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According to both experimental research and common sense, classical music is a better fit for figurative art than jazz. We hypothesize that similar fits may reflect underlying crossmodal structural similarities between music and painting... more
According to both experimental research and common sense, classical music is a better fit for figurative art than jazz. We hypothesize that similar fits may reflect underlying crossmodal structural similarities between music and painting genres. We present two preliminary studies aimed at addressing our hypothesis. Experiment 1 tested the goodness of the fit between two music genres (classical and jazz) and two painting genres (figurative and abstract). Participants were presented with twenty sets of six paintings (three figurative, three abstract) viewed in combination with three sound conditions: 1) silence, 2) classical music, or 3) jazz. While figurative paintings scored higher aesthetic appreciation than abstract ones, a gender effect was also found: the aesthetic appreciation of paintings in male participants was modulated by music genre, whilst music genre did not affect the aesthetic appreciation in female participants. Our results support only in part the notion that classi...
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The experience of light determined some of the most intriguing cultural universals, yet it is an underrepresented problem in vision sciences. In their attempt to represent cultural universals, artists adopted empirical solutions to the... more
The experience of light determined some of the most intriguing cultural universals, yet it is an underrepresented problem in vision sciences. In their attempt to represent cultural universals, artists adopted empirical solutions to the representation of light sources. We believe that such graphic solutions are showcases of visual indexes related to the phenomenology of light, and therefore they already constitute a level of explanation for luminosity perception. This claim is supported by psychophysical experiments on the ‘glare effect’, an illusion that generates a vivid impression of self-luminosity only by means of quasi-linear luminance ramps. Recent studies show that a similar illusion can be obtained in absence of physically continuous luminance ramps. Results from several experiments suggest that: 1) the key features for luminosity perception lie within the photo-geometric structure of the proximal stimulus; 2) the processes involved in luminosity perception are intrinsically...
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A white disk when inside a small concentric circle (a display like Delboeuf figure) lookslighter than when surrounded by a larger one. The magnitude of the effect has beenmeasured: PSE are reported for two different measures of the... more
A white disk when inside a small concentric circle (a display like Delboeuf figure) lookslighter than when surrounded by a larger one. The magnitude of the effect has beenmeasured: PSE are reported for two different measures of the surrounding circle and threedifferent grey backgrounds (EXP. 1a and b). The aim of a second experiment was to comparethe increased lightness effect to the illusory size increment of the central area. Perceived area(EXP. 2a) and lightness magnitudes of a central white disk (diameter: 1.2 cm), surrounded bydifferent circles (diameter: 3, 5, 7, 9 e 11 cm), on a middle grey background, were scaled,according to Pair Comparisons Method. The “distances” of the targets on "area" and"lightness" continua have been determined.
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... 1304/06, fig. 1), e la tela con lo stesso soggetto dipinta da Tintoretto e bottega per la chie-sa di San Giacomo Maggiore in Venezia (ca. 1594, fig. ... II, 1732) di William Hogarth (1697-1764); Mis.5, Crocifissione (1582) di Agostino... more
... 1304/06, fig. 1), e la tela con lo stesso soggetto dipinta da Tintoretto e bottega per la chie-sa di San Giacomo Maggiore in Venezia (ca. 1594, fig. ... II, 1732) di William Hogarth (1697-1764); Mis.5, Crocifissione (1582) di Agostino Car-racci; Mis.6, Marriage à la mode (tav. ...
Research Interests: Psychology and Art
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E-motions are defined as those affective states the expressions of which—conveyed either by static faces or body posture—embody a dynamic component and, consequently, convey a higher sense of dynamicity than other emotional expressions.... more
E-motions are defined as those affective states the expressions of which—conveyed either by static faces or body posture—embody a dynamic component and, consequently, convey a higher sense of dynamicity than other emotional expressions. An experiment is presented, aimed at testing whether e-motions are perceived as such also by individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs), which have been associated with impairments in emotion recognition and in motion perception. To this aim we replicate with ASD individuals a study, originally conducted with typically developed individuals (TDs), in which we showed to both ASD and TD participants 14 bodiless heads and 14 headless bodies taken from eleven static artworks and four drawings. The Experiment was divided into two sessions. In Session 1 participants were asked to freely associate each stimulus to an emotion or an affective state (Task 1, option A); if they were unable to find a specific emotion, the experimenter showed them a list o...
