Computer graphics and surface perception

Recent advances in computer graphics technology afford the perceptual psychologist studying surface perception new opportunities for parametric control of complex patterns of optical stimulation. These opportunities include the ability to isolate kinds of optical information that are typically confounded in other display media, and the ability to systematically perturb dimensions of optical information that are otherwise difficult, if not impossible, to control. Examples of such methods and of the computer graphics capabilities exploited by the methods are discussed.