Illusory shrinkage of objects under backward masking.

Backward masking is a powerful phenomenon that can reduce, often to zero, the visibility of targets. Here, we show that when the masking is less than completely effective so that the target remains visible, the masking has other effects, specifically reducing the perceived size of the target.

Pink illusions and white shifts.

A rotating stimulus of alternating red and white sectors generates a faint pink fill throughout the image. The trailing cyan after images of the red sectors quickly become the brightest regions in the image, providing an index of the overall illumination that triggers a shift of the white point. Actual white areas then shift in the opposite direction and appear pink.

Deconstructing the frame effect.

The perception of an object's location is profoundly influenced by the surrounding dynamics. This is dramatically demonstrated by the frame effect, where a moving frame induces substantial shifts in the perceived location of objects that flash within it. In this study, we examined the elements contributing to the large magnitude of this effect.

Contribution of low-level motion to position shifts.

Motion can produce large changes in the apparent locations of briefly flashed tests presented on or near the motion. These motion-induced position shifts may have a variety of sources. They may be due to a frame effect where the moving pattern provides a frame of reference for the locations of events within it.