Assimilation: central and peripheral effects.

Assimilation and contrast have opposite effects: Contrast leads to an increase of perceived differences between neighbouring fields, whereas assimilation leads to a reduction. It is relatively easy to demonstrate these effects, but the precise localisation of these effects in the perceptual system is not yet possible. In an experiment the strength of assimilation effects was modified by adding spatial noise. By varying the localisation in perceived space of the added noise (by presentation of the noise pattern with different binocular disparities) the masking effect of this noise can be influenced. Masking caused by binocularly disparate noise is less than masking caused by binocularly non-disparate noise. It is concluded that the effect at least partly occurs beyond the (binocular) locus of separation in different depth planes. A similar approach, involving moving noise, is also presented. Finally, several demonstrations show that images that are peripherally similar can give rise to differences in the perceived amount of assimilation. These effects further indicate that a central mechanism is involved in assimilation.

Assimilation: asymmetry between brightness and darkness?

A pincushion formed by four arcs on a gray background looks darker when the arcs are black, and lighter when the arcs are white. Yet, a matching-experiment shows that this difference is relative. Whereas the apparently darker pincushion requires a matching luminance that is lower than the background luminance (i.e. assimilation), the apparently lighter pincushion curiously is also matched to a darker-than-background value (i.e. simultaneous contrast). A change-over in direction of a higher luminance occurs only at the lowest contrast. The size of the decrement required for matching the brightness of the pincushions increases with increasing contrast of the inducing stimulus, as well as with viewing distance. Assimilation is found also in the domain of color, however, only when the luminance of the colored inducers is below that of the background. Analogous asymmetries in the perception of darkness and lightness are discussed.

Aftereffects of apparent motion: the existence of an AND-type binocular system in human vision.

There has been evidence for the existence of a purely binocular system in human vision that acts as an AND gate on information from the two eyes. There also has been evidence for the nonexistence of such a purely binocular system, indicating only the existence of an OR-type binocular system that responds to input from one or both eyes. As a result there are a number of possible explanations for the differing experimental results: the binocular system is an OR-type system only, it is a facilitating OR system that has AND-type characteristics, or it consists of independent OR and AND subsystems. Monocular adaptation, alternating monocular adaptation, or binocular adaptation were used to demonstrate the existence of the different systems, but in none of the previous experiments was the AND-type binocular system activated directly, and the existence of this AND system was deduced mostly because of differences in aftereffect strengths between monocular and binocular test conditions. Experiments are reported in which stimuli that activate the AND-type binocular system explicitly have been used, and the results show that we need the existence of such an AND-type binocular system to account for the results.

A test of Levelt's second proposition for binocular rivalry.

Levelt's second proposition (1968) was tested by investigating the effect of increasing the stimulus strength on the ipsilateral mean dominance duration. In three experiments, three stimulus dimensions were investigated: luminance contrast, colour contrast, and motion velocity. We included an experiment similar to Levelt's own equipment, in which a reversed contrast stimulus was used. In all three experiments, including the Levelt disk-ring experiment, the proposition was rejected. We conclude that Levelt's proposition cannot always be generalized to a broad class of stimulus dimensions and therefore cannot be held against reciprocal inhibition models.

Apparent motion perception: the contribution of the binocular and monocular systems. An improved test based on motion aftereffects.

Research concerning the perception of apparent motion is not easy to conduct: it is hard to obtain quantitative results that can be easily interpreted. A solution to this problem is the use of motion aftereffects (MAEs). Adapting subjects to a specific type of motion leads to apparent motion in the opposite direction when the stimulus is removed. However, subjects are aware of the change in stimulus conditions. A new dynamic test stimulus is proposed in order to avoid artefacts introduced by the awareness of the conditions by the subject. A model, derived from earlier observations, is described which includes contributions from monocular and binocular systems. Results from an experiment in which the dynamic test stimulus was used show that they do not necessarily reproduce the results obtained with a static test stimulus. Central monocular systems are added to the model to account for this discrepancy. The 'pooling hypothesis', which states that the MAE is a weighted mean of the processes involved, permits the estimation of the weights of the individual subsystems. The results of the experiments are explained in terms of this hypothesis by the new model.

On interocular transfer of motion aftereffects.

