The pitch of a visual field systematically influences the elevation at which a monocularly viewing subject sets a target so as to appear at visually perceived eye level (VPEL). The deviation of the setting from true eye level averages approximately 0.6 times the angle of pitch while viewing a fully illuminated complexly structured visual field and is only slightly less with one or two pitched-fromvertical lines in a dark field (Matin & Li, 1994a). The deviation of VPEL from baseline following 20 min of dark adaptation reaches its full value less than 1 min after the onset of illumination of the pitched visual field and decays exponentially in darkness following 5 min of exposure to visual pitch, either 30°topbackward or 20°topforward. The magnitude of the VPEL deviation measured with the dark-adapted right eye following left-eye exposure to pitch was 85%ofthe deviation that followed pitch exposure of the right eye itself. Time constants for VPEL decay to the dark baseline were the same for same-eye and cross-adaptation conditions and averaged about 4 min. The time constants for decay during dark adaptation were somewhat smaller, and the change during dark adaptation extended over a 16% smaller range following the viewing of the dim two-line pitched-from-vertical stimulus than following the viewing of the complex field. The temporal course of light and dark adaptation ofVPEL is virtually identical to the course oflight and dark adaptation of the scotopic luminance threshold following exposure to the same luminance. We suggest that, following rod stimulation along particular retinal orientations by portions of the pitched visual field, the storage of the adaptation process resides in the retinogeniculate system and is manifested in the focal system as a change in luminance threshold and in the ambient system as a change in VPEL.The linear model previously developed to account for VPEL, which was based on the interaction of influences from the pitched visual field and extraretinal influences from the body-referenced mechanism, was employed to incorporate the effects of adaptation. Connections between VPEL adaptation and other cases of perceptual adaptation of visual direction are described.The physical elevation of visually perceived eye level (VPEL) changes linearly with the pitch! of an illuminated visual field (Matin & Fox, 1986Matin, Fox, & Doktorsky, 1987;Matin & Li, 1989b, 1992b, 1992c, 1994a, 1994bMatin, Li, & Doktorsky, 1988;Stoper & Cohen, 1989). Employing the normally illuminated and complexly structured pitchroom shown in Figure 1a, average VPEL values for different groups of 8 subjects in two separate experiments deviated from true eye level by 0.61 and 0.63 times the angle of visual pitch over pitch ranges of 65°and 50°, respectively; one of the experiments involved monocular viewing, and the second involved binocular viewing. The slope of each subject's VPEL-versus-pitch function was linear, with individual slopes that ranged from +0.44 to +0.84. These individual slopes have demonstrated a great deal ...