Figural effects in afterimage fragmentation

Afterimages consisting of between two and five lines were observed in five experiments. Measures were taken of both the duration and frequency of visibility of the lines comprising the configurations, and also of all line combinations. In Experiments I-III, lines forming angles, triangles, and a square were varied in orientation. Neither the absolute nor the relative orientation of the lines had any systematic effects on the measures. These results are compared with those that have been derived from steady fixation and optical stabilization, in which vertical-horizontal line pairs yield greater stability than other orientations. In Experiment IV, afterimages of the letters N and Z were found to be more stable than those of their mirror-image reversals, both in terms of the duration of visibility of the entire configurations and the obliques. This pattern was not produced using a complex configuration that could fragment into either a letter or a reversed letter (Experiment V). Similar effects have been found during steady fixation.