• C Ripamonti and W Gerbino.
• Colour and Imaging Institute, University of Derby, Kingsway House, Derby DE22 3HL, UK. c.ripamonti@derby.ac.uk
• Perception. 2001 Jan 1; 30 (4): 467-88.

AbstractIn classical White's effect, intermediate-luminance targets appear lighter when they interrupt the dark stripes of a grating and darker when they interrupt the light stripes. The effect is reversed when targets are of double-increment or double-decrement luminance, relative to the luminances of grating stripes. To find a common explanation for classical and inverted effects, we ran two experiments. In experiment 1, we utilised intermediate-target displays to show that perceived transparency dominates over occlusion only when the target luminance is close to the luminances of top regions. This result weakens transparency-based accounts of White's effect. In experiment 2, we varied grating contrast and target luminance to measure the classical effect in seven intermediate-target cases, as well as the inverted effect in four double-increment and four double-decrement cases. Both types of effect are explained by a common model, based on assimilation to the top region and contrast with the interrupted region, weighted by adjacency along the luminance continuum.

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