The Effect of Perceptual Grouping of the Stimuli for the Surface-Color Mode Perception

Abstract

A series of experiments were carried out to study effects of a partial change in luminance on the limit of the surface-color mode perception. A CRT monitor displayed the stimuli that contained an area whose luminance was changed incrementally or decrementally. We tested several spatial positions and luminance change ratios of the area for two configurations of the stimuli. Observer adjusted luminance of the test color so that it just ceased to appear as an attribute of the surface. Our results indicated that the upper-limit luminance of test stimulus tend to change only when the test stimulus was located inside the brighter/darker area. The same results were obtained with the stimulus whose configuration gave an impression that the test stimulus appeared to belong to the same group as the stimuli whose luminance was changed. It is suggested that the perceptual organization of the stimuli, not an apparent brightest stimulus, mainly works as a cue for the judgment of color appearance mode.