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How little do we need to perceive 3-D shape in monocular natural images? The shape-from-texture and shape-from-shading perspectives would motivate that 3-D perception vanishes once low-level cues are disrupted. Is this the case in human vision? Or can top – down influences salvage the percept? In this study we probe this question by employing a gauge-figure paradigm similar to that used by Koenderink et al (1992, Perception & Psychophysics52 487 – 496). Subjects were presented degraded natural images and instructed to make local assessments of slant and tilt at various locations thereby quantifying their internal 3-D percept. Analysis of subjects' responses reveals recognition to be a significant influence thereby allowing subjects to perceive 3-D shape at high levels of degradation. Specifically, we identify the ‘medium-blur’ condition, images approximately 32 pixels on a side, to be the limit for accurate 3-D shape perception. In addition, we find that degradation affects the perceived slant of point-estimates making images look flatter as degradation increases. A subsequent condition that eliminates texture and shading but preserves contour and recognition reveals how bottom – up and top – down cues can combine for accurate 3-D shape perception.

The apparently rectangular form of the irregularly shaped Ames room is explained in terms of a loss of interior 3-D shape constancy consequent on viewing the room with one eye through a small specifically positioned aperture. In the absence of retinal disparity and motion parallax the appearance of the room is held to shift markedly toward the rectangular dimensions of its retinal image. Three experiments designed to test this explanation with a miniature (one-tenth size) version of the Ames room No 1 with the matched 2-D shape of the back wall and as an index of interior 3-D shape are reported. The experiments showed that interior constancy was almost fully restored with binocular viewing of the room (experiment 1). The effect with a ‘skeletal’ version of the room was about the same as that with the conventional version and was clearly evident when the back wall or its frame version was presented alone (experiment 2), and it varied according to whether the interior perspective corresponded with that of the Ames or a rectangular room (experiment 3). Experiment 3 also showed that a rectangular room is significantly distorted when the interior perspective accords with that of the Ames room. These outcomes are construed as supporting the loss-of-constancy explanation and as showing that the Ames-room effect is one of a class of illusions attributable to the absence of stimulus correlates that normally sustain visual shape constancy.

The ability of younger and older adults to perceive the 3-D shape, depth, and curvature of smooth surfaces defined by differential motion and binocular disparity was evaluated in six experiments. The number of points defining the surfaces and their spatial and temporal correspondences were manipulated. For stereoscopic sinusoidal surfaces, the spatial frequency of the corrugations was also varied. For surfaces defined by motion, the lifetimes of the individual points in the patterns were varied, and comparisons were made between the perception of surfaces defined by points and that of more ecologically valid textured surfaces. In all experiments, the older observers were less sensitive to the depths and curvatures of the surfaces, although the deficits were much larger for motion-defined surfaces. The results demonstrate that older adults can extract depth and shape from optical patterns containing only differential motion or binocular disparity, but these abilities are often manifested at reduced levels of performance.

Flat, rectangular displays consisting of 2, 3, 4, or 6 vertical grey stripes, alternately light and dark gray (NCS 3500 and NCS 6000, respectively) were presented one at a time illuminated by two identical projectors. One projector illuminated the upper half of the display through a yellowish colour filter (Strand Golden Amber), and the other one illuminated the lower half through a bluish colour filter (Kodak Wratten 80 A). The display appeared ambiguous, periodically and spontaneously shifting between two distinct 3-D shape percepts, A and B. Display A appeared vertically folded along the reflectance edges (‘shape from shading’, where the dark fields appeared to be attached shadows). The colours were quite saturated yellow and blue surface colours. There was no colour constancy; Display B appeared horizontally folded along the illumination edge like a roof (‘shape from shading’, where one of the illuminations appeared to be an attached shadow). The display now appeared very desaturated, even achromatic, but in a ‘warm’ illumination. The colour constancy was almost complete. The phenomenon is demonstrated with a slide, and some psychophysical data on the colour desaturation and on the frequency of shifts between the two percepts are reported as well as some observations on combinations of illuminant colours other than yellow and blue. The reported colour constancy phenomenon is discussed in relation to an earlier presented model for the perception of illumination, colour, and depth [S S Bergström, 1994, in Lightness, Brightness, and Transparency Ed. A Gilchrist (Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates)].