Adaptation, after-effect and contrast in the perception of curved lines.

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Abstract
A series of eight experiments in which the S's wore a pair of prisms shifting the visual field about 15° to the right, and--more important to the problem--the examination of the phenomenal bending of vertical straight lines into curves convex to the left, the horizontal components of the figures remaining undistorted. During an hour's observation "a curved line becomes phenomenally less curved than it was at the beginning of the period, and at the end of the period an objectively straight line will seem curved in the opposite direction. This fact holds whether the curvature is actually in the object, or is induced by the distorting effect of the prisms." Two theoretical considerations are offered and examined, preliminary to further experimentation: (1) The effects noted may be ascribed to conflict between experiences designated as visual and kinesthetic, following the discussions of Stratton, Wooster, Young, and Ewert on variations of the same general problem. (2) The effects may be described in terms of a function of the perceptual process "akin to sensory adaptation." The first argument is rejected in favor of the second, and further observational evidence is adduced in support from experiments 2 to 9 inclusive. The adaptation effect and the negative after-effect are of the same degree of magnitude, both simultaneous and successive contrast may be demonstrated and both these effects occur for kinesthetic as well as for visual perception. The essential condition for adaptation and after-effect seems not to be mere curvature of line, but departure from rectilinearity, since the phenomena appear as well on fixating an obtuse angle. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved)

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