Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Experiment Videos

Occlusion, transparency, and lightness.

Marc K Albert1

  • 1School of Psychology, University of Southampton, Southampton SO17 1BJ, UK. mka@soton.ac.uk

Vision Research
|October 24, 2007
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Perceptual occlusion, not layered image decomposition, can explain lightness illusions. This challenges previous theories suggesting perceptual transparency is essential for these visual effects.

Related Experiment Videos

Related Concept Videos

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by
Same author

The role of contrast in the perception of achromatic transparency: comment on Singh and Anderson (2002) and Anderson (2003).

Psychological review·2008
Same author

Mechanisms of modal and amodal interpolation.

Psychological review·2007
Same author

Discrimination of possible and impossible objects in infancy.

Psychological science·2007
Same author

Lightness and perceptual transparency.

Perception·2006
Same journal

Impact of crowding on visual appearance and performance in amblyopia.

Vision research·2026
Same journal

Editorial for VSI Amblyopia: Advances in Amblyopia Research.

Vision research·2026
Same journal

Computational and mathematical models in vision: Quantitative approaches to understanding visual perception.

Vision research·2026
Same journal

Complex interactions between lightness, chroma, and hue in color ensemble perception.

Vision research·2026
Same journal

Driving with autism spectrum disorder: Exploring the impact of tactile hazard warnings on gaze behavior and hazard responses.

Vision research·2026
Same journal

Early visual processing in adults with ADHD: evidence from contrast sensitivity, spatial integration, and external noise.

Vision research·2026
See all related articles

Area of Science:

  • Visual perception
  • Cognitive neuroscience

Background:

  • Lightness is perceived as achromatic reflectance, ranging from black to white.
  • Previous research suggested image luminance decomposition (e.g., perceptual transparency) is key to lightness illusions.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate if perceptual occlusion alone can explain lightness illusions.
  • To challenge the necessity of layered luminance decomposition for lightness illusions.

Main Methods:

  • Analysis of lightness illusions.
  • Demonstration of perceptual occlusion using T-junctions.

Main Results:

  • Simple perceptual occlusion evoked by T-junctions is sufficient to create lightness illusions.
  • Perceptual scission of luminance into multiple layers is unnecessary for these effects.

Conclusions:

  • Lightness illusions can occur without perceptual transparency or layered luminance decomposition.
  • The mechanisms underlying these illusions may differ from previously studied phenomena.