about elements that come in direct contact with the individual.

      The eye works along similar principles. While this is a rough comparison, it is possible to think of the retina (the back surface of the inside of the eye) as the film in a camera; the lens (within the eye) is analogous to the single lens of the camera (see eye (eye, human)). Just as in a portrait photographer's camera, the picture (image) that is projected from the environment onto the retina is upside-down. The perceiver, however, does not experience space as turned upside down. Instead, a person's perceptual mechanisms cause the world to be viewed as right side up. The exact nature of these mechanisms remains poorly understood, but the process of perception seems to involve at least two inversions: one (optical) inversion of the image on the retina and another (perceptual) inversion that is associated with nerve impulses in the visual tissues of the brain. Research suggests that the individual can adapt to a new set of visual stimulus cues that deviate considerably from those previously learned. Experiments have been carried out with people who have been given spectacles that reverse the right-left or up-down dimensions of images. At first the subjects become disoriented, but, after wearing the distorting glasses for a considerable period of time, they learn to cope with space correctly by reorienting to the environment until objects are perceived as right side up again. The process changes direction when the spectacles are removed. At first the basic visual dimensions appear reversed to the subject, but within a short time another adaptation occurs, and the subject reorients to the earlier, well-learned, normal visual cues and perceives the environment as normal once more.

Perception of depth and distance

      The perception of depth and distance depends on information transmitted through various sense organs. Sensory cues indicate the distance at which objects in the environment are located from the perceiving individual and from each other. Such sense modalities as seeing and hearing transmit depth and distance cues and are largely independent of one another. Each modality by itself can produce consistent perception of the distances of objects. Ordinarily, however, the individual relies on the collaboration of all senses (so-called intermodal perception).

Gross tactile-kinesthetic cues

      When perceiving the distances of objects located in nearby space, one depends on tactile (touch (touch reception)) sense. Tactile experience is usually considered in tandem with kinesthetic experience (sensations of muscle movements and of movements of the sense-organ surfaces). These tactile-kinesthetic sensations enable the individual to differentiate his own body from the surrounding environment. This means that the body can function as a perceptual frame of reference—that is, as a standard against which the distances of objects are gauged. Because the perception of one's own body may vary from time to time, however, its role as a perceptual standard is not always consistent. It has been found that the way in which the environment is perceived can also affect the perception of one's body.

Cues from the eye muscles

      When one looks at an object at a distance, the effort arouses activity in two eye (eye, human)-muscle systems called the ciliary muscles (ciliaris muscle) and the rectus muscles. The ciliary effect is called accommodation ( focusing the lens for near or far vision), and the rectus effect is called convergence (moving the entire eyeball). Each of these muscle systems contracts as a perceived object approaches. The effect of accommodation in this case is to make the lens more convex, while the rectus muscles rotate the eyes to converge on the object as it comes nearer. One's experience of these muscle contractions provides clues about the distance of objects.

      Beyond the cues of accommodation and convergence, the size of the retinal image indicates how far one is from an object. The larger the image on the retina, the closer one judges the object to be. Some perceptual learning theorists believe that these sensory cues activate inherited tendencies that allow the perception of such sensory attributes as size without the need for learning (the so-called nativistic theory). Modern efforts to study these cues have been especially directed toward physiological changes in the body that may be related to depth perception (eye, human); whether one's perception of depth is totally inborn, and thus independent of learning, remains controversial.

      Accommodations and convergence provide reliable cues when the perceived object is at a distance of less than about 30 feet (9 metres) and when it is perceived binocularly (with both eyes at once).

Visual cues

      Perhaps the most important perceptual cues of distance and depth depend on so-called binocular disparity. Because the eyes are imbedded at different points in the skull, they receive slightly different images of any given object. The two retinal images of the same object are apparently perceived by the brain as a three-dimensional experience. The degree of disparity between the two retinal images—a phenomenon known as binocular parallax— (parallax)depends on the difference between the angles at which an object is fixed by the right eye and by the left eye. Thus, in looking at the indicator needle on a pressure gauge, for example, the effects of parallax will cause a person to make slightly different readings when using first the left eye alone and then the right eye. The greater the parallax difference between the two retinal images, the closer the object is perceived to be.

      The phenomenon of binocular disparity functions primarily in near space because the angular difference between the two retinal images diminishes when viewing objects at a distance. Visual disparity can still be exploited over greater distances by using optical devices that magnify the parallax distance separately for each eye. Such devices include artillery range-finding devices (range finder) and old-fashioned, three-dimensional picture viewers called stereoscopes (stereoscopy).

