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Spatial profile of contours inducing long-range color assimilation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 September 2006

FRÉDÉRIC DEVINCK,
LOTHAR SPILLMANN and
JOHN S. WERNER
FRÉDÉRIC DEVINCK
Affiliation:
Section of Neurobiology, Physiology & Behavior, Department of Ophthalmology & Vision Science, University of California, Davis, Sacramento, California
LOTHAR SPILLMANN
Affiliation:
Brain Research Unit, Department of Neurology, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany
JOHN S. WERNER
Affiliation:
Section of Neurobiology, Physiology & Behavior, Department of Ophthalmology & Vision Science, University of California, Davis, Sacramento, California
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Abstract

Color induction was measured using a matching method for two spatial patterns, each composed of double contours. In one pattern (the standard), the contours had sharp edges to induce the Watercolor Effect (WCE); in the other, the two contours had a spatial taper so that the overall profile produced a sawtooth edge, or ramped stimulus. These patterns were chosen based on our previous study demonstrating that the strength of the chromatic WCE depends on a luminance difference between the two contours. Low-pass chromatic mechanisms, unlike bandpass luminance mechanisms, may be expected to be insensitive to the difference between the two spatial profiles. The strength of the watercolor spreading was similar for the two patterns at narrow widths of the contour possibly because of chromatic aberration, but with wider contours, the standard stimulus produced stronger assimilation than the ramped stimulus. This research suggests that luminance-dependent chromatic mechanisms mediate the WCE and that these mechanisms are sensitive to differences in the two spatial profiles of the pattern contours only when they are wide.

Keywords

Watercolor effectAssimilationLong-range interaction

Information

Type
PERCEPTION
Information
Visual Neuroscience , Volume 23 , Issue 3-4 , May 2006, pp. 573 - 577
Copyright
© 2006 Cambridge University Press

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