The peculiar nature of simultaneous colour contrast in uniform surrounds

AbstractWe present evidence from asymmetric colour matching experiments which strongly suggests that uniform surrounds evoke induction effects of a very peculiar nature, not representative of colour induction effects in variegated surrounds. Given the widespread use of uniform surrounds in studies of colour vision, this finding is of interest in relation to a number of current research issues, such as contrast coding of colour, functionally equivalent surrounds and colour constancy. A framework that systematises the seemingly complex colour appearance changes induced by uniform surrounds is presented and its implications are discussed

Conjuring deceptions: Fooling the eye or fooling the mind?

Currently, we see the contours of a new research program emerging, where cognitive scientists study what magicians do and why it works. This research program may aid us in formulating interesting questions about central aspects of human experience and in gaining new perspectives on the relation between perception and cognition.status: publishe

Psychophysical model of chromatic perceptual transparency based on substractive color mixture

Variants of Metelli’s episcotister model, which are based on additive color mixture, have been found to describe the luminance conditions for perceptual transparency very accurately. However, the findings in the chromatic domain are not that clear-cut, since there exist chromatic stimuli that conform to the additive model but do not appear transparent. We present evidence that such failures are of a systematic nature, and we propose an alternative psychophysical model based on subtractive color mixture. Results of a computer simulation revealed that this model approximately describes color changes that occur when a surface is covered by a filter. We present the results of two psychophysical experiments with chromatic stimuli, in which we directly compared the predictions of the additive model and the predictions of the new model. These results show that the color relations leading to the perception of a homogeneous transparent layer conform very closely to the predictions of the new model and deviate systematically from the predictions of the additive model.status: publishe

Perceptual transparency in neon color spreading displays

In neon color spreading displays, both a color illusion and perceptual transparency can be seen. In this study, we investigated the color conditions for the perception of transparency in such displays. It was found that the data are very well accounted for by a generalization of Metelli’s (1970) episcotister model of balanced perceptual transparency to tristimulus values. This additive model correctly predicted which combinations of colors would lead to optimal impressions of transparency. Color combinations deviating slightly from the additive model also looked transparent, but less convincingly so.status: publishe

The other side of magic: The psychology of perceiving hidden things

When magicians perform spectacles that seem to defy the laws of nature, they do so by manipulating psychological reality. Hence, the principles underlying the art of conjuring are potentially of interest to psychological science. Here, we argue that perceptual and cognitive principles governing how humans experience hidden things and reason about them play a central role in many magic tricks. Different from tricks based on many other forms of misdirection, which require considerable skill on the part of the magician, many elements of these tricks are essentially self-working because they rely on automatic perceptual and cognitive processes. Since these processes are not directly observable, even experienced magicians may be oblivious to their central role in creating strong magical experiences and tricks that are almost impossible to debunk, even after repeated presentations. We delineate how insights from perceptual psychology provide a framework for understanding why these tricks work so well. Conversely, we argue that studying magic tricks that work much better than one intuitively would believe provides a promising heuristic for charting unexplored aspects of perception and cognition.status: publishe

Against better knowledge: The magical force of amodal volume completion

In a popular magic routine known as “multiplying billiard balls”, magicians fool their audience by using an empty shell that the audience believes to be a complete ball. Here, we present some observations suggesting that the spectators do not merely entertain the intellectual belief that the balls are all solid, but rather automatically and immediately perceive them as such. Our observations demonstrate the surprising potency and genuinely perceptual origin of amodal volume completion.status: publishe

The put-and-fetch ambiguity: How magicians exploit the principle of exclusive allocation of movements to intentions

In many magic tricks, magicians fool their audience by performing a mock action (a so-called “ruse”), which merely serves the purpose of providing a seemingly natural explanation for visible movements that are actually part of the secret move they want to hide from the audience. Here, we discuss a special magic ruse in which the action of secretly putting something somewhere is “explained away” by the mock action of fetching something from the same place, or vice versa. Interestingly, the psychological principles underlying the amazing potency and robustness of this technique seem to be very similar to the general perceptual principles underlying figure-ground perception and the assignment of border ownership. This analogy may be useful for exploring the possibility that this and similar magical effects involve immediate “unconscious inferences” about intentions more akin to perceptual processing than to explicit deliberations based on a reflective 'theory' of mind.status: publishe

Poggendorff rides again!

The Poggendorff illusion is one of the most exhaustively studied illusions. Can it be revived as an interesting problem? Perhaps by moving it to a slightly different domain. Here, we consider the occlusion of a subjectively linear ramp of tonal values. In a simple experiment, we find results closely resembling those of the geometrical Poggendorff. Yet, the "explanations" offered for the latter hardly apply to the former case. Depending upon one's perspective, this may be taken to "revive" the Poggendorff illusion.status: publishe

Illusory visual completion of an object's invisible backside can make your finger feel shorter

In a well-known magic trick known as multiplying balls, conjurers fool their audience with the use of a semi-spherical shell, which the audience perceives as a complete ball [1]. Here, we report that this illusion persists even when observers touch the inside of the shell with their own finger. Even more intriguingly, this also produces an illusion of bodily self-awareness in which the finger feels shorter, as if to make space for the purely illusory volume of the visually completed ball. This observation provides strong evidence for the controversial and counterintuitive idea that our experience of the hidden backsides of objects is shaped by genuine perceptual representations rather than mere cognitive guesswork or imagerypublisher: Elsevier articletitle: Illusory Visual Completion of an Object’s Invisible Backside Can Make Your Finger Feel Shorter journaltitle: Current Biology articlelink: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2016.02.001 content_type: article copyright: © 2016 Elsevier Ltd.status: publishe