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The visual system often relies on prior assumptions when interpreting ambiguous visual inputs. A well-known example is the light-from-above prior, which aids the judgment of an object's three-dimensional (3-D) shape (i.e., convex or... more
The visual system often relies on prior assumptions when interpreting ambiguous visual inputs. A well-known example is the light-from-above prior, which aids the judgment of an object's three-dimensional (3-D) shape (i.e., convex or concave). Recent studies have revealed that the light-from-above prior also helps solve lightness ambiguity. This study aimed to examine whether 3-D shape perception and lightness perception share the same lighting prior. The study participants performed two tasks: one focusing on lightness perception and another focusing on 3-D shape perception. The dominant directions of the assumed lighting were calculated from participants’ performance in the two tasks. The results showed that the assumed lighting direction for 3-D shape perception were considerably biased toward the left, whereas the one for lightness perception was almost from directly above. The clear difference between these two directions supports the hypothesis that the visual system uses d...
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This work concerns the subjective impression of perceived illumination. The purpose of the study is to test attributes expressing qualitative experiences referring to ambient lighting that can be applied as descriptors. Seventy... more
This work concerns the subjective impression of perceived illumination. The purpose of the study is to test attributes expressing qualitative experiences referring to ambient lighting that can be applied as descriptors. Seventy participants viewed an actual model room, with the fourth wall removed (viewing booth). Walls, floor, and ceiling were achromatic. Two achromatic cubes were placed inside the room: One was a reflectance increment to the walls, the other a decrement. The room was illuminated by two different light sources, Artificial Daylight (D65) or Tungsten Filament (F), the order of which was randomized across participants. The participants' task was to evaluate ambient illumination for each light source. A semantic differential method was employed with 27 pairs of adjectives on 1 to 7 rating scales, categorized in three groups: characteristics of atmosphere, time, and cross-modal. Only the ratings of nine pairs of adjectives were not influenced by the type of illumina...
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This works studies the phenomenal aspects of the animated glare effect (AGE), a compelling luminosity effect occurring in time. At a physical level, the illusion consists of luminance modulations of inducers I. Observers instead report to... more
This works studies the phenomenal aspects of the animated glare effect (AGE), a compelling luminosity effect occurring in time. At a physical level, the illusion consists of luminance modulations of inducers I. Observers instead report to see brightness modulations of a central target T that cause the brightness modulations observed in I. In other words, the luminance transformations responsible for the phenomenal brightness modulations in T are experienced instead as effects caused by the brightness modulations of T. Spontaneous descriptions from observers lead us to hypothesize that AGE is a peculiar case of perceived causality. We discuss this hypothesis comparing AGE to classic mechanical causality effects, and report the results from a phenomenological experiment conducted to study the time course of AGE.
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It is a common understanding that white serves as an “anchor” for the visual system for lightness scaling purposes. By lightness we are referring to surface color perception in the achromatic domain. The importance of “surface white” is... more
It is a common understanding that white serves as an “anchor” for the visual system for lightness scaling purposes. By lightness we are referring to surface color perception in the achromatic domain. The importance of “surface white” is stated also in the literature about luminosity perception, where it is often claimed that in order for a region of the visual field to appear as self-luminous, its luminance must be somewhat higher than the luminance of a surface perceived as white under the same conditions of illumination. Implicit in this assumption is that the visual system is able to determine what is to be seen as white instead of luminous, glowing or light gray. A “highest luminance rule”, eventually corrected by an area factor, seems so far to be the best candidate. This approach has been applied to several lines of data with apparent success. However, below we will describe two experiments, one concerning lightness and the other perceived luminosity, that show the severe limi...
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In this work we revisit a phenomenon presented by Agostini & Galmonte (2002), who showed an enhanced effect of simultaneous lightness contrast (SLC) by embedding targets within the glare effect and its photometric negative (Zavagno 1999).... more
In this work we revisit a phenomenon presented by Agostini & Galmonte (2002), who showed an enhanced effect of simultaneous lightness contrast (SLC) by embedding targets within the glare effect and its photometric negative (Zavagno 1999). In our study we employed 3 manipulations of SLC with targets surrounded by non-adjacent positive luminance ramps (these determine the glare and dark hole effects), negative ramps (the vector of the gradient is inverted 180 deg), and solid black (white background) and white (black background) squares. Configurations with positive ramps show a strong contrast enhancement on both backgrounds with respect to classic SLC (data collected in a similar setup but with different subjects), in line with findings reported by Agostini & Galmonte. The magnitude of the effect is more than halved with negative gradients and solid squares. Findings are consistent with the hypothesis that luminance gradients are relevant information for brightness perception (illumi...
