Abstract
The present study was designed to investigate whether or not rats responded to configurations of stimuli. Three experiments were conducted to address factors contributing to the Ponzo illusion in rats and humans. In Experiment 1, half of the rats learned to press the lever at the longer of the two bars in varying line contexts, and the remaining rats learned to press the lever at the shorter of the two bars with either upward or downward figures. Rats showed a systematic distortion in bar-length perception according to inclination of context lines. There were significant differences in apparent bar-length perception between upward and downward context lines. Experiment 2, using either rightward or leftward figures, replicated the results of Experiment 1. In Experiment 3, in which the same stimuli as those in Experiment 1 were employed, humans showed a systematic distortion in bar-length perception according to inclination of context lines as well as did rats in Experiments 1 and 2. These findings indicate that rats see the Ponzo illusion which is a perspective illusion, and that the inclination of context lines is an important determinant for rats' and humans' Ponzo illusion. These findings suggest that rats respond not only to stimuli themselves but also to configurations of stimuli.
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