      In what is called visual movement (movement perception) parallax, distance cues are obtained from retinal changes that depend on the interposition of objects in space. Thus, when the individual moves his head either from side to side or forward and backward, the retinal (retina) image of a nearby tree moves more, while that of a distant tree moves less. Unlike binocular disparity, which functions only in binocular vision, movement parallax is especially important for judging distance when only one eye is used (monocular vision).

      Another group of visual images, called perspective projections, provide perceptual cues that are independent of monocular or binocular vision. Although estimates of distance—based on such perspective effects as the apparent distant fusing of railroad tracks in a single point—are incompletely understood, they are thought to depend heavily on learning. Such phenomena illustrate the tendency of the individual to integrate perceptions into consistent and invariant wholes. Experiences of perspective may be generated by putting appropriate lines in an oil painting (linear perspective), by gradations in the tint of the paint (colour perspective), and by viewing the surface of the Earth from an airplane (aerial perspective).

      Still another group of visual cues of depth and distance consists of apparent differences in object brightness. In experimental studies it is found that the brighter an object appears, the closer it seems to be. Thus, a white card against a dark background seems to recede or to move forward as the level of illumination on the card is experimentally varied. Similar effects can be induced by changing the colour (hue) of an object—e.g., from bright red to dark red.

Auditory cues

      Auditory cues for depth perception include sound intensity (loudness), auditory pitch, and the time lapse between visual perception and auditory perception (for example, one hears a distant cannon after seeing the flash and smoke of the explosion).

      Changes in pitch also function as depth cues. For example, when a moving object (such as a train or an automobile) emits sound waves (say, from its horn), the pitch of the sound seems to rise when the object is approaching the perceiver, but it seems to fall when it is moving away. This is known as the Doppler effect.

Interrelations among the senses

      In humans, the development (biological development) of the ability to perceive space normally depends on interaction between the senses of sight and touch. Toward the end of the first year, a child starts using the hands to touch and to explore objects. Because sight begins to function more efficiently at a later time, the child's sense of touch at this stage of development is very sensitive.

      The part played by other senses (e.g., hearing) does not appear to be as fundamental in perceptual learning among young children. Without vision or touch, however, most people are seriously hampered in learning a detailed, well-articulated perception of space. Even blind people may find it difficult to understand space with nothing but auditory cues. It is well known that people with full sensory endowment learn to locate the sources of sounds by consulting both their visual and tactile experiences. There are subtler forms of sensory interaction as well; for example, one is more accurate in turning a pointer toward a distant source of sound if the pointer is illuminated at the precise moment the sound is made. This illustrates how one sense can be anchored to another as a means of facilitating spatial perception.

      On the basis of tactile perception alone, young monkeys have been taught to discriminate between differently shaped objects (balls, cubes, cones, and cylinders, all about the size of a matchbox). In one experiment, each animal was given two of these objects at a time and was allowed to feel them with its hands without seeing them. The animal's choice of one specific shape (say, a cube) and its rejection of another (say, a cone) were rewarded with bits of food. When this selective tactile response had been learned, the animal was given the same tasks of selection, this time to be performed visually (by looking at pictures of the same objects). Under these conditions the animal often was able to discriminate the visually presented figures correctly. This phenomenon (called cross-modal learning (training, transfer of)) may be explained as a transfer (training, transfer of) effect based on earlier visual-tactile learning.

      Success in orientation—in moving about effectively and without accident in everyday pursuits—is highest when environmental information is available through as many senses as possible. Impairments to orientation occur when the range of sensory stimuli that forms the usual basis for the experience of perceptual space is reduced. When visual cues are sharply reduced for sighted people, they complain of disorientation. For example, settings that are familiar by daylight may be completely foreign in darkness.

      Apparently, by learning about systematic relationships that exist among a number of simultaneously available stimuli, people can perceive distances more or less correctly. Experiments have shown that the distance (in depth) between selected objects in photographs is most accurately estimated when the objects have been filmed in a richly organized environment—e.g., many people standing at different distances from the camera. Conversely, it is very difficult to make a reliable judgment about the relative depth of two vertical rods when they are presented against a background that lacks other cues.

Factors of constancy

      In general, the perceiver controls, sifts, and corrects the considerable range of sensory information offered by isolated local stimuli. The specific nature of these “corrections to conform to reality” will depend on the unique combination of stimuli at any given moment. In this way, spatial perception tends to ensure that a person experiences the continually changing circumstances of the environment with some degree of stability or constancy.