A brief history of quantitative assessments of interocular transfer (IOT) of the motion aftereffect (MAE) is presented. Recent research indicates that the MAE occurs as a consequence of adapting detectors for relative rather than retinal motion. When gratings above and below a stationary, fixated grating are moved in an otherwise dark field the central, retinally stationary grafting appears to move in the opposite direction; when tested with stationary gratings an MAE is almost entirely confined to the central grating. The IOT of such an MAE was measured in experiment 1: the display was presented to one eye with a black field in the other. The IOT was about 30% of the monocular MAE. Similar values were found in experiment 2, in which the contralateral eye received an equivalent central stationary grating during adaptation and test. The dichoptic interaction of the processes involved in the MAE was examined by presenting the central gratings to both eyes and a single flanking grating above in one eye and below in the other (experiment 3). The MAE was tested with either the same or the contralateral pairing. Oppositely directed MAEs were found for the central and flanking gratings, but they were confined mainly to the conditions in which the configurations presented during adaptation were present in the same eyes during test. In experiment 4, the surround MAEs were compared after adaptation with two moving gratings in one eye or with a similar dichoptic configuration, and they were of similar duration. In a final experiment the MAE was tested either monocularly or binocularly after alternating adaptation of the left and right eyes and was found to be of the same duration. It is concluded that the MAE is a consequence of adapting relational-motion detectors, which are either monocular or of the binocular OR class.

Binocular measurements of chromatic adaptation.

In this paper we present asymmetric matching data that were obtained with a binocular presentation method. Our main motivation was the question whether chromatic adaptation, one of the important mechanisms that contribute to colour constancy, has evolved towards a better performance in the range of colours that are present in the natural image. For the eye adapted to a bluish illuminant for example the presence of an object with a deep yellow colour is very unlikely. So, it was expected that the colour difference between adapting light and target has an influence on the extent of chromatic adaptation. It was found that the colour shift in the observers' matches that can be attributed to chromatic adaptation indeed has a maximum. The location of the maximum, however, was unexpected, i.e. colour differences between target and adapting light that lie around 0.05 u'v'-chromaticity units. Additionally, several models for chromatic adaptation were fitted to our data. It was found that, except for the simple von Kries model, Retinex Theory and difference contrast, a number of models gave good predictions for the L-wave and M-wave fundamental systems, but that predictions for the S-wave system were less accurate.

Naming versus matching in color constancy.

In this paper, a replication of the color-constancy study of Arend and Reeves (1986) is reported, and an alternative method is presented that can be used for the study of higher order aspects of color constancy, such as memory, familiarity, and perceptual organization. Besides a simultaneous presentation of standard and test illuminants, we also carried out an experiment in which the illuminants were presented successively. The results were similar to Arend and Reeves's; however, in the object-matching condition of the successive experiment, we found an overestimation, instead of an underestimation, of the illuminant component. Because the results of matching experiments are difficult to interpret, mainly due to their sensitivity to instruction effects, we introduced another type of color-constancy task. In this task, subjects simply named the color of a simulated patch. It was found that, by applying such a task, a reliable measure of the degree of identification of object color can be obtained.

Large color differences and selective attention.

Similarity data for large color differences, obtained with triadic comparisons, are presented. Approximately 63,000 judgments are collected. We have compared the performance of the CIELUV, the CIELAB, and the Optical Society of America's [symbol; see text] jg color spaces, using three different color sets and two instructions. For color sets containing large color differences in the isoluminant plane, the [symbol; see text] jg color space outperforms the CIELUV and CIELAB spaces. We also investigated the effects of selective attention and conclude that, for judgments of large color differences, selective attention leads to significant changes in the relative contribution of the brightness dimension on the one hand and the hue and saturation dimensions on the other hand.

Surface reflectances and human color constancy: comment on Dannemiller (1989)

Dannemiller's (1989) computational approach to color constancy is discussed in relation to human color constancy. A reflectance channel that requires a priori information is shown to be less plausible for the human visual system than Dannemiller argued. The resemblance of Dannemiller's hypothetical visual system to the human visual system is misleading because it implies that surface reflectance is the illuminant-invariant object color descriptor that the human visual system uses to achieve color constancy. However, an alternative type of descriptor is available that is not used to recover reflectance spectra. It has the advantage of allowing an interpretation that is preferable from a human perceptual point of view.

Transparent layer constancy.

