Experience can change the 'light-from-above' prior

To interpret complex and ambiguous input, the human visual system uses prior knowledge or assumptions about the world. We show that the `light-from-above' prior, used to extract information about shape from shading is modified in response to active experience with the scene. The resultant adaptation is not specific to the learned scene but generalizes to a different task, demonstrating that priors are constantly adapted by interactive experience with the environment.