Figure 10.

How is a picture like a glass of water? If, in real-life, we view a spoon in a glass of water, the spoon appears on the side of the glass as broken and bent. A viewer sees the spoon as distorted, but can understand that it is a normal spoon. Moreover, the viewer can recognize the difference between the appearance and known shape. I argue that perceived distortion in pictures operates similarly: a picture gives a distorted shape perception, and the viewer infers a more normal shape, and recognizes the mismatch between appearance and known shape. This also illustrates the roles of multiple distinct shape representations in vision.