Real-world objects can be viewed at a range of distances and thus can be experienced at a range
of visual angles within the visual field. Given the large amount of visual size variation possible
when observing objects, we examined how internal object representations represent visual size
information. In a series of experiments which required observers to access existing object
knowledge, we observed that real-world objects have a consistent visual size at which they are
drawn, imagined, and preferentially viewed. Importantly, this visual size is proportional to the
logarithm of the assumed size of the object in the world, and is best characterized not as a fixed
visual angle, but by the ratio of the object and the frame of space around it. Akin to the previous
literature on canonical perspective, we term this consistent visual size information the canonical
visual size. |