Human perception of similarity of 3D graph structures 
TitleHuman perception of similarity of 3D graph structures
Publication TypeReport
Year of Publication2020
AuthorsKomosinski, M, Mensfelt, A
Report NumberRA-07/2020
Abstract

This report describes the study of how humans perceive similarity of simple three-dimensional graph structures. Participants of this study were required to align pairs of 3D structures the best they could, then match all vertices of these structures, evaluate their perceived similarity on a numerical scale, and justify their decisions as a textual response. The outcomes of this process were analyzed and compared to the outcomes of a heuristic computer algorithm that maximized the alignment of pairs of 3D structures and matched their vertices. The influence of personal characteristics of participants such as their gender, age, handedness, education, but also time required to complete each task, on the quality of the matching of vertices was evaluated. The consistency of human responses was also verified. The participants turned out to be more consistent (both between themselves and with the algorithm) in the degree of similarity estimated than in matching of vertices. Personal characteristics of the subjects did not have an influence on their similarity assessments.