Figure 2. The effect of the luminance ramp background.

Two physically identical Chevreul staircases of opposite progression were placed in a luminance ramp background. (Identical letters indicate the steps of physically identical luminance). It can be seen that due to the ramp, the illusion has significantly changed: The illusion ceases if the progression of the staircase is opposite to that of the ramp (upper staircase), while it is strongly enhanced when the progressions of the ramp and that of the staircase are identical (lower staircase).