When crowding of crowding leads to uncrowding

When crowding of crowding leads to uncrowding.

In object recognition, features are thought to be processed in a hierarchical fashion from low-level analysis (edges and lines) to complex figural processing (shapes and objects). Here, we show that figural processing determines low-level processing. Vernier offset discrimination strongly deteriorated when we embedded a vernier in a square. This is a classic crowding effect. Surprisingly, crowd...

Probabilistic Crowding: Deterministic Crowding with Probabilistic Replacement

Macromolecular crowding

Although you were born and educated in the USA, you've worked in the UK for over 11 years. What are your views on the different ways science is done in the two countries? I've probably been away from the States too long to judge! One thing that does stand out, however, is the difference in postgraduate (PhD) education and training. Most students in the UK get funding for a three-year PhD after ...

How best to unify crowding?

In crowding, the perception of an object deteriorates in the presence of nearby elements. Obviously, crowding is a ubiquitous phenomenon, as elements are rarely seen in isolation. One of the main characteristics of crowding is that the elements themselves are not rendered invisible, but their features are averaged[1] or substituted[2] with those of neighboring elements. Recently, Harrison and B...

Visual crowding

What is crowding? Crowding is the curious phenomenon in which objects that can be recognized when viewed in isolation are rendered unrecognizable in clutter. Crowding is ubiquitous when ‘seeing sidelong’, as Lettvin (1976) described peripheral vision. Figure 1A provides a simple illustration: when looking directly at the plus, the isolated letter N on the right is easily read, while the same le...