Visual adaptation and the relative nature of perception

Our perception is constantly shaped by processes of adaptation that adjust visual sensitivity in response to the images currently before us. Many classic after-effects demonstrate the striking changes in perceived color, form and motion that can result from only brief exposures to simple adapting patterns. But what are the adapting patterns we encounter in everyday viewing, and how do they influence everyday visual judgments? We have examined the states of adaptation induced by the properties of the natural visual environment, and show that they can profoundly affect many natural visual tasks, from color perception to face recognition to the perception of image blur. These sensitivity adjustments are an intrinsic part of the visual response to any stimulus, and presumably functions to match visual coding to the current characteristics of the world. Consequently, how the world looks may-to a surprisingly large extent-depend on what you've recently been looking at.