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Journal of Experimental Psychology.... Jun 2024Object-based warping is a visual illusion in which dots appear farther apart from each other when superimposed on an object. Previous research found that the illusion's...
Object-based warping is a visual illusion in which dots appear farther apart from each other when superimposed on an object. Previous research found that the illusion's strength varies with the perceived objecthood of the display. We tested whether objecthood alone determines the strength of the visual illusion or if low-level factors separable from objecthood also play a role. In Experiments 1-2, we varied low-level features to assess their impact on the warping illusion. We found that the warping illusion is equally strong for a variety of shapes but varies with the elements by which shape is defined. Shapes composed of continuous edges produced larger warping effects than shapes defined by disconnected elements. In Experiment 3, we varied a display's objecthood while holding low-level features constant. Displays with matched low-level features produced warping effects of the same size even when the perceived unity of the elements in the display varied. In Experiments 4-6, we tested whether displays with low-level features predicted to be important in spatial warping produced the visual illusion even when the display weakly configured into a single object. Results showed that the presence of low-level features like contour solidity and convexity determined warping effect sizes over and above what could be accounted for by the display's perceived objecthood. Our findings challenge the view that the spatial warping illusion is solely object-based. Other factors like the solidity of contours and contours' position relative to reference dots appear to play separate and important roles in determining warping effect sizes. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).
Topics: Humans; Adult; Young Adult; Pattern Recognition, Visual; Optical Illusions; Form Perception; Male; Female; Space Perception
PubMed: 38573695
DOI: 10.1037/xhp0001205 -
Journal of Vision Aug 2017It is a common perceptual experience that smaller objects appear to move faster than larger ones when their physical speeds are the same in either the laboratory or...
It is a common perceptual experience that smaller objects appear to move faster than larger ones when their physical speeds are the same in either the laboratory or daily life. In this study, we show that the speed-size illusion is correlated with retinal image speed distribution bias. The illusion was quantified with a two-alternative, forced choice speed comparison paradigm, and retinal image speed distributions for different image sizes were obtained by simulation. Simulation results show that smaller retinal images tend to have slower projected speed, and the retinal image speed distribution bias correlates with the strength of the speed-size illusion. Furthermore, exposure to a training movie containing unnatural motion statistics tended to modulate the illusion in a way that was consistent with the speed distribution bias. We discuss how the data could be explained by empirical ranking theory, Bayesian theory, and motion adaptation.
Topics: Adult; Bayes Theorem; Female; Humans; Male; Motion; Motion Perception; Optical Illusions; Retina; Young Adult
PubMed: 28763527
DOI: 10.1167/17.9.1 -
ELife Mar 2018People with higher autistic traits display stronger fluctuations in pupil size when presented with an optical illusion.
People with higher autistic traits display stronger fluctuations in pupil size when presented with an optical illusion.
Topics: Adult; Autistic Disorder; Consciousness; Eye; Humans; Optical Illusions
PubMed: 29508698
DOI: 10.7554/eLife.35374 -
Vision Research Jul 2018In the retinal image of the natural world, edges and shapes can be defined by first-order attributes, such as luminance, and second-order attributes, such as contrast...
In the retinal image of the natural world, edges and shapes can be defined by first-order attributes, such as luminance, and second-order attributes, such as contrast and texture. Previous studies have suggested that, in the human visual system, these attributes are initially detected separately and integrated later. Thus, comparing the strength of different geometrical optical illusions in stimuli, in which different elements are defined by the same or different attributes, is helpful to investigate at which stage the underlying mechanism of the illusion is located. We investigated whether there is a single common mechanism underlying the Ebbinghaus illusion in stimuli defined by different attributes. We used the traditional Ebbinghaus (Titchener) illusion figure: a target disk surrounded by smaller or larger inducer disks. The background and stimuli consisted of sine-wave gratings. We manipulated the luminance, contrast, and grating orientations of the target disk and inducer disks to create stimuli defined by each of these attributes. We then examined whether the illusion occurred in stimuli defined by each single attribute and in compound stimuli, in which the target and inducers were defined by different attributes. We found that the Ebbinghaus illusion occurred with the same strength in stimuli defined by all three attributes. We also found an asymmetry, such as the second-order inducers affected the first-order target less than they affected the second-order targets, but the first-order inducers affected all targets similarly. Our findings suggest that different attributes are likely to be integrated into a cue-invariant shape representation prone to the Ebbinghaus illusion. However, first-order and second-order stimuli may differently contribute to the quantitative aspect of the illusion, resulting in the asymmetric illusion strength.
