On the mechanism for scale invariance in orientation-defined textures

Abstract

Texture perception is generally found to be scale invariant, that is, the perceived properties of textures do not change with viewing distance. Previously, Kingdom, F. A. A., Keeble, D. R. T., & Moulden, B. (Vision Research, 1995, 35, 79–91) showed that the orientation modulation function (OMF), which describes sensitivity to sinusoidal modulations of micropattern orientation as a function of modulation spatial frequency, was scale invariant—peak sensitivity occurred at a modulation spatial frequency which was invariant with viewing distance when modulation frequency was plotted in object units, e.g. cycles cm −1. We have attempted to determine the mechanism underlying the scale invariant properties of the OMF. We first confirmed that the OMF was scale invariant using Gabor-micropattern textures. We then measured OMFs at a number of viewing distances, while holding constant various stimulus features in the retinal image. The question was which stimulus feature(s) disrupted scale invariance when manipulated in this way. We found that the scale (size) of the micropatterns was a critical factor and that the most important scale parameter was the micropatterns’ carrier spatial frequency. Micropattern length and density were shown to have a small influence on scale invariance, while micropattern width had no influence at all. These results are consistent with the idea that scale invariance in orientation-defined textures is a consequence of ‘second-stage’ texture-sensitive mechanisms being tied in spatial scale selectivity to their ‘first-stage’ luminance-contrast-sensitive inputs.