ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the perception of a perspective picture of square tiles turned 45°, producing diamonds. It offers a major challenge to theories of perceptual constancy by demonstrating a possible effect of orientation on perceived relative depth. Theories explaining perceptual constancy, regularly experienced by anyone looking at ordinary snapshot pictures, are widely celebrated. Gibson (1979) argued that “invariant” relations within optic arrays produced by a picture (or, more generally, by any scene) are information for spatial properties. Projective theories predict that an observer positioned farther than the correct vantage point will perceive elongated tiles whereas from too close a vantage point they will perceive compressed tiles. “Compromise” theories argue perception of a picture has two sources: first, inverse projection of depicted depths and, second, the flatness of the picture surface, which diminishes percepts.
