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Abstract
The scintillating grid illusion is a phenomenon where illusory black spots are perceived on white patches located at the intersections of a grid pattern. In this study, I report that the illusory spots as observed in the illusion are perceived with a stimulus pattern without grid bars. In two experiments, I investigated the perceptual properties of the scintillating illusion without grid bars. I found that the strength of the illusion depends on the contour shape of the patch components as in the scintillating grid illusion, while neither the density nor spatial alignment largely affect the illusory percepts. These findings undermine the previous theories on the mechanism of the scintillating grid illusion, as it was assumed that the grid bars are the essential component to induce the illusion. The results suggest that the illusory spots of the scintillating grid illusion could be induced by the limited processing of the patch stimuli in the peripheral vision and that the grid could play a supplementary role by enhancing the effect by further interfering with the processing.
Highlights
The scintillating grid illusion is a phenomenon where illusory black spots are perceived on white patches located at the intersections of a grid pattern
I show that the illusory spots that are similar to those observed with the scintillating grid illusion are perceived in the pattern without grid bars (Figure 1, right; see Supplemental Figure S1 for a more compelling example)
The two experiments revealed that the illusory spots, like in the scintillating grid illusion, were perceived with a stimulus pattern without grid bars
Summary
The scintillating grid illusion is a phenomenon where illusory black spots are perceived on white patches located at the intersections of a grid pattern. The scintillating grid illusion (Schrauf et al, 1997) is one prominent example, in which we perceive illusory black spots on white patches located at the intersections of the grid bars (Figure 1, left). Previous studies of the scintillating grid illusion have proposed that the local spatial interaction in our visual processing could cause the illusory spots (e.g., Qian et al, 2009; Yu & Choe, 2006).
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