Temporal brightness illusion changes color perception of “the dress”

Abstract

"The dress" has provoked intensive commentary among psychophysicists, especially in relation to color vision. Researchers have shown that manipulating illuminance cues can influence the perceived colors of the dress. Here we investigate whether illusory shifts in brightness can shift color perception of the dress. Drifting achromatic gratings with fast off and fast on shading profiles are known to give an illusion of brightening or darkening, respectively. We superimposed rotating sawtooth gratings on a series of dress images that morphed from extreme white/gold through to blue/black. In a sample of 18 adults (11 with white/gold dress percept and seven with blue/black percept), a two-alternative, forced-choice constant stimulus task measured the morphed image point at which each observer was equally likely to categorize the dress as white/gold or blue/black (the point of subjective equality or PSE). Despite manifest individual differences in the PSE, the two sawtooth temporal profiles consistently changed the perceived colors of the dress. Perceptual dimming shifted color categorization toward blue/black whereas perceptual brightening shifted color categorization toward white/gold. We conclude that color categorization is influenced substantially by illusory shifts in brightness.

The Brain Knows enough to take into account Light and Shadow

“…For example, Brainarad et al (2015) analyzed the selection of the anchoring point of the light source and the overall color shift 41 . Although our results are based on statistical methods, they are consistent with previously reported interpretations [42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50] . Our interpretation also demonstrates that an objective, quantitative optimization (for the illusion) is possible based on the illuminant color estimation specificity and statistical background.…”

Body Representation in Anorexia Nervosa

“…In the late 1800s, ambiguous figures such as Jastrow's Rabbit-Duck illusion (1899), depicting a drawing that can either be interpreted as a duck or a rabbit gained popularity. New visual illusions continued to emerge, just a few years ago a photograph of a dress (Hugrass et al, 2017) resulted in a heated debate on the internet: Some swore the color of the dress was black and blue, while others were certain that it was white and gold. Both examples illustrate that perception is a subjective process which shapes our individual reality.…”

“…Although these examples have served as food for scholars (Meng and Tong, 2004, Kornmeier and Bach, 2012, Rock and Mitchener, 1992, Lafer-Sousa et al, 2015, Hugrass et al, 2017 and at the same time have a high entertainment value, matters become more serious when an individual's subjective perception of reality can drive them towards behaviors with a life threatening outcome. The most striking illustration hereof can be observed in individuals suffering from anorexia nervosa (AN).…”

Exploring the Determinants of Color Perception Using #Thedress and Its Variants: The Role of Spatio-Chromatic Context, Chromatic Illumination, and Material–Light Interaction

“…People who see the dress as white/gold tend to perceive the illumination in the photo as bluer and darker, whereas people who see the dress as blue/black see the illumination as yellower and brighter. Other studies demonstrate that providing additional cues to the illumination spectrum may drive individual perceptions toward a particular naming category , as do image manipulations such as illusory brightness changes (Hugrass et al, 2017), spatial filtering (Dixon & Shapiro, 2017), or spatial occlusion (Daoudi et al, 2017).…”

“…In 2015, an image of a dress (#thedress) went viral as people divided roughly into two populations, depending on how they named its colors: blue/black or white/gold. A plausible explanation proposed for this split is that individuals differ in the way their visual systems assign probabilities to different illuminations when estimating surface color (see e.g., Brainard & Hurlbert, 2015 ; Gegenfurtner et al., 2015 ; Lafer-Sousa & Conway, 2017 , Wallisch, 2017 ; Witzel et al., 2017 ). Color constancy is the perceptual phenomenon by which perceived object colors remain approximately stable under changes in illumination (c.f.…”