Implicit exploitation of regularities: novel correlations in images quickly alter visual perception
Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 16, 2026

Visualizing Visual Adaptation
Published on: April 24, 2017
Michael Falconbridge1, David R Badcock
1University of Western Australia, School of Psychology, 35 Stirling Highway, Nedlands WA 6009, Australia. michaelf@psy.uwa.edu.au
Abstract:
Viewing a set of two thousand images in which the contrasts of a central and a surrounding pattern were highly correlated increased the suppressive influence of the surround on the perceived contrast of the central pattern. The apparent increase in inhibition supports the operation of an anti-Hebbian mechanism between the two groups of cells excited by the patterns (one group by the central pattern and the other by the surround). According to this mechanism, inhibitory connections between nearby cells increase in efficacy according to a simple function of the correlations between the cells' activities.
Related Concept Videos
Parallel Processing
Perceptual Constancy
Size constancy is the recognition that an object remains the same size, even when its image on the retina changes. For instance, a bus is perceived to be large enough to carry people, even if it looks tiny from...
Gestalt Principles of Perception
Nonconscious Mimicry
Causes of Similarity-Dissimilarity Effect
Cause and Effect

