Strength of visual interpolation depends on the ratio of physically specified to total edge length

We report four experiments in which the strength of edge interpolation in illusory figure displays was tested. In Experiment 1, we investigated the relative contributions of the lengths of luminance-specified edges and the gaps between them to perceived boundary clarity as measured by using a magnitude estimation procedure. The contributions of these variables were found to be best characterized by a ratio of the length of luminance-specified contour to the length of the entire edge (specified plus interpolated edge). Experiment 2 showed that this ratio predicts boundary clarity for a wide range of ratio values and display sizes. There was no evidence that illusory figure boundaries are clearer in displays with small gaps than they are in displays with larger gaps and equivalent ratios. In Experiment 3, using a more sensitive pairwise comparison paradigm, we again found no such effect. Implications for boundary interpolation in general, including perception of partially occluded objects, are discussed. The dependence of interpolation on the ratio of physically specified edges to total edge length has the desirable ecological consequence that unit formation will not change with variations in viewing distance.