Determinants of filled/empty optical illusion: Influence of luminance contrast and polarity

Subjective estimates of lengths or areas in the visual field depend on the visual contents of the estimated space (filled/empty or Oppel-Kundt illusion). We studied the dependence of this phenomenon on the presentation mode (white on black vs. black on white background), and on the figure/ground contrast. We found, as expected, overestimation of the filled part of the figure for both contrast polarities. The expansion effect was found to be an increasing function of the absolute luminance contrast, and was consistently higher for the negative (luminant figures on a dark background) than for the positive polarity. The contrast factor contributes from one-fifth to one-third of the total effect. Possible interpretations in terms of known sensory phenomena (irradiation, lateral interactions) or higher, integrative functions are discussed.

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