Temporal properties of illusory-surface perception probed with Poggendorff configuration

Abstract

Temporal properties of illusory surface perception were investigated by using the probing method of the Poggendorff configuration. We used real lines and an opaque illusory surface to compose the Poggendorff configuration, which was presented in an intermittent display method so that the real lines were displayed continuously and the opaque illusory surface was displayed periodically with various duration and interval times. The results showed that the opaque illusory surface required a minimum duration of approximately 220 msec for sustained perception. An interval of as much as 2200 msec was needed to obliterate the perception of the opaque illusory surface. We decided the intermittent display method was effective to directly examine the time course of illusory surface perception. Furthermore, we concluded that we could achieve better understanding of the surface perception mechanism of the human visual system by utilizing the intermittent display method and probing method of the Poggendorff configuration. © 2008 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.