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Assimilation theory, attentive fields, and the Müller-Lyer illusion.

The assimilation theory of geometric illusions was employed to predict changes in the outgoing and ingoing forms of the Mûller-Lyer illusions as a function of attentive field size. It was found that the theory predicted correctly the form of the function relating amount of illusion and size of attentive field only for the outgoing Müller-Lyer. For the ingoing illusion the prediction was opposite to the empirically obtained results. The findings are seen as additional evidence for the untenability of a unitary theory, such as assimilation theory, for both versions of the Müller-Lyer illusion as they fail to account for substantial difference between them.

Female↗

The relational determination of length illusions and length aftereffects.

When two lines were presented simultaneously, in an illusion paradigm, the judged length of one of the lines (the focal line) assimilated toward the length of the contextual line. When the lines were presented sequentially, in an aftereffect paradigm, the apparent length of the focal line was displaced away from the length of a previously presented contextual line (i.e. contrast). The largest effects obtained at inverse contextual-to-focal length ratios: 1.67:1 for contextual lines longer than the focal line and 0.60:1 for contextual lines shorter than the focal line. Overestimation of focal length was larger than underestimation for both illusions and aftereffects despite the fact that identical stimuli produced effects in opposite directions in the two paradigms. Results were discussed in terms of a neural length-coding model and were related to visual size constancy.

Figural Aftereffect↗

The visual stimulus for saccadic eye movements in human observers.

Three experiments are reported in which the salience of visual stimuli is assessed by finding which of two competing peripheral stimuli elicit a saccade when both are presented simultaneously with the use of paradigm due to Love-Schoen. The first experiment shows how salience is affected by position in the visual field. A strong effect of retinal eccentricity is found which is compared with the cortical magnification factor. Additionally directional biases occur. The second experiment shows that temporal change appears to be significant in eliciting a saccade rather than any specific properties related to movement. The third experiment shows that contour at high spatial frequencies does not affect salience. An area of 4 cycles deg-1 high-contrast square-wave grating possesses the same salience as an equivalent area with identical, constant, space average luminance. Taken together, the results suggest that salience might be accountable for in terms of the activation of transient channels in the visual system.

Eye Movements↗

Evidence for the role of attentive fields in masking.

A masking task was employed to determine whether predictions derived from the attentive-field postulate of assimilation theory could be verified. The distance between masking and test lines was varied both towards and away from the center of the attentive field. As predicted, masking was greater when the mask was near the center of attention than when it was located at the periphery of the field. A variation of the mathematical formula developed previously to predict visual illusions was employed to fit the individual and group functions found in this study.

Attention↗

Perceived spatial frequency of flickering gratings: a local spatial distortion.

Perceived spatial frequency of a low-frequency grating increases if the grating contrast is temporally modulated at about 4 to 16 Hz. The amount of increase can be up to 50% as estimated by a grating-match technique. It is shown here that the illusion is not a simple spatial-frequency shift phenomenon but also involves local spatial distortions. This was discovered by using the method of distance match, in which the perceived length of a spatial period or its multiples was estimated in a flickering grating. The results indicate that the illusory increase in perceived spatial frequency does not predict the perceived period length of a grating in a simple reciprocal manner. The decrease in the apparent period length is restricted to distances covering only one or two spatial cycles. This points out that care should be taken in interpreting various illusory changes in spatial frequency simply as shifts of frequency. The results are interpreted as demonstrating the operation of a size-analyzing mechanism which has a limited spatial bandwidth and which is sensitive to flicker-induced disturbances.

Humans↗

Comparing two objects for size after a comparison of one of the objects with other objects.

When shown the names of two objects, subjects determine which object is larger more slowly as the difference in the sizes of the objects decreases. This might result from variations in the time taken to access sufficient information to perform the task; information which crudely specifies size is accessed first and can be used when the sizes differ greatly; information which specifies size on a more finely graded scale must be accessed when they do not. This hypothesis was tested. Subjects shown the names of three objects, determined which object was intermediate in size. Immediately thereafter the name of another object was shown, the task then being to decide whether the object previously judged intermediate was larger than this object. In this second task reaction times increased with decreasing differences in size between the two objects; this increase was smaller, however, when the sizes of the objects in the first task were similar. The results were predicted from the assumption that when the specification of an object's size in terms of fine discrimination is accessed for comparison in the first task it remains available for use in the second task; thus the time normally required for accessing that information in the second task is reduced. Some implications of the results are discussed.

