Abstract
Multiple color filling-in modes were reported in a complex stimulus [Hamburger et al, Vision Research(46), 1129-1138, 2006]. However, it is unclear what determines color filling-in modes. The current study investigated the role of spatial arrangement of cone contrasts among different areas in determining color filling-in modes. A 12°-16° annulus (A) was surrounded by a 12° inner circular field (I) and a 36.6°x27.4° rectangular outer field (O). The inner and outer fields had l chromaticities of 0.705, 0.665 or 0.625 with a constant s chromaticity of 1.0 (luminance=13 cd/m2), leading to 9 inner-outer chromaticity combinations. The annulus differed from the inner and outer fields in the l and/or s chromaticities and observers reported their percept changes during a 25-second steady fixation for each trial. Color spreading was more likely (>50% trials) to occur along the edge between two adjacent fields (O->A, I->A, or A->I) that had a smaller contrast than the other edge. When the l chromaticities in the three fields changed monotonically (I>A>O or O>A>I) without an s difference, the annulus was predominantly (>90% trials) filled with the outer color (O->A) or the inner color (I->A) within a few seconds, with ~1/3 of these trials followed by a subsequent color spreading into the whole screen. When there was an s difference between the annulus and the other two fields, the annulus color was more likely (>60% trials) to spread into the inner field (A->I), but it typically required more than 10 seconds to complete. For all color filling-in modes, a metric combining the cone contrasts along both edges was significantly correlated with the time-to-filling-in and the percept duration. These results indicated that color filling-in modes were affected by the relative magnitude and spatial arrangement of the cone contrasts along the edges in a complex stimulus.
Meeting abstract presented at VSS 2012