ATTENTIONAL FRAMES, FRAME CURVES AND FIGURAL BOUNDARIES - THE INSIDE OUTSIDE DILEMMA/

Attended and unattended regions of the image array are viewed often as binary complements to one another, with a well-defined boundary betwe en them. A simple experiment shows otherwise: if the contour of a simp le convex shape is perturbed to create a distinctive texture, it is ty pically the outside of the contour that provides the basis for similar ity judgement, not the inside. The introduction of the appropriate tas k, however, can make the inside part of the contour become more salien t. A similar result occurs for concave shapes, such as a C, where noti ons of containment are not easily specified. These observations sugges t that figure boundaries are difficult to define objectively and that the setting of an attentional reference frame plays a key role in obje ct description. We propose that this frame is part of a virtual, trans parent blackboard or ''clearboard'', bound to the scene, not to the im age. Copyright (C)1996 Elsevier Science Ltd.