Cognition↗

Relation of brightness to threshold for light-adapted and dark-adapted rods and cones: effects of retinal eccentricity and target size.

'Equal-brightness' functions of retinal eccentricity and target diameter were measured by a matching procedure, and compared with the corresponding threshold functions for four different adaptation conditions: light-adapted cones (LAC), dark-adapted cones (DAC), light-adapted rods (LAR) and dark-adapted rods (DAR). The separation between log brightness matches and log thresholds decreased with eccentricity and increased with target size for all adaptation conditions, but overall separation was substantially greater for the DAR condition than for the other three. A two-channel model of achromatic brightness is proposed to explain the results. The model assumes 'strong' and 'weak' channels, which contribute unequally to brightness. These channels are tentatively identified with tonic and phasic classes of retinal ganglion cells.

Adaptation, Ocular↗

Adaptation to optically reduced size.

Previous investigators have reported some difficulty in obtaining evidence for adaptation to optically reduced size. A study is reported in which a ballistic target-pointing task was used to examine such adaptation. In the first experiment size was reduced either by means of negative spherical lenses, or cylindrical lenses which reduced image size in only one dimension. Both lens types produced a negative aftereffect of adaptation, which increased as a function of lens strength. There was also a tendency for cylindrical lenses to give larger aftereffects. In a second experiment, in which a modified adaptation procedure was used, adaptation to cylindrical distortion was found to be significantly greater than adaptation to equivalent spherical distortion. These data are interpreted with respect to the relative amounts of distance distortion induced by viewing through the different lens types. The third experiment employed a cylindrical lens and a mental rotation procedure to determine whether adaptation in the first two experiments may have been visual or visuomotor in nature. Results indicated that adaptation was not purely visual. It is concluded that it is possible to demonstrate adaptation to size distortion by using an appropriate procedure.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

The effect of forward and backward masking by flash on apparent size.

Subjects observed a briefly exposed square and set a variable square to match its size. In experiment 1 the square was black or white and was preceded or followed by a flash of light. The preceding adaptation field was complete darkness or an illuminated field. Marked underestimation of size occurred when flash followed the square in all conditions, compared with trials with no flash. Preceding flash produced a small reversal of this effect, the extent of which depended on whether the square was black or white. Absence of an illuminated adaptation field reduced estimates in all conditions except those where flash preceded the square. In experiment 2, a black square was used, and the stimulus duration and the interval between stimulus and flash were varied. No significant effects were found with preceding flash. When flash followed the square, apparent size increased linearly over the first 300 ms with the logarithm of the interval between onset of the square and onset of the flash, then levelled off. Experiment 3 demonstrated that the reduction in apparent size occurred with figure and interfering flash delivered to the same eye but not with dichoptic interference. The results are explained by reference to a suggestion of Georgeson that the optimum frequency of spatially tuned receptors decreases in impoverished viewing conditions. Hence the presented figures trigger receptors which normally are responsive to smaller figures, and the presented figures are therefore categorized as being smaller than they really are.

Female↗

The creation and reversal of the Müller-Lyer illusion through attentional manipulation.

A configuration is presented in which both the overestimated and the underestimated portions of the Müller-Lyer illusion are embedded. In free viewing no distortion of length occurs; however, overestimation or underestimation illusions can be produced by simple manipulation of the attentional set, thus demonstrating one cognitive component in the formation of the Müller-Lyer distortion.

Attention↗

Binocular summation on fused annular backgrounds.

A paradigm has been proposed to test the hypothesis that binocular fusion results in simple summation, S, of monocular photopic luminances: S = delta LBM(L)/delta LB(2L) = 1, where delta LBM and delta LB are threshold luminances for a monocular and a binocular increment, appearing on a fused background of luminance L or 2L, respectively. This prediction was tested psychophysically, with background size as parameter. Thresholds were measured for a brief (20 ms) foveal flash centered on a luminous disk encircled by a massive black annulus serving as a fusion lock. The flash was presented binocularly, or monocularly, at 30 and 60 cd m-2 background luminances. The diameter of the disk was varied from 3 min to 40 min visual angle. The size of the flash was constant (6 min diameter), except for the smallest disk (3 min diameter). All thresholds varied as a function of background size (the known 'sensitization effect'). The summation index S did not vary with background size. A mean value S = 0.9 was found; this is consistent with the notion that summation of the order of 90% occurs during binocular fusion. We surmise that even a weak monocular test flash makes fusion less than perfect.

