The magnitude of the Mueller-Lyer illusion as a function of hue, saturation, fundus pigmentation, and simulated aging.

Abstract

Ninety-six female college students were tested to determine the effects of hue, saturation, fundus pigmentation, and simulated aging on the magnitude of the Muller-Lyer illusion. In the first experiment, main effects for hue and saturation as well as an interaction effect between them were found to be significant. In the second experiment, filters served to simulate receptor aging by decreasing the visual sensitivity of young adults. A significant main effect of hue and an interaction effect between hue and saturation were found. However, there was no significant effect for fundus pigmentation in either experiment. Comparative analysis of the two experiments showed that only the magnitude of the illusion produced by an unsaturated blue figure decreased significantly when viewed through aging-simulation filters.