Banton T, Levi D M
University of Houston, College of Optometry, Texas.
Percept Psychophys. 1992 Dec;52(6):676-84. doi: 10.3758/bf03211704.
Illusory contours are not well understood, partially because a lack of physical substance complicates their specification via physical standards. One solution is to gauge illusory contours with respect to luminance-defined contours, which are easily quantified physically. Accordingly, we chose a metric (perceived contrast) that expresses illusory contour strength in terms of the physical contrast of luminance-defined contours. Using this metric, adult observers adjusted the contrast of a luminance-defined contour until it matched the perceived contrast of an illusory contour. Illusory contour length, inducer size, and inducer contrast all influenced illusory contour strength. The results are adequately explained via low-level visual processes. It appears that matching paradigms can be beneficial in quantitative studies of illusory contours.
虚幻轮廓尚未得到很好的理解，部分原因是缺乏物理实体使得通过物理标准对其进行界定变得复杂。一种解决方案是根据亮度定义的轮廓来衡量虚幻轮廓，而亮度定义的轮廓在物理上很容易量化。因此，我们选择了一种指标（感知对比度），该指标根据亮度定义的轮廓的物理对比度来表示虚幻轮廓强度。使用这个指标，成年观察者调整亮度定义轮廓的对比度，直到它与虚幻轮廓的感知对比度相匹配。虚幻轮廓长度、诱导物大小和诱导物对比度都会影响虚幻轮廓强度。这些结果可以通过低层次视觉过程得到充分解释。看来匹配范式在虚幻轮廓的定量研究中可能是有益的。
