Adaptation to Combinations of form, Colour, and Movement

Abstract

Observers typically report illusory colour on achromatic gratings after being adapted to orthogonally oriented gratings presented in complementary colours, where the colour apparent on each grating is complementary to the one that had been presented with that grating during adaptation (McCollough, 1965 Science149 1115–1116). We used this procedure, but presented homogenous fields at test instead of achromatic gratings. When adaptation stimuli moved in directions locally orthogonal to their orientation, we found that, for up to 7–8 min after adaptation, a flower-like illusory pattern was evident on both homogenous fields; after this time illusory radial lines and concentric circles were evident and were colour-contingent (eg for adaptation with green concentric circles and magenta radial lines, concentric circles were apparent on a magenta test field and radial lines were apparent on a green test field). When stimuli were stationary during induction, colour-contingent illusory forms were also apparent at test. The results demonstrate that an aftereffect, reciprocal to the McCollough effect, can be produced under appropriate induction conditions, and that this effect is not due to retinal afterimages.