The background, context, environment, layout, scene, situation, surroundings etc. of a perceived event, object, or representation. The setting influences the perception of depth, location, motion, size, and surface detail, and also figure/ground discrimination. In other words perception is ‘contextual’ or ‘situated’. Camouflage and animal markings are examples of the difficulty of discerning an embedded figure against a background. Other perceptual modes (sound, smell, taste, touch, and other somatic receptors) will generally influence vision as a distraction, attention attractor, or identification aid. Some visual illusions depend on surroundings such as the appearance of the moon as larger when it is close to the horizon.
