The Roles of Color Lightness and Saturation in Inducing the Perception of Miniature Faking

The miniature faking effect is a perceptual phenomenon where life-sized objects and landscape in tilt-shift photographs are perceived to be miniature. Previous studies have contributed to the generation of miniature faking; these include blur (bokeh), camera angle, vantage point, and perceived distance. Although color has also been considered to be a crucial factor in inducing the miniature faking effect, research based on systematical manipulations of color attributes has not been conducted. In the present study, we conducted two experiments, namely, paper-based and display-based to control the color lightness and saturation of two bird'seye view photographs. The results showed that the rated miniature faking effect is dependent on alterations of color lightness and saturation. Higher saturation, whereas lower lightness was found to enhance the miniature faking effect. These results demonstrated the crucial role of color in inducing the perception of miniature faking and further provided new materials to explore the general cognitive mechanism involved in miniature faking.