Dependence of Time to Filling-in on Spatio-temporal Frequency of Dynamic Textures

Abstract

Perceptual filling-in is a visual illusion that occurs under certain conditions when a figure with features, such as color, brightness, and texture, all of which differ from the surrounding background, are perceived to disappear. The features are replaced, or filled in, by the surrounding background. To investigate the mechanism involved, we studied perceptual filling-in during a peripheral viewing of a gray uniform figure surrounding a dynamic random-dot texture background. Time to filling-in was measured when random-dot images with a limited bandwidth of spatio-temporal frequency were presented to subjects. On the basis of the experimental results, a hypothesis-in which filling-in arises-was proposed. This filling-in occurs because of perceptual power and temporal frequency of dynamic textures. By applying the results to the hypothesis, a decreasing rate for temporal frequency was estimated.