Layer and framework theories of lightness

Abstract

Lightness (the perceived dimension running from black to white) represents a problem for vision science because the light coming to the eye from an object totally fails to specify the shade of gray of the object, due to the confounding of surface gray and illumination intensity. The two leading approaches, decomposition theories and anchoring theories, split the retinal image into overlapping layers and adjacent frameworks, respectively. Because each approach has important strengths and some weaknesses, an integration of them would mark an important step forward for the lightness theory. But the problem remains how this integration can actually be realized.