The watercolor illusion (WCI) occurs when a physically non-colored region surrounded by contrasting contour and fringe appears filled in with a hue similar to the fringe. The present experiments explored how local and global stimulus factors influence the spatial expanse of WCI color spreading. Experiment 1 utilized two- and three-dimensional-appearing stimuli with the WCI in only one part of each stimulus. Some conditions fully enclosed the color-spreading region with fringe on all sides. Others removed fringe from one side, opening up the color-spreading region to another part of the stimulus. Regardless of perceived dimensionality or enclosure, color did not spread beyond the fringed color-spreading region as confirmed by illusion magnitude ratings and handwritten shading. Experiment 2 consisted of transparent “wireframe” versions of the opaque-appearing stimuli used in Experiment 1. This altered the local context by adding physical contours inside the fringed color-spreading region. As in Experiment 1, color did not spread beyond physically open regions. Furthermore, illusory color filled a space bound by a combination of physical and illusory contours depending on the fringe end-cuts and other perceptual organization cues within the stimulus. Our main focus in these experiments was to determine where color spreads in a variety of contexts. Perceptual organization factors other than perceived depth seem more likely to impact the spatial expanse of WCI color spreading. These are some of the first experiments to explore the impact of changes to local and global context on the spatial expanse of the WCI.

水彩错觉 (WCI) 当被对比轮廓和条纹包围的物理非着色区域看起来充满了类似于条纹的色调时，就会发生水彩错觉 (WCI)。本实验探讨了局部和全局刺激因素如何影响 WCI 颜色传播的空间范围。实验 1 仅在每个刺激的一部分中使用了具有 WCI 的二维和三维外观刺激。一些条件完全封闭了色彩扩散区域，四面都有条纹。其他人从一侧去除了边缘，将颜色扩散区域打开到刺激的另一部分。无论感知的维度或外壳如何，如幻觉等级和手写阴影所证实的那样，颜色都没有扩散到流苏颜色扩散区域之外。实验 2 包括实验 1 中使用的不透明外观刺激的透明“线框”版本。这通过在流苏颜色扩散区域内添加物理轮廓来改变局部环境。与实验 1 一样，颜色没有扩散到物理开放区域之外。此外，虚幻的颜色填充了由物理和虚幻轮廓组合限定的空间，具体取决于刺激中的边缘末端切割和其他感知组织线索。我们在这些实验中的主要重点是确定颜色在各种环境中的分布位置。感知深度以外的感知组织因素似乎更有可能影响 WCI 颜色传播的空间扩展。这些是探索局部和全球环境变化对 WCI 空间范围的影响的首批实验中的一些。