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Finding out About Filling-In: a Guide to Perceptual Completion for Visual Science and the Philosophy of Perception

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Finding out About Filling-In: a Guide to Perceptual Completion for Visual Science and the Philosophy of Perception BEHAVIORAL AND BRAIN SCIENCES (1998) 21, 723–802 Printed in the United States of America Finding out about filling-in: A guide to perceptual completion for visual science and the philosophy of perception Luiz Pessoa Department of Computer and Systems Engineering, Center of Technology, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, llha do Fundao, Rio de Janeiro, RJ 21945-970, Brazil [email protected] www.cos.ufrj.br/~pessoa Evan Thompson1 Department of Philosophy and Centre for Vision Research, York University, North York, Ontario, Canada M3J 1P3 [email protected] www.yorku.ca/research/vision/evant.htm Alva Noë Department of Philosophy, University of California, Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA 95064 [email protected] www2.ucsc.edu/people/anoe/ Abstract: In visual science the term filling-in is used in different ways, which often leads to confusion. This target article presents a tax- onomy of perceptual completion phenomena to organize and clarify theoretical and empirical discussion. Examples of boundary com- pletion (illusory contours) and featural completion (color, brightness, motion, texture, and depth) are examined, and single-cell studies relevant to filling-in are reviewed and assessed. Filling-in issues must be understood in relation to theoretical issues about neural–per- ceptual isomorphism and linking propositions. Six main conclusions are drawn: (1) visual filling-in comprises a multitude of different perceptual completion phenomena; (2) certain forms of visual completion seem to involve spatially propagating neural activity (neural filling-in) and so, contrary to Dennett’s (1991; 1992) recent discussion of filling-in, cannot be described as results of the brain’s “ignor- ing an absence” or “jumping to a conclusion”; (3) in certain cases perceptual completion seems to have measurable effects that depend on neural signals representing a presence rather than ignoring an absence; (4) neural filling-in does not imply either “analytic isomor- phism” or “Cartesian materialism,” and thus the notion of the bridge locus – a particular neural stage that forms the immediate substrate of perceptual experience – is problematic and should be abandoned; (5) to reject the representational conception of vision in favor of an “enactive” or “animate” conception reduces the importance of filling-in as a theoretical category in the explanation of vision; and (6) the evaluation of perceptual content should not be determined by “subpersonal” considerations about internal processing, but rather by considerations about the task of vision at the level of the animal or person interacting with the world. Keywords: blind spot; bridge locus; brightness; consciousness; filling-in; Gestalt theory; illusory contours; isomorphism; linking propo- sitions; perceptual completion; vision 1. Introduction that something is present in a particular region of visual space when it is actually absent from that region, but pres- Figure 1 illustrates the so-called neon color illusion: a red ent in the surrounding area. The idea is easiest to under- diamond is seen where there is only a lattice of red line seg- stand in the case of the blind spot. We have a blind spot in ments. The term neon color spreading (van Tuijl 1975) is of- each eye corresponding to the region where the optic nerve ten used to describe this phenomenon: the figure seems to leaves the retina and there are no photoreceptors (Fig. 2). result from the color having spread between the line seg- In everyday perception we are never aware of the blind ments into the background. The color is said to “fill in” the spot. The blind spots of the two eyes do not overlap, and background, thereby forming the figure. Nevertheless, one stimulus that falls on the blind spot of one retina will fall does not see any spreading or filling-in process; one sees outside the blind spot of the other retina. Even under only the figure. What line of reasoning, then, lies behind the monocular viewing the blind spot is not easily revealed. description of such figures in the terminology of “filling- Close one eye and fixate on a point on a uniformly colored in”? piece of paper: there is no experience of any gap or discon- Visual scientists use the terms filling-in and perceptual tinuity in the visual field. Now follow the instructions for completion to refer to situations in which subjects report the blind spot demonstration in Figure 3. The left dot dis- © 1998 Cambridge University Press 0140-525X/9X $12.50 723 Pessoa et al.: Perceptual completion appears and one perceives a uniform expanse of brightness and color. This is an example of perceptual completion or visual filling-in: the color and brightness surrounding the area corresponding to the blind spot are said to “fill in” that area so that a uniform expanse is perceived. The