Further Empirical Evidence on Patrick Hughes’ Reverspectives: A Pilot Study

Date

2020-12-26

Advisors

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

ISSN

2411-5150

Volume Title

Publisher

MDPI

Type

Article

Peer reviewed

Yes

Abstract

Reverspectives are paintings created by the English artist Patrick Hughes. They are 3D structures, for example, pyramids or prisms, which elicit an illusory depth perception that corresponds to the reverse of the physical depth layout. Rogers and Gyani state that “the perspective information provided by a simple grid of vertical and horizontal lines on a slanting surface can be just as powerful as the information provided by a rich, naturalistic scene”. The present experiment was aimed to further investigate this perspective reversal. Three independent variables were manipulated: (1) texture components (i.e., vertical, horizontal, and oblique lines components), (2) texture spatial arrangement (i.e., Hughes-type “perspective” grid vs. equidistant “no perspective” grid), and (3) illumination direction (i.e., homogeneous illumination, light from above, and light from below). The dependent variable was the “critical distance”, namely, the distance between an approaching observer and the stimulus at which the illusory depth perception of concavity/convexity switched to the actual perception of convexity/concavity. The results showed that a stronger illusion is elicited by: (a) a Hughes-type texture spatial arrangement; (b) a complete grid texture composition, having both vertical and horizontal, and oblique components; and (c) illumination from below, as opposed to the condition in which light is coming from above.

Description

open access article

Keywords

reverspective, texture, spatial arrangement, illumination

Citation

Galmonte, A., Murgia, M., Sors, F., Prpic, V., Agostini, T. (2021) Further Empirical Evidence on Patrick Hughes’ Reverspectives: A Pilot Study. Vision, 5, 2.

Rights

Research Institute