2018 Student Research Conference:
31st Annual Student Research Conference

Does Stereoscopic Depth Influence Lightness in White’s Illusion?


Julianne V. Stirpe* and Kordel W. Flanary
Dr. Terry Palmer, Faculty Mentor

In White’s Illusion, physically identical grey regions of a patterned collection of white, grey, and black rectangles differ in lightness.  The mechanism underlying this effect is not fully understood.  One proposed account assumes that the visual system unconsciously interprets this patterned collection of rectangles as two distinct 3-D regions illuminated by different amounts of light.  We test this possibility by providing an additional stereoscopic depth cue to accentuate the distinction between these two regions.  Slightly different images of White’s stimulus will be stereoscopically presented to each eye.  We hypothesize that this resultant stereoscopic depth cue will either increase or decrease the perceived lightness difference of the grey rectangles, and that the direction of this perceived change will depend upon the direction of disparity (crossed versus uncrossed) between the left and right-eye images.

Keywords: White's Illusion, Stereoscopic, Depth Cue, Illumination, Scene Interpretation, Illusion, Light, 3-D

Topic(s):Psychology

Presentation Type: Poster

Session: 7-7
Location: GEO - SUB
Time: 3:30

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