Spatial Layout Perception, Psychophysical

Spatial layout in this entry refers to the three-dimensional arrangement of the surfaces that compose the visible environment of an observer. The visible spatial layout is typically a highly complex arrangement of surfaces. In an illuminated environment, light is reflected and refracted from the visible surfaces of the environment on its way to the eye. The array of light reaching the eye is thus complexly structured by the “optical projections” of the surfaces of the environment. Visual perception uses the structure of this “optic array” to obtain information about many properties of the spatial layout. This entry describes the information in the environment for the visual perception of orientation, content relations, location, scale and size, and distance.