Illusory-contour figures prime matching of real shapes

Anna Barlasov-Ioffe*, Shaul Hochstein

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

4 Scopus citations

Abstract

We investigated explicit and implicit properties of the internal representation of illusorycontour figures by studying potential priming effects of this representation. Using a primed matching paradigm (Beller 1971, Journal of Experimental Psychology 87 176-182), we found that illusory 'Kanizsa' squares and triangles prime later matching of the same shapes, respectively, and not of the alternative shape. This priming effect is present despite the use of an illusory figure as a prime and real shapes as tests. To determine whether implicit processing mechanisms sufficiently induce a representation of the illusory shape so that it can lead to this priming effect, we used a novel method of presentation of the inducing pattern, based on Rock and Linnet's (1993, Perception 22 61-76) method for separating (implicit) retinal and (explicit) world-coordinate images. Presence of the implicit retinal image is confirmed by its producing an afterimage. While the retinal image is only implicitly produced by the inducing pattern of pacmen, it is nevertheless available for real-shape match priming. We conclude that Kanizsa-type inducer patterns are processed implicitly until formation of illusory-figure shapes. These are represented at relatively high cortical levels, and shape-matching priming must occur here, too. These results are consistent with the claim of the reverse hierarchy theory that bottom-up processing is generally implicit and that conscious perception originates at high cortical levels.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1118-1131
Number of pages14
JournalPerception
Volume38
Issue number8
DOIs
StatePublished - 2009

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