Cite as:
Troncoso X G, Macknik S L, Martinez-Conde S, 2005, "Novel visual illusions related to Vasarely's 'nested squares' show that corner salience varies with corner angle" Perception 34(4) 409 – 420
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Novel visual illusions related to Vasarely's 'nested squares' show that corner salience varies with corner angle

Xoana G Troncoso, Stephen L Macknik, Susana Martinez-Conde

Received 14 November 2004, in revised form 23 January 2005

Abstract. Vasarely's 'nested-squares' illusion shows that 90° corners can be more salient perceptually than straight edges. On the basis of this illusion we have developed a novel visual illusion, the 'Alternating Brightness Star', which shows that sharp corners are more salient than shallow corners (an effect we call 'corner angle salience variation') and that the same corner can be perceived as either bright or dark depending on the polarity of the angle (ie whether concave or convex: 'corner angle brightness reversal'). Here we quantify the perception of corner angle salience variation and corner angle brightness reversal effects in twelve naive human subjects, in a two-alternative forced-choice brightness discrimination task. The results show that sharp corners generate stronger percepts than shallow corners, and that corner gradients appear bright or dark depending on whether the corner is concave or convex. Basic computational models of center - surround receptive fields predict the results to some degree, but not fully.

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