Combining achromatic and chromatic cues to transparency

We investigated how achromatic and chromatic cues interact to produce transparency. Observers were shown six-region stimulus displays similar to those used by R. Kasrai and F. A. A. Kingdom (2001) and made adjustments of the color and luminance attributes of one of the filter regions to achieve the best percept of transparency. The dependent measure of primary interest was setting reliability, the reciprocal of setting variance. We wished to determine whether the combination of chromatic and achromatic information leads to enhanced reliability of perceived transparency. In Experiment 1, we measured reliability for achromatic, L, superimposed luminance with color, L + C, and superimposed luminance with polarity-reversing color, L + iC. We found that observers' reliability was highest for the L + C condition, consistent with effective cue combination. In a second experiment, we compared setting reliability for L, L + C, and a new chromatic-only condition C. In the L + C condition, observers were asked to make separate and iterative settings of luminance and color to achieve the best percept of transparency. We compared their settings in L with the luminance settings in L + C and their settings in C with their color settings in L + C. Color adjustments were more reliable when accompanied by luminance information but not vice versa. In Experiment 3, we manipulated the transmittance of the achromatic and chromatic filters separately and investigated how this influences the settings made for each attribute. No systematic influence of filter transmittance on the settings made for perceived transparency was found.