Similarity and features of natural textures

Several features responsible for attentive texture similarity have been proposed, but exactly which ones are important for attentive texture perception and classification is unclear. The purpose of the present investigation was to determine if features are used to judge the attentive similarity of natural textures, and if so to identify these features and establish what type of model is best for conceptualizing them. Subjects in two experiments placed pictures into groups however they wished. Other groups of subjects described the resulting clusters and MDS dimensions, identified the objects/surfaces depicted in the pictures, and ranked the pictures along several hypothesized attribute-based dimensions. Results indicated that similarity is context-dependent and that a dimensional model is inappropriate for conceptualizing natural textures.