The "Double Ring Illusion": The physical constraint of solidity shapes visual processing

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Neuroscience
• Visual Perception

Background:

• Visual illusions offer insights into the human visual system.
• Most illusions do not incorporate physical principles.
• The Double Ring Illusion is a novel illusion based on physics priors.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce and demonstrate the Double Ring Illusion.
• To investigate the role of the solidity constraint in visual perception.
• To explore how physical priors shape visual processing.

Main Methods:

• Presenting ambiguously rotating rings to observers.
• Conducting experiments to confirm the illusion's reliability.
• Assessing the illusion's impact on orthogonal judgments (e.g., object width).
• Testing the solidity constraint with unambiguous stimuli (motion and depth cues).

Main Results:

• Observers predominantly perceived interpretations respecting solidity.
• The illusion's effects influenced object width judgments, ruling out decision-level effects.
• The solidity constraint shaped visual processing even with unambiguous motion and depth cues.
• The visual system utilizes solidity priors in various contexts beyond the Double Ring Illusion.

Conclusions:

• The visual system possesses a robust prior for solidity.
• This solidity prior influences the perception of object motion and interaction.
• The Double Ring Illusion provides compelling evidence for physics-based priors in vision.