Modeling second-order boundary perception: A machine learning approach
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Visual pattern detection and discrimination are essential first steps for scene analysis. Numerous human psychophysical studies have modeled visual pattern detection and discrimination by estimating linear templates for classifying noisy stimuli defined by spatial variations in pixel intensities. However, such methods are poorly suited to understanding sensory processing mechanisms for complex visual stimuli such as second-order boundaries defined by spatial differences in contrast or texture. We introduce a novel machine learning framework for modeling human perception of second-order visual stimuli, using image-computable hierarchical neural network models fit directly to psychophysical trial data. This framework is applied to modeling visual processing of boundaries defined by differences in the contrast of a carrier texture pattern, in two different psychophysical tasks: (1) boundary orientation identification, and (2) fine orientation discrimination. Cross-validation analysis is employed to optimize model hyper-parameters, and demonstrate that these models are able to accurately predict human performance on novel stimulus sets not used for fitting model parameters. We find that, like the ideal observer, human observers take a region-based approach to the orientation identification task, while taking an edge-based approach to the fine orientation discrimination task. How observers integrate contrast modulation across orientation channels is investigated by fitting psychophysical data with two models representing competing hypotheses, revealing a preference for a model which combines multiple orientations at the earliest possible stage. Our results suggest that this machine learning approach has much potential to advance the study of second-order visual processing, and we outline future steps towards generalizing the method to modeling visual segmentation of natural texture boundaries. This study demonstrates how machine learning methodology can be fruitfully applied to psychophysical studies of second-order visual processing.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.001 | 0.004 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Open science | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Research integrity | 0.001 | 0.002 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".