Abstract
Human perception of colour remains enigmatic largely because we frequently see the world ‘incorrectly’ — in other words, because we see illusions. Indeed, illusions have long been a key tool for investigating how and why we see what we do. In this talk I will present our recent work on evolving synthetic colour visual systems, which provides direct evidence for the burgeoning hypothesis that illusions are caused by (i) the ambiguity of visual stimuli, and (ii) their empirical — and thus statistical — resolution. These studies also suggest a more formal, quantitative definition of illusion, as well as the basis for explaining the computational and mechanistic principles that underlie what we (and other systems) see.