An object-centered aftereffect of a latent material property: A squishiness visual aftereffect, not causality adaptation.

Visual aftereffects are characterized by a changed perceptual experience after exposure to a visual input. For instance, exposure to rightward motion can make a static input seem to drift leftward-the motion aftereffect. Such aftereffects have been integral to building our understanding of the neural mechanisms and computational processes that underlie perception. Increasingly complex characteristics have been found to be susceptible to visual aftereffects, such as the appearance of human faces, the apparent number of visual elements, and the glossiness of a surface. Here we report that the apparent elasticity, or squishiness, of an object is also subject to a visual aftereffect. This relationship can explain data previously interpreted in terms of a causality aftereffect.