Similarity between Petter's effect and visual phantoms.

Here we draw attention to similarity between Petter's effect and the visual phantom illusion. Phantoms are visible when the spatial frequency of the inducing grating is low or the occluder is thin, whereas phantoms are invisible when the spatial frequency of the inducing grating is high or the occluder is thick. Moreover, phantoms are perceived in front of the occluder when they are visible, whereas the occluder is seen in front of the inducing gratings when phantoms are invisible. These characteristics correspond to Petter's effect, in which the thicker region tends to be perceived in front of the thinner region when two regions of the same lightness and of different sizes overlap, since 'thick' corresponds to low spatial frequency of the inducing grating or a thick occluder while 'thin' corresponds to high spatial frequency of the inducing grating or a thin occluder.