Losing sight of the bigger picture: peripheral field loss compresses representations of space

Abstract

Three experiments examine how the peripheral visual field (PVF) mediates the development of spatial representations. In Experiment 1 participants learned and were tested on statue locations in a virtual environment while their field-of-view (FOV) was restricted to 40 degrees , 20 degrees , 10 degrees , or 0 degrees (diam). As FOV decreased, overall placement errors, estimated distances, and angular offsets increased. Experiment 2 showed large compressions but no effect of FOV for perceptual estimates of statue locations. Experiment 3 showed an association between FOV size and proprioception influence. These results suggest the PVF provides important global spatial information used in the development of spatial representations.

Figure 1. The virtual environment

The top panel shows a first-person view of one end of the environment. The bottom panel shows a top-down view of the environment. The starting position is the red and white bull’s-eye and the two black rectangles represent support columns that were present in the real and virtual environments.

Figure 2. Behavioral measures for Experiment 1

Mean estimated locations of the six statues for each of the four FOV conditions tested. The black square is the starting position and the black circles represent the true statue locations. Error bars represent ±1 SEM.

Figure 3. Behavioral measures for Experiment 1

(a) Mean distance errors in meters as a function of FOV and Statue Distance (Near, Far). Positive y-values indicate an overestimation of distance and negative y-values indicate distances were underestimated. (b) Mean absolute angular offsets in degrees as a function of FOV and Statue Distance. Error bars represent ±1 SEM and FOV is in degrees of visual angle.

Figure 3. Behavioral measures for Experiment 1

(a) Mean distance errors in meters as a function of FOV and Statue Distance (Near, Far). Positive y-values indicate an overestimation of distance and negative y-values indicate distances were underestimated. (b) Mean absolute angular offsets in degrees as a function of FOV and Statue Distance. Error bars represent ±1 SEM and FOV is in degrees of visual angle.

Figure 4. Gaze strategies for Experiment 1

Mean proportion of fixations made to each of the five object categories (statues, walls, ground, columns, and sky) as a function of FOV for the Learning Phase. Error bars represent ±1 SEM and FOV is in degrees of visual angle.

Figure 5. Experiment 2

(a) Mean distance errors in meters for the perceptual estimates as a function of FOV and Statue Distance. (b) Mean height errors in meters for the perceptual estimates as a function of FOV and Statue Distance. (c) Mean errors in meters for the perceptual estimates of distances between pairs of statues as a function of FOV. (d) Mean placement errors in meters for the three blind-walks as a function of Statue Distance and FOV. Error bars represent ±1 SEM and FOV is in degrees of visual angle.

Figure 6. Experiment 3

Mean distance errors in meters as a function of Statue Distance and FOV for the Stand and Walk conditions, respectively. Error bars represent ±1 SEM and FOV is in degrees of visual angle.