我们环境中的许多物体和材料都会发生改变其形状的变化。例如,树枝在风中弯曲,冰融化,和纸屑。尽管如此,我们在这些变化中识别物体和材料,这表明我们可以区分物体的原始特征和那些由变换(“形状分裂”)引起的特征。然而,如果我们真正理解转换,我们不仅应该能够识别它们的签名,而且还应该积极地将转换应用于新对象(即,通过想象或心理模拟)。这里,我们使用绘图任务研究了这种能力。在平板电脑上,参与者查看了样本轮廓及其转换版本,并被要求通过绘制转换后的测试形状的外观来将相同的转换应用于测试轮廓。因此,他们必须(I)从形状差异中推断转变,(ii)设想将其应用于测试形状,(iii)得出结果。我们的发现表明,与原始测试形状相比,图纸更类似于地面真实转换的测试形状,从而证明了观察到的转换的推断和再现。然而,这只观察到相对简单的形状。该能力还通过变换类型和大小而不是通过样品和测试形状之间的相似性来调节。一起,我们的发现表明,我们可以区分原始物体形状的表示和它们的变换,并且可以使用视觉图像在心理上对观察到的对象应用非刚性转换,展示我们如何不仅感知,而且“理解”形状。
Many objects and materials in our environment are subject to transformations that alter their shape. For example, branches bend in the wind, ice melts, and paper crumples. Still, we recognize objects and materials across these changes, suggesting we can distinguish an object\'s original features from those caused by the transformations (\"shape scission\"). Yet, if we truly understand transformations, we should not only be able to identify their signatures but also actively apply the transformations to new objects (i.e., through imagination or mental simulation). Here, we investigated this ability using a drawing task. On a tablet computer, participants viewed a sample contour and its transformed version, and were asked to apply the same transformation to a test contour by drawing what the transformed test shape should look like. Thus, they had to (i) infer the transformation from the shape differences, (ii) envisage its application to the test shape, and (iii) draw the result. Our findings show that drawings were more similar to the ground truth transformed test shape than to the original test shape-demonstrating the inference and reproduction of transformations from observation. However, this was only observed for relatively simple shapes. The ability was also modulated by transformation type and magnitude but not by the similarity between sample and test shapes. Together, our findings suggest that we can distinguish between representations of original object shapes and their transformations, and can use visual imagery to mentally apply nonrigid transformations to observed objects, showing how we not only perceive but also \'understand\' shape.