Decrement and the Illusions of the Mueller-Lyer Figure

Abstract

Decrement, a time-related decrease in the magnitude of the Mueller-Lyer illusion, was measured separately for the wings-out and the wings-in variants of the Mueller-Lyer figure. There were significant reductions of wings-out illusion magnitude during the decrement period. Observers viewing the wings-in segment showed a non-significant decrement pattern. Analyses of individual decrement patterns showed that illusion magnitude did not decrease for a number of observers even when there were significant time-related trends at the group level. Data for 80 observers imply that the mechanisms of perceptual learning proposed by previous models of Mueller-Lyer illusion decrement are not sufficient explanations of the decrement process.