AN EMPIRICAL EXPLANATION OF BRIGHTNESS

In this second part of our study on the mechanism of perceived brightn ess, we explore the effects of manipulating three-dimensional geometry . The additional scenes portrayed here demonstrate that the same lumin ance profile can elicit different sensations of brightness as a functi on of how the objects in the scene are arranged in space. This further evidence confirms the implication of the scenes presented in the acco mpanying paper, namely that sensations of relative brightness-includin g standard demonstrations of simultaneous brightness contrast-cannot a rise by computations of local contrast, The most plausible explanation of the full range of perceptual phenomena,ve have described is an emp irical strategy that links the luminance profile in a visual stimulus with an association (the percept) that represents the profile's most p robable real-world source.