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The cultural schemas we share include the meaning we make of spatial relationships.  Scale is an important factor in the way we cognize space. Scale becomes an element of our spatial schemas, which are closely linked to other cognitive and cultural schemas within our neural networks. Put another way, resolution and experience are important factors in perception.

Interpreting hybrid images « Neurophilosophy
This experiment showed the importance of scale information in perception. The researchers specifically manipulated the spatial resolution of the painting that is, the periodicity with which image intensity changes. Large scale features change little over a given distance, and therefore have a low spatial resolution, while fine-grained features change much more over the same distance, and so have a high spatial resolution. In a second experiment, the participants were shown random noise patterns before the cropped greyscale painting. One group was shown a pattern with a high spatial resolution, the other a pattern with a low spatial resolution. Afterwards, the former reported seeing the bust of Voltaire, while the latter reported seeing the nuns. This showed that previous experience is an important factor in perception. The participants had selectively perceived the frequency channels presented to them before they viewed the image.