# Top-down effects on translucency perception in relation to shape cues

## TL;DR

This study explores how object shape cues and cognitive factors influence how we perceive translucency in complex visual environments.

## Contribution

The paper reveals how top-down cognitive factors modulate the influence of shape cues on translucency perception.

## Key findings

- Motion and binocular disparity enhance translucency perception when shape cues are poor.
- Translucency perception is strongly influenced by the sequence of stimuli in experiments.
- Strong shape information cannot be derived from shading patterns in translucent objects without specular reflection.

## Abstract

It is well established that object shape perception significantly influences the perception of translucency. However, how object shape cues such as motion and binocular disparity affect the perception of translucency in rich environments, like virtual reality or real visual environments, remains unclear. This study aims to psychophysically measure the extent to which multiple object shape cues influence the perception of translucency. Additionally, we examined whether top-down factors, such as changes in cognitive attitude caused by the sequence of experiments, affect translucency perception. The results revealed that while motion and binocular disparity enhance translucency perception, this effect is confined to situations where shape cues are poor. Moreover, the effect became particularly pronounced when the experiments began with weak specular reflection stimuli, followed by the experiments using stimuli with specular reflection. In the case of translucent objects without specular reflection, strong shape information cannot be derived solely from shading patterns. These findings thus suggest that top-down factors related to shape modulate the influence of shape cues on translucency perception.