existence of such perceptual completion phenom- ena at the subject level is uncontroversial. However, the term filling-in is often used in a controversial sense that goes beyond what subjects report. In this controversial sense, the term filling-in suggests that certain kinds of sub- ject-level perceptual completion phenomena are accom- plished by the brain providing information to make up for an absence – by the brain actively filling in the missing in- formation. However, whether there is neural filling-in is a matter of great debate in visual science. We will argue later Figure 1. Neon color illusion. When the segments in the dia- that there is considerable evidence for neural filling-in, but mond are red and the matrix is black (left), the entire diamond ap- that great care needs to be taken in thinking about the re- pears reddish even though only the segments are physically col- lation between neural filling-in and subject-level percep- ored red (right). tual completion. To appreciate the debates about filling-in it is necessary 1962; 1968). In other words, many neurons respond more first to review certain facts about vision and second to dis- strongly to boundaries than to regions or surfaces. Second, cuss certain conceptual and methodological points. Many psychophysical experiments (e.g., with stabilized images) of the objects we perceive have roughly uniform regions of have shown the importance of boundaries for proper sur- surface color and lightness. Now consider two facts. First, face perception (Krauskopf 1963; Yarbus 1967). In the clas- cells in the visual cortex in general do not respond to uni- sic study by Krauskopf (1963), an inner green disc was sur- form regions, but rather to discontinuities (Hubel & Wiesel rounded by a red annulus (Fig. 4). When the red-green boundary was stabilized on the retina (so that it always maintained a fixed position on the eye), subjects reported Luiz Pessoa is Assistant Professor of Computer and Systems Engineering at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He received a Ph.D. in Cognitive and Neural Systems from Boston University and B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. He has published articles on computational modeling of vision, visual psychophysics, and neural network models, among others. Evan Thompson is an Associate Professor in the Department of Philosophy and a member of the Centre for Vision Research at York University. He received his Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Toronto. He is the author of Colour Vision: A Study in Cognitive Science and the Philosophy of Perception (Routledge Press, 1995), and co-author, with Francisco J. Varela and Eleanor Rosch, of The Embodied Mind: Cognitive Science and Human Experience (MIT Press, 1991). He has published a number of articles in philosophy and cognitive science, including a previous Behavioral and Brain Sciences target article on color vision. Alva Noë is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the University of California, Santa Cruz. He received a Ph.D. in philosophy from Harvard Figure 2. The blind spot. (A) Vertebrate lens and retina. The University and a B.Phil. from Oxford blind spot corresponds to the area where the optic nerve leaves University, and has been a Research the retina and there are no photoreceptors (Sheperd 1994; used Associate of the Center for Cognitive by permission of Oxford University Press, Inc.). (B) Distribution Studies at Tufts University. He has of photoreceptors over the extent of the retina of the right eye. published articles on topics in the philosophy of Note the complete absence of photoreceptors in the blind spot re- perception, philosophy of mind, and other areas. gion (Sekuler & Blake 1985, p. 56; used by permission of the McGraw-Hill Companies). 724 BEHAVIORAL AND BRAIN SCIENCES (1998) 21:6 Pessoa et al.: Perceptual completion the case of brightness perception there is good evidence for neural filling-in that involves spatially propagating activity. However, the filling-in controversy is not only empirical, because it involves fundamental conceptual and method- ologic issues. To appreciate these issues it is necessary to in- troduce the concepts of the bridge locus and neural–per- ceptual isomorphism. The best way to introduce these concepts is by way of an example. Figure 5 presents another case often discussed in connection with filling-in, the Craik- O’Brien-Cornsweet effect (Cornsweet 1970; Craik 1940; O’Brien 1958). Two largely uniform regions of different brightness are seen, although most of the corresponding stimulus regions have exactly the same luminance. In fact, the two regions differ only in the luminance distribution at Figure 3. Blind spot demonstration. Close your right eye while fixating at the cross. Adjust the distance of the page in front of you the “cusp” edge separating the two regions. Why, then, do until the left dot disappears (start at a distance of approximately 8 we see a brightness step? inches). A similar procedure should be used with the left eye Here is one route leading to an answer to this question closed.
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