Thickness and the Koffka Ring Effect

Abstract

Over seven decades ago Gestalt psychologist Kurt Koffka described a remarkable effect: when a contiguous gray ring is placed on a background half of one shade of gray, half of another, the ring appears homogeneous. However, if the ring is slightly divided, the two halves of the ring appear different shades of gray, the half of the ring on the darker background appearing lighter than the half of the ring on the lighter background. The Gestalt principle of continuity is used to explain this effect. We show that when the ring is made thinner it appears heterogeneous even when contiguous. We also illustrate this in the additional material with a colored background with more than two regions.