A mid-level explanation for the venetian blind effect.

Barbara J Gillam,Susan G Wardle

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00908

Abstract

OPINION article Front. Psychol., 03 December 2013Sec. Perception Science Volume 4 - 2013 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00908

Highlights

The term “venetian blind effect” was first coined by Cibis and Haber (1951) to describe a phenomenon in which a black and white vertical grating (Figure 1A) viewed with a neutral density filter over one eye, appears as a set of white slats, each one slanted around a central vertical axis appearing nearer on the side with the filter
A source of confusion is that Ogle (1962) renamed it “irradiation stereoscopy” and the term “venetian blind effect” has been applied to another phenomenon
When gratings of different spatial frequency are presented to the two eyes, the pattern may break up into local slanted regions rather than slanting as a whole

Summary

Introduction

The term “venetian blind effect” was first coined by Cibis and Haber (1951) to describe a phenomenon in which a black and white vertical grating (Figure 1A) viewed with a neutral density filter over one eye, appears as a set of white slats, each one slanted around a central vertical axis appearing nearer on the side with the filter. The original venetian blind phenomenon and the only one we discuss here, is much more mysterious and interesting because there is no horizontal disparity introduced by imposing a luminance or contrast difference between the two eyes’ views. We take a different approach from previous work and propose a mid-level explanation for the venetian blind effect.

Results

Conclusion