      This “realistic” perception, based on an awareness of the real, physical world, is an aspect of so-called object constancy. In the experience of size constancy, for example, within a radius of a few hundred yards from the observer, the size of objects is perceived to remain roughly constant no matter where they are. Constancy of form means that an object is perceived to retain its fixed characteristic shape regardless of variation in the angle at which it is observed; for example, a pencil seen end-on shows only a small circular profile but is still perceived as a pencil. Colour constancy clearly illustrates the way in which the brightness and hue experienced over the surface of an object are determined by direct comparison with other objects; a lump of coal still is perceived as black whether the sun is shining brightly or whether there is a dull, cloudy sky.

Path recognition: navigation in space

      Different species are equipped in various ways for the recognition of their path of movement. Some use olfactory signals in recognizing paths of varying distance; this is encountered both among social insects such as ants and among many mammals. Certain insect larvae can retrace their path of movement by following extremely fine webs or filaments spun during their advance. Many species also seem to navigate by the Sun. Migratory birds are able to orient themselves by stars in twilight or at night (see migration). Other navigational cues include the effects of gravity, temperature changes, and direct visual observation of landmarks such as rivers.

      Developments in aviation and space technology have prompted research efforts to increase understanding of the sensory basis for human navigation in space. Reliable perception of the vertical and horizontal dimensions and preservation of perceptual constancy for these dimensions during flight (aviation) are based on the parallel activity of vision and balance. Even when flying small aircraft, a pilot becomes disoriented if visual control of the horizontal dimension is lost; there is no way that the human sense of balance can inform a pilot that a wing tip, for example, is dipping dangerously low. This disorientation occurs because the vestibular sense depends primarily on the force of gravity, but the movement of an airplane produces additional forces (centrifugal (centrifugal force) and centripetal (centripetal acceleration)) that easily mislead a person's vestibular receptors. For this reason, in high-altitude flight the horizontal line of the surface of the Earth is simulated for the pilot by an optical display that works on the same principles as does a television screen.

      Even greater demands on the human senses of vision and balance are made in space (space exploration)flights, because a person is effectively weightless in outer space. At one laboratory maintained by the U.S. Navy, an enormous, very slowly rotating cylindrical chamber is used to study variations in perceptual sensitivity. Test subjects remain in this simulated “outer space” environment for variable periods (even days at a time) in an effort to anticipate the short-term and long-term effects of interplanetary flight.

Social and interpersonal aspects of space perception

      Many animal species that use nests, lairs, or dens and care for their young will typically defend a specific territory. This process is observable in birds and among seals during the breeding season. Apparently this territorial behaviour depends on a rather precise perception of space, because the animal (animal behaviour) ceases its defensive maneuvers when an interloper passes out of the territory by moving across the “border.” The social distances maintained by primates (primate) (such as human (human behaviour) beings and apes) are thought to result from territorial groupings. Modern architecture is held to be influenced by a human tendency to divide into small, separate family territories (just as birds do), the result being such structures as apartment houses (apartment house). Geographic distance may also be maintained to separate individuals who belong to different social groups, as seen in the ethnic neighbourhoods of many cities. Many of these tendencies are summarized in Robert Sommer's Personal Space (1969), a classic study of human spatial behaviour.

Kai V.J. von Fieandt E. Jaakko Järvinen Pekka Yrjö Korkala Ed.

Additional Reading

An excellent general text is Robert Sekuler and Randolph Blake, Perception, 5th ed. (2005), focusing on perception through the senses. Irvin Rock, An Introduction to Perception (1975), is an introductory text in experimental psychology. Hermann von Helmholtz, Helmholtz's Treatise on Physiological Optics, ed. by James P.C. Southall, 3 vol. (1924–25, reissued 2000; trans. from German, 3rd ed., 1909–11), is the classic work on visual perception and its physiological basis. Shimon Ullman, The Interpretation of Visual Motion (1979), is an account of how humans connect successive views of a moving object. David Marr, Vision: A Computational Investigation into the Human Representation and Processing of Visual Information (1982), triggered the computer revolution in vision science. More advanced reading on the perception of objects and space is presented in James E. Cutting, Perception with an Eye for Motion (1986). A classic in human spatial behaviour is Robert Sommer, Personal Space: The Behavioral Basis of Design (1969).Louis Jolyon West Ed.

* * *