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This paper is about the Poggendorff illusion in pictorial artworks. In particular, it deals with the role played by the Poggendorff illusion in the making of the geometrical misalignments in the mosaic known as Lunetta di San Lorenzo in... more
This paper is about the Poggendorff illusion in pictorial artworks. In particular, it deals with the role played by the Poggendorff illusion in the making of the geometrical misalignments in the mosaic known as Lunetta di San Lorenzo in Ravenna (Italy) and in Rubens's oil on panel Descent from the Cross in Antwerp (Belgium). Three experiments are presented. Experiment 1 tested the role of viewing distance in perceived collinearity in the mosaic by asking participants to adjust two ends of a cross in silhouette renderings of the saint projected so to mimic its original size. Results confirm an effect of viewing distance and support the hypothesis that the author of the mosaic became aware of the illusion and attempted to ‘fix’ it. Experiment 2 aimed at verifying perceived collinearity in a book-size version of Rubens's Descent from the Cross by employing a similar adjustment method. Results demonstrate that the Poggendorff illusion affects perceived collinearity in the painti...
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We conducted two experiments to test the relationship between Delboeuf's size-contrast illusion and a concomitant lightness contrast effect that can be observed when achromatic disks are employed as targets. In experiment 1... more
We conducted two experiments to test the relationship between Delboeuf's size-contrast illusion and a concomitant lightness contrast effect that can be observed when achromatic disks are employed as targets. In experiment 1 participants were asked to adjust the diameter of a target (D1) surrounded by a small circular size-inducer (C1) to match in size a comparison target (D2) surrounded by a circular size-inducer (C2) either equal or greater in diameter than C1. Experiment 2 was similar to experiment 1, except that D1 and D2 were physically equal in size, and participants were asked to adjust the luminance of D1 to match D2 in lightness. Results confirm an effect of the difference in diameter between C1 and C2 on the magnitude of the size illusion but not on the magnitude of the lightness effect, the emergence of which is linked to the appearance of the size illusion. Results support a percept-percept coupling relationship.
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The glare effect is an illusion in which a region appears self-luminous when flanked by gradients that decrease in luminance with distance from the region (Zavagno, 1999 Perception28 835–838). This region also appears brighter than a... more
The glare effect is an illusion in which a region appears self-luminous when flanked by gradients that decrease in luminance with distance from the region (Zavagno, 1999 Perception28 835–838). This region also appears brighter than a surface of the same luminance. We investigated, using the paradigm of afterimages, whether a low-level mechanism at the level of the retina or LGN could account for this apparent brighter sensation. We first replicated the result from the literature that brighter and longer-lasting physical stimuli generate longer-lasting afterimages. We then compared the glare-effect stimuli with their counterpart controls, and found that the glare-effect stimuli did not give rise to longer-lasting afterimages. This suggests that the apparent brighter sensation of the glare effect is not due to a retinal or LGN mechanism, but must have a cortical origin.
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What is it like to see the world in black and white? In the pioneer days of cinema, when movies displayed grey worlds, was it true that no ‘colours’ were actually seen? Did every object seen in those projections appear grey in the same... more
What is it like to see the world in black and white? In the pioneer days of cinema, when movies displayed grey worlds, was it true that no ‘colours’ were actually seen? Did every object seen in those projections appear grey in the same way? The answer is obviously no-people in those glorious days were seeing a world full of light, shadows, and objects in which colours were expressed in terms of lightness. But the marvels of grey worlds have not always been so richly displayed. Before the invention of photography, the depiction of scenes in black-and-white had to face some technical and perceptual challenges. We have studied the technical and perceptual constraints that XV-XVIII century engravers had to face in order to translate actual colours into shades of grey. An indeterminacy principle is considered, according to which artists had to prefer the representation of some object or scene features over others (for example brightness over lightness). The reasons for this lay between t...
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The impression of self-luminosity in the glare effect was studied in two experiments. In experiment 1 the target (CS) was set to the highest luminance of the field and subjects were asked to adjust the luminance ramp of the inducers (R)... more
The impression of self-luminosity in the glare effect was studied in two experiments. In experiment 1 the target (CS) was set to the highest luminance of the field and subjects were asked to adjust the luminance ramp of the inducers (R) against five backgrounds (B) to the point where they began to see CS as self-luminous. It was found that there is a linear relationship between background and luminance ramp. Another group of subjects carried out the same task in experiment 2, but this time CS and R were linked together so that CS would always have the same luminance as the highest luminance level of R, as adjustments were performed. It was found that: (i) adjustments were always lower than the highest luminance available; (ii) the linear relationship between background and luminance ramp was confirmed; (iii) observers reported a compelling impression of self-luminous grays. Data are discussed in relation to Bonato and Gilchrist's model for the perception of luminosity. The autho...