Perceived transparency was studied as a constancy problem. In the episcotister (E-) model of scission, luminances are partitioned into layer and background components; four luminances determine values of two layer parameters that specify constancy of a transparent layer on different backgrounds. The E-model was tested in an experiment in which 12 Ss matched 24 pairs of four-luminance patterns by adjusting two luminances of the comparison pattern. Both the standard and the comparison were perceived as a transparent layer on a checkerboard. The E-model predicts matches when layer values are identical in the two patterns. One parameter was constant, constraining the adjustment along the second dimension. Obtained values corresponded well with E-predictions. Alternative models based on local luminance or average contrast ratios accounted for less variability. Results indicate that transparency models should utilize luminance, not reflectance, as the independent variable.

Compound binocular rivalry.

Binocular rivalry was examined with random dot patterns consisting of three colours: red, green and grey. The microstructure of the patterns was defined by the individual dots, and the correspondence between the microstructures in the two eyes was manipulated. The macrostructures were defined by the distributions of red, green and grey dots over the displays, so that they consisted of orthogonally striped patterns. The degree of correspondence between the microstructures was varied in Expt 1, together with the spatial frequency of the microstructure. Rivalry periods of the macrostructures were briefer when the microstructures were in correspondence, In Expt 2 the spatial frequencies of the macrostructures were varied. The lower spatial frequency predominated for longer than the higher. The results are discussed in terms of independent pathways for corresponding and rivalry stimulation. In addition a stimulus pairing that produces clear dichoptic colour mixtures is presented.

Spectral sensitivity functions derived from brightness matching: implication of intensity invariance for color-vision models.

It is demonstrated that brightness sensitivity functions are self-similar; i.e., unique up to multiplication by a positive constant. This invariance leads to a structural restriction for sensitivity models that are formulated in terms of action spectra of cone systems. The heuristic value of this restriction is demonstrated through simulations on various kinds of data on direct brightness matching and brightness magnitude estimation on the basis of a new model for brightness sensitivity that accounts for both superadditivity and subadditivity.

Aftereffects in binocular rivalry.

Five experiments are reported in which the aftereffect paradigm was applied to binocular rivalry. In the first three experiments rivalry was between a vertical grating presented to the left eye and a horizontal grating presented to the right eye. In the fourth experiment the rivalry stimuli consisted of a rotating sectored disc presented to the left eye and a static concentric circular pattern presented to the right. In experiment 5 rivalry was between static radiating and circular patterns. The predominance durations were systematically influenced by direct (same eye) and indirect (interocular) adaptation in a manner similar to that seen for spatial aftereffects. Binocular adaptation produced an aftereffect that was significantly smaller than the direct aftereffect, but not significantly different from the indirect one. A model is developed to account for the results; it involves two levels of binocular interaction in addition to monocular channels. It is suggested that the site of spatial aftereffects is the same as that for binocular rivalry, rather than sequentially prior.

Binocular rivalry with rotary and radial motions.

Binocular rivalry between a radially sectored and a concentrically circular pattern was investigated in three experiments. Motion of the circular pattern was either cyclical expansion and contraction with corresponding changes in spatial frequency (experiment 1), or outward motion with a constant linear velocity (experiment 2). When both patterns were static the circular pattern was visible for longer than the radial one. Motion of either pattern alone resulted in an increase in the predominance duration and the mean period for which the pattern was visible. This is at variance with Levelt's model of rivalry. In the third experiment, rivalry was between a static circular pattern and a radial pattern that could be rotated at different angular velocities. Again it was found that an increase in stimulus strength, as measured by predominance, led to an increase in the mean periods of visibility of the rotating pattern.

Nonlinear codes for the yellow/blue mechanism.

The opponent yellow/blue mechanism is studied by means of an iso-cancellation technique. A qualitative and quantitative analysis of different photopigment models for the yellow/blue code is presented. On the basis of this analysis we provide a new model which ascribes the nonlinear character of the code to a power transformation of the short wave cone activity. This new model leads to predictions concerning the wavelength shift of the short wave component of a unique red. Tests of these predictions support the new model.

Cancelling of pattern motion: dichoptic and monoptic observations.

Patterns consisting of concentric rings, moving inwards and outwards are superimposed dichoptically and optically. In both conditions opponent patterns motions lead to apparent standstills for considerable periods. In a tentative model both the apparent standstills and the remaining pattern motions are described as by-products, resulting from pattern combinations rather than as direct products of component motions.