The Mickey Mouse theory of perception.
By Dodwell, Peter
Canadian Psychology/Psychologie canadienne, Vol 27(4), Oct 1986, 319-331.
Abstract
Modern theoretical work on transformations, together with some findings in neuroscience, suggests that organization in vision results from the evolution of vector fields with particular structural characteristics in the visual brain. The resulting theory, which is mathematically based, makes predictions about the basic nature of visual patterns, many of which have been confirmed. Experiments that support the concept of the Lie orbits as a sort of primitive in the genesis of patterns are reviewed. The figure of Mickey Mouse is also composed of segments of Lie orbits, and the visual features he displays serve to highlight the Gestalt-like flavor of the theory. Many demonstrations from biology, the psychophysics of pattern recognition, and the composition of visual arts support the concept of organizational processes in perception that are based on vector field properties of the brain. (French abstract) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)