Top-down processes in perceiving false depth and motion for faces and scenes
Thomas V. Papathomas, Lisa M. Bono · Proceedings of SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering/Proceedings of SPIE · 2005
There are at least two broad classes of three-dimensional (3D) stimuli that tend to be perceived in illusory reverse depth: hollow masks and “reverspectives”, the latter having been invented by Patrick Hughes in 1964. Because of the depth inversion, these stimuli appear to move when observers move in front of them. The illusion is diminished significantly when a hollow mask is inverted, as compared to an upright mask; the same trend is observed with inverted reverspectives, as compared to upright reverspectives, but the inversion effect is weaker than that in faces. The inversion effect can be attributed to top-down influences in perception, and the results point to a stronger role of such influences for the perception of faces than scenes.