Topics: Adult; Analysis of Variance; Contrast Sensitivity; Cues; Female; Humans; Male; Optical Illusions; Orientation, Spatial; Photic Stimulation; Visual Perception; Young Adult
PubMed: 29758217
DOI: 10.1016/j.visres.2018.04.006 -
Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience Jul 2001The perceived difference in brightness between elements of a patterned target is diminished when the target is embedded in a similar surround of higher luminance... (Review)
Review
The perceived difference in brightness between elements of a patterned target is diminished when the target is embedded in a similar surround of higher luminance contrast (the Chubb illusion). Here we show that this puzzling effect can be explained by the degree to which imperfect transmittance is likely to have affected the light that reaches the eye. These observations indicate that this 'illusion' is yet another signature of the fundamentally empirical strategy of visual perception, in this case generated by the typical influence of transmittance on inherently ambiguous stimuli.
Topics: Color Perception; Contrast Sensitivity; Humans; Light; Models, Theoretical; Optical Illusions; Photic Stimulation
PubMed: 11506656
DOI: 10.1162/089892901750363154 -
Consciousness and Cognition Sep 2018The visual image provides important cues for an observer's sense of location and orientation within the world. Occasionally, though, these cues can be misleading,... (Review)
Review
The visual image provides important cues for an observer's sense of location and orientation within the world. Occasionally, though, these cues can be misleading, resulting in illusions. In the Roelofs and induced Roelofs effects, for example, a large illuminated frame, offset from the observer's midline in otherwise complete darkness, tends to bias the observer's judgment of straight ahead, causing the position of the frame, and anything contained within it, to be misperceived. Studies of these illusions have provided much insight into the processes that establish an observer's egocentric reference frame, and the manner in which object locations are encoded relative to this frame for perception and action.
Topics: Autistic Disorder; Humans; Optical Illusions; Psychomotor Performance; Space Perception; Visual Fields; Visual Perception
PubMed: 29886012
DOI: 10.1016/j.concog.2018.05.009 -
Perception 2000
Topics: Humans; Optical Illusions; Visual Perception
PubMed: 11064809
DOI: 10.1068/p2907nd1 -
Scientific American Jul 1962
Topics: Humans; Illusions; Moon; Optical Illusions
PubMed: 14454458
DOI: 10.1038/scientificamerican0762-120 -
Perceptual and Motor Skills Feb 2016There is debate as to whether or not the Ebbinghaus illusion is driven by high-level cognitive size contrast mechanisms as opposed to low-level biphasic contour...
There is debate as to whether or not the Ebbinghaus illusion is driven by high-level cognitive size contrast mechanisms as opposed to low-level biphasic contour interactions. In this study, we examine the variability in effects that are shared between this illusion and a different illusion that cannot be explained logically by a size contrast account. This comparison revealed that nearly one quarter of the variability for one illusion is shared with the other - demonstrating how a size-contrast account cannot be the sole explanation for the Ebbinghaus illusion.
Topics: Adolescent; Adult; Form Perception; Humans; Middle Aged; Optical Illusions; Size Perception; Visual Perception; Young Adult
PubMed: 27420308
DOI: 10.1177/0031512515626632 -
Der Ophthalmologe : Zeitschrift Der... Oct 2009The Hermann grid is an optical illusion in which the crossings of white grid lines appear darker than the grid lines outside the crossings. The illusion disappears when... (Review)
Review
The Hermann grid is an optical illusion in which the crossings of white grid lines appear darker than the grid lines outside the crossings. The illusion disappears when one fixates the crossings. The discoverer, Ludimar Hermann (1838-1914), interpreted the illusion as evidence for lateral connections in the retina. In most textbooks on sensory physiology and ophthalmology, the Hermann grid illusion serves to illustrate "lateral inhibition." This paper summarises new findings that show that the classic explanation is incomplete. In 2004, a seemingly subtle modification, a small undulation of the grid lines, was shown to demolish the illusion. In 2007, a more convincing explanation appeared: An artificial neural network was trained for "lightness constancy"- the ability of our visual system to interpret luminance in the interest of object recognition, independent of illumination. After having learned lightness constancy, the network was subjected to a number of lightness illusions, among them the Hermann grid illusion. An analysis of the coupling constants of this neural network promises to further our understanding of the Hermann grid illusion.
Topics: Humans; Models, Biological; Optical Illusions; Visual Perception
PubMed: 18830602
DOI: 10.1007/s00347-008-1845-5