A Theory of Size-Invariance in Human Object Recognition

摘要

Human observers can recognize an object as small as thumb nail-sized photo or as large as several meter portrait photo. How do human observers realize this remarkable feat? What is the underlying neural mechanism? Some researchers suggested this is achieved by routing neural circuits processing different size objects to a size invariant neuron. However this seems logical circular since even though the researchers knew routing circuits processing different size objects, it is unclear how brain know this in the first place. Here we give a theory for size invariance. We argue that size invariance is logically equivalent to a unique representation for an object, and neural structures count more than learning at least for size invariance.