Visual sensitivity to irregularities in periodic tiling patterns
Abstract A single experiment was conducted to evaluate the sensitivity of human vision to irregularities in regular (repetitive) patterns that tile the plane; mathematicians have been investigating such patterns (tilings) for hundreds of years. The stimulus patterns in the current study were compose...
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Nature Portfolio
2025-08-01
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| Series: | Scientific Reports |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-16718-7 |
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| author | J. Farley Norman Yulia Mishchuk Maria Carmichael Ash Sheehan Evan Hagan |
| author_facet | J. Farley Norman Yulia Mishchuk Maria Carmichael Ash Sheehan Evan Hagan |
| author_sort | J. Farley Norman |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract A single experiment was conducted to evaluate the sensitivity of human vision to irregularities in regular (repetitive) patterns that tile the plane; mathematicians have been investigating such patterns (tilings) for hundreds of years. The stimulus patterns in the current study were composed of obliquely oriented line segments and strongly resemble patterns used in traditional art. In the experiment, the pattern density was manipulated as well as the magnitude of pattern alteration. Signal detection methodology was used, such that the observers’ task was to indicate for each presented pattern whether it was perfectly regular or it had been altered such that the periodicity was broken. The obtained results indicate that human observers are moderately sensitive (overall d’ value was 1.76) at detecting violations of the periodicity of regular patterns that tile the plane. High performance (d’ values greater than 2.0) only occurs, however, when pattern elements repeat over small spatial scales. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-e399cc77f69442419cb14df1e3f71df7 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2045-2322 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-08-01 |
| publisher | Nature Portfolio |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Scientific Reports |
| spelling | doaj-art-e399cc77f69442419cb14df1e3f71df72025-08-24T11:18:45ZengNature PortfolioScientific Reports2045-23222025-08-0115111110.1038/s41598-025-16718-7Visual sensitivity to irregularities in periodic tiling patternsJ. Farley Norman0Yulia Mishchuk1Maria Carmichael2Ash Sheehan3Evan Hagan4Department of Psychological Sciences, Western Kentucky UniversityDepartment of Psychological Sciences, Western Kentucky UniversityDepartment of Psychological Sciences, Western Kentucky UniversityCarol Martin Gatton Academy of Mathematics and Science, Bowling GreenDepartment of Psychological Sciences, Western Kentucky UniversityAbstract A single experiment was conducted to evaluate the sensitivity of human vision to irregularities in regular (repetitive) patterns that tile the plane; mathematicians have been investigating such patterns (tilings) for hundreds of years. The stimulus patterns in the current study were composed of obliquely oriented line segments and strongly resemble patterns used in traditional art. In the experiment, the pattern density was manipulated as well as the magnitude of pattern alteration. Signal detection methodology was used, such that the observers’ task was to indicate for each presented pattern whether it was perfectly regular or it had been altered such that the periodicity was broken. The obtained results indicate that human observers are moderately sensitive (overall d’ value was 1.76) at detecting violations of the periodicity of regular patterns that tile the plane. High performance (d’ values greater than 2.0) only occurs, however, when pattern elements repeat over small spatial scales.https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-16718-7 |
| spellingShingle | J. Farley Norman Yulia Mishchuk Maria Carmichael Ash Sheehan Evan Hagan Visual sensitivity to irregularities in periodic tiling patterns Scientific Reports |
| title | Visual sensitivity to irregularities in periodic tiling patterns |
| title_full | Visual sensitivity to irregularities in periodic tiling patterns |
| title_fullStr | Visual sensitivity to irregularities in periodic tiling patterns |
| title_full_unstemmed | Visual sensitivity to irregularities in periodic tiling patterns |
| title_short | Visual sensitivity to irregularities in periodic tiling patterns |
| title_sort | visual sensitivity to irregularities in periodic tiling patterns |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-16718-7 |
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