Visual Scene Perception
Encyclopedia of Perception · 2010
A visual scene is commonly defined as a view of an environment comprised of objects and surfaces organized in a meaningful way, like a kitchen, a street or a forest path. More broadly, the domain of scene perception encompasses any visual stimulus that contains multiple elements arranged in a spatial layout, for example a shelf of books, an office desk, or leaves on the ground. As a rough distinction, objects are typically acted upon, while scenes are acted within. Most visual elements in the world will be categorized as either an object or scene, although an item’s status may change depending on how it is used: a keyboard is readily regarded as an object when being purchased, for example, but when placed on the desk, it becomes part of a continuous surface and layout, and a scene (for your hands), when you are trying to find the right key. Perceiving scenes presents a paradox that the movie industry, for instance, has successfully exploited for decades. The complex arrangement of objects and surfaces in natural scenes can create the impression that there is too much to see at once. However, we are able to interpret the meaning of multifaceted and complex scene