Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 16, 2026

Visualizing Visual Adaptation
Published on: April 24, 2017
Looking at two paintings at once: Luminance edges can gate colors
Stuart Anstis1, Mark Vergeer, Rob Van Lier
1Department of Psychology, UC San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA, 92093, USA;
Unlabelled:
Two paintings, O1 and O2, were split into their luminance (grayscale) components L1, L2 and their color components C1, C2. The two color components, C1, C2, were transparently superimposed. Adding the grayscale of the first painting (= C1 + C2 + L1) looked like the original O1, while adding the grayscale of the second painting (= C1 + C2 + L2) looked like the original O2.
Conclusion:
the luminance contours selected or gated the congruent color contours and ignored non-congruent colors from the other painting.
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