Abstract

Psychopysical experiments via computer graphics: an Analysis of the Cafe Wall Illusion.

The famous and much-studied Cafe Wall illusion, introduced in the paper "Border locking and the Cafe Wall illusion" by Richard L. Gregory and Priscilla Heard, Perception, 1979, v 8, pp 365-380 seems never to have been fully understood. This talk will offer another account of the illusion, attempt to buttress this account with convincing demonstrations,and offer some observations on the potential utility of this illusion and others derived from it as a tool for elucidating an important issue in visual psychophysics, the behavior of the visual system's direction (slope) detecting mechanisms.

Back to Distinguished Lecture Series - Fall 2003 / Spring 2004 Schedule