Determinants of filled/empty optical illusion: differential effects of patterning

A subdivided path in the visual field appears longer than an empty path of the same length. This effect may be attributed to the division of the path into multiple segments, or to an influence of the visual elements used to mark the subdivision, and thus filling-up the estimated space. To address this question, we used two series of stimuli, in which the spatial distribution of the filling optical mater, or the form of the dividers, was varied while the relative coverage of the filled space was kept constant. We found significant dependence of the effect magnitude on a number of filling elements as well as on their form. These results indicate that the illusory space expansion is not merely an effect of 'filling-up' the space, but it also depends on the filling pattern. Consequences of these findings for the theory of the Oppel-Kundt phenomenon are briefly discussed.