Subjective Image Fidelity Assessment: Effect of the Spatial Distance Between Stimuli

Understanding how we perceive visual quality is important in a range of applications such as streaming or cross-media reproduction. Despite current perception models showing high correlations with recorded mean opinion scores, the factors influencing visual quality are still not fully understood, particularly when it comes to memory. We designed and carried out a study to compare quality assessment for two different levels of reliance on visual short-term memory. We found that assessments based mostly on memory tend to be more positive for compression, blur or gamut mapping distortions. Our results further highlight the role of memory in subjective quality assessment and visual masking.