In two experiments the luminance conditions for the occurrence of phenomenal transparency in achromatic flat patterns was studied. Let a, p, q and b be, respectively, the luminances of the parts A, P, Q, and B of a pattern comprising a transparent square on a two-part background, where P and Q are the parts of the square on backgrounds A and B, respectively. The results showed that |p – a|, |q – b|, and |p – q| were quantitative conditions of transparency. Metelli has proposed two ordinal conditions of transparency, |a – b| > |p – q| and p > q if a > b (or p < q if a < b). Alternatively, Masin and Fukuda have proposed the single ordinal condition p ∈ (a, q) [or q ∈ (p, b)]. The results showed that this second condition best predicted the occurrence of transparency.
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