Adult↗

Poggendorff and Müller-Lyer illusions: common effects.

Previous investigations have shown that the magnitude of the Müller-Lyer illusion is a function of the linear and angular dimensions of the figure. If the Müller-Lyer and Poggendorff illusions share a common basis, then the magnitude of the Poggendorff illusion should similarly be a function of the analogous configural dimensions. A study is reported in which changes were made in the dimensions of the Poggendorff figure that are analogous to the dimensions of the Müller-Lyer figure: the length of the parallel components (analogous to the wings of the Müller-Lyer figure); the length of the intertransversal extent (analogous to Müller-Lyer shaft length); and the angle formed between the parallel components and the intertransversal extent (analogous to the angle of wing attachment in the Müller-Lyer figure). The relationship between the magnitude of the illusion and the dimensions of the Poggendorff figure was found to be generally in line with previous findings relating to the Müller-Lyer illusion. Adaptation-level theory and the positive-context model accommodate the major findings of the present study.

Humans↗

Vicario's illusion of sloping steps reexamined.

If a few parallel horizontal rows of dots are set diagonally, like steps, across the visual field, the inner rows appear not to be horizontal but sloping up to one side; the effect holds as long as the vertical distances between the rows do not exceed a given visual angle. This illusion, described by Vicario in 1978, was never explained. An experiment is reported in which the illusion was still visible at row separations well in excess of the spatial limits originally considered, provided the stimulus elements were enlarged. The maximum illusion was obtained for length ratios (interrow distance to size of dots) identical to those which have been shown to produce the largest effects in a number of illusions of area and length. This suggests that Vicario's illusion is similar to other illusions of extent, and that it can be explained by a neural extent-coding model.

Humans↗

Sine of an illusion.

In an informally observed sine-wave figure in which the vertical extent between contours was constant, apparent extent in the crest and trough (the 'turns') appeared greater than in the straight oblique sections of the figure. This observation was confirmed in two experiments in which the vertical extents were matched by two vertically arranged dots. It was found that in a turn the apparent extent was greater than the true extent, but in a straight section both extents were about equal. These outcomes were confirmed when the two sections were each separated from the figure and presented alone. The illusion is explained in terms of a perceptual compromise between the vertical extent and the greater overall dimensions of the section at the turn of the sine-wave figure and is thereby held to be the same in principle as the Müller-Lyer illusion.

Adult↗

The influence of object familiarity on magnitude estimates of apparent size.

Three magnitude-estimation experiments were used to determine the exponents of the power function relating size judgments and physical size for two-dimensional familiar and unfamiliar stimuli. The exponent of the power function was used to index the effect of familiar size on perceived size under a variety of conditions, from full-cue to reduced-cue viewing conditions. Although the value of the exponents varied across the three experiments, within each experiment the exponent of the familiar stimulus was not significantly different from that of the unfamiliar stimulus, indicating that familiar size does not influence the rate of growth of perceived size. The results of a fourth experiment excluded a possible explanation of the findings of experiments 1-3 in terms of subjects responding to relative angular size as a consequence of the successive presentation of the different-sized representations of the familiar stimulus. Taken together, the present findings are consistent with the hypothesis that the influence of familiar size on estimates of size mainly reflects the intrusion of nonperceptual processes in spatial responses.

Cues↗

The Müller-Lyer illusion Mark II.

A new illusion of size is described. A passage of print occupying about half a standard A4 sheet appeared larger than the same passage when the sheet was cropped immediately above and below it. This illusion is demonstrated and explained in terms of perceptual compromise between the vertical extent of the printed passage and the sheet of which it is an intrinsic feature. In this sense it is held to be essentially the same as the Müller-Lyer illusion of extent in which the spaces between the apexes are intrinsic to the figure.

Attention↗

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