Phenomenal Shrinkage and Expansion of Visual Surfaces: Is Amodal Completion a Factor?

When two figures intersect, two apparently paradoxical size effects take place (Kanizsa, 1979 Organization in Vision chapter 11): (1) the partly occluded figure looks shorter than an identical unoccluded figure, and (2) the modally visible parts of the occluded figure look larger than identical isolated parts. Kanizsa explains such effects as due to amodal completion.

Three experiments were carried out by the method of adjustment to test this explanation: two were devoted to the shrinkage effect, and the third one was devoted to the expansion effect. The first experiment exploited the properties of the so-called Helmholtz - Ratoosh law (T-shaped vs Y-shaped junctions) to test whether a figural shrinkage is also present in a pattern in which amodal completion should not occur. The second experiment was aimed at checking whether stereoscopic displacement of the ‘occluded’ figure ‘behind’ or ‘in front of’ the ‘occluding’ one is capable of affecting the amount of shrinkage. In the third experiment the Helmholtz - Ratoosh law was again applied to the expansion. The results of all three experiments converge in showing that the amount of shrinkage of the whole ‘occluded’ figure as well as the ammount of expansion of the ‘modally visible’ parts are not affected by the presence or the absence of amodal completion. We conclude that both the shrinkage and the expansion effects are due to other factors, probably the same factors as those that affect classical optical-geometrical illusions, such as the Oppel - Kundt or the horizontal - vertical illusions.