A Quantitative Method to Explore the Assimilation Effects

The role of central processes in the assimilation effect can easily be shown qualitatively (de Weert and Spillmann, 1995 Vision Research 35 1413 – 1419), but it is difficult to measure quantitatively because of the subtlety of the effect. In most experimental designs, the match stimulus differs greatly in appearance from the test stimulus, eg in size or configuration, and because these differences are far more striking than the assimilation effect, matching is difficult.

Central processing, eg object segmentation, influences colour spreading. It is this property that we explored with a new approach: a matching task in which the match stimulus has the same properties (eg size and configuration) as the test stimulus. Object segmentation is forced by stereopsis-induced depth. The test stimulus consists of two depth planes, one with black dots and the other with white dots, on a homogeneous gray background. The match stimulus has the same configuration of black and white dots, but now squeezed into a single depth plane. The basic idea behind this stimulus is that assimilation mainly acts on the back plane of a scene (as can be shown experimentally). So, while keeping the appearance of the stimulus the same, subjects can focus on the assimilation effect itself. This new approach allows us to explore more aspects of the assimilation effect and gain insight into the processes involved.