Susceptibility To Illusion Research Articles

Visual perception in domestic dogs: susceptibility to the Ebbinghaus-Titchener and Delboeuf illusions.

Susceptibility to geometrical visual illusions has been tested in a number of non-human animal species, providing important information about how these species perceive their environment. Considering their active role in human lives, visual illusion susceptibility was tested in domestic dogs (Canis familiaris). Using a two-choice simultaneous discrimination paradigm, eight dogs were trained to indicate which of two presented circles appeared largest. These circles were then embedded in three different illusory displays; a classical display of the Ebbinghaus-Titchener illusion; an illusory contour version of the Ebbinghaus-Titchener illusion; and the classical display of the Delboeuf illusion. Significant results were observed in both the classical and illusory contour versions of the Ebbinghaus-Titchener illusion, but not the Delboeuf illusion. However, this susceptibility was reversed from what is typically seen in humans and most mammals. Dogs consistently indicated that the target circle typically appearing larger in humans appeared smaller to them, and that the target circle typically appearing smaller in humans, appeared larger to them. We speculate that these results are best explained by assimilation theory rather than other visual cognitive theories explaining susceptibility to this illusion in humans. In this context, we argue that our findings appear to reflect higher-order conceptual processing in dogs that cannot be explained by accounts restricted to low-level mechanisms of early visual processing.

Pattern glare: the effects of contrast and color.

Aim: To test a theory of visual stress by investigating the inter-relationships between (1) the threshold contrast/saturation at which individuals first report discomfort when viewing colored gratings of progressively increasing contrast and decreasing saturation; (2) the choice of a colored overlay for reading; (3) any increase in reading speed when the overlay is used.Method: Ninety-five young adults, with normal color vision, reported illusions from square-wave gratings (Pattern Glare Test), chose any colored overlays that improved clarity (Intuitive Color Overlays) and read aloud randomly ordered common words (Wilkins Rate of Reading Test). This was followed by an automated choice of tints for text using various screen colors on a tablet, and a test of discomfort from patterns of progressively increasing contrast and decreasing saturation, using software developed for this study. All participants wore their optimal refractive correction throughout the procedure.Results: Fifty-eight participants chose a colored overlay and reported that it made text easier and more comfortable to read. On average, these individuals had a greater improvement in reading speed with their overlays (p = 0.003), a lower contrast threshold at which discomfort from achromatic gratings was first reported (p = 0.015), and a tendency to report more pattern glare (p = 0.052), compared to the other participants. Participants who chose both a most and least preferred tint for text using the automated procedure reported discomfort from colored gratings at a significantly higher contrast with their most preferred color compared to their least preferred color (p = 0.003). The choice of a colored tint was moderately consistent across tests. The most and least preferred colors tended to be complementary.Conclusion: Colored tints that improved reading speed reduced pattern glare both in terms of the illusion susceptibility and in terms of discomfort contrast threshold, supporting a theory of visual stress. An automated test that incorporates colored gratings and a choice of most and least preferred color might better identify individuals whose reading speed improves with colored overlays.

Interoceptive ability and body awareness in autism spectrum disorder

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has been associated with various sensory atypicalities across multiple domains. Interoception, the ability to detect and attend to internal bodily sensations, has been found to moderate the experience of body ownership, a known difference in ASD that may affect social function. However, interoception has not been empirically examined in ASD. In the current study, 45 children (21 with ASD and 24 controls) ages 8 to 17years completed a heartbeat perception paradigm as a measure of interoceptive ability. A subset of these children also completed the rubber hand illusion task, a multisensory paradigm probing the malleability of perceived body ownership. Although the heartbeat perception paradigm yielded comparable interoceptive awareness (IA) overall across both groups, children with ASD were superior at mentally tracking their heartbeats over longer intervals, suggesting increased sustained attention to internal cues in ASD. In addition, IA was negatively correlated with rubber hand illusion susceptibility in both groups, supporting a previously demonstrated inverse relationship between internal awareness and one’s ability to incorporate external stimuli into one’s perception of self. We propose a trade-off between attention to internal cues and attention to external cues, whereby attentional resources are disproportionately allocated to internal, rather than external, sensory cues in ASD.

Difference between eyes-closed and eyes-open resting state alpha power is an indicator of susceptibility to the rubber hand illusion

Difference between eyes-closed and eyes-open resting state alpha power is an indicator of susceptibility to the rubber hand illusion

Illusion Susceptibility Indicates a Two-Factor Structure to the Systemizing Trait of Autism

Illusion Susceptibility Indicates a Two-Factor Structure to the Systemizing Trait of Autism

The modulation of illusion susceptibility by TMS in right SPL demonstrates its role in the processing of global, but not local, contextual information

The modulation of illusion susceptibility by TMS in right SPL demonstrates its role in the processing of global, but not local, contextual information

A specific autistic trait that modulates illusion susceptibility

A specific autistic trait that modulates illusion susceptibility

A Specific Autistic Trait that Modulates Visuospatial Illusion Susceptibility

Although several accounts of autism have predicted that the disorder should be associated with a decreased susceptibility to visual illusions, previous experimental results have been mixed. This study examined whether a link between autism and illusion susceptibility can be more convincingly demonstrated by assessing the relationships between susceptibility and the extent to which several individual autistic traits are exhibited as a continuum in a population of college students. A significant relationship was observed between the systemizing trait and susceptibility to a subset of the tested illusions (the rod-and-frame, Roelofs, Ponzo and Poggendorff illusions). These results provide support for the idea that autism involves an imbalance between the processing of local and global cues, more heavily weighted toward local features than in the typically developed individual.

Gender Differences in Illusion Response: The Influence of Spatial Strategy and Sex Ratio

Two experiments explored factors related to gender differences in Ponzo illusion susceptibility. In Experiment 1, 54 male and 54 female (predominantly white, middle class) undergraduates were administered Witkin's Embedded Figures Test (EFT) and, on 2 separate occasions, a form of the Ponzo illusion. Results showed the Ponzo to be quite reliable over several days. Females were significantly more field dependent (as shown by slower responses to the EFT), and significantly more susceptible to the Ponzo illusion, than males. Furthermore, EFT performance correlated significantly with Ponzo susceptibility for females, but not for males, suggesting that the difference between males and females in Ponzo response may be due not to differences in field independence per se, but rather to differences in the strategies used to solve the illusion task. In Experiment 2, 111 male and 148 female (predominantly white, middle class) undergraduates were administered the Ponzo illusion twice, the 2 administrations separated by about 90 min. Again, the illusion task showed good reliability, and females were significantly more susceptible to the illusion. Furthermore, the magnitude of the difference between males and females was systematically related to the sex ratio (the ratio of the number of males to the number of females) of the particular session in which each subject happened to be participating. It is suggested that social factors such as sex ratio might affect the strategies participants use when doing illusion tasks, and perhaps other spatial skills tasks as well.

Illusion of control: invulnerability to negative affect and depressive symptoms after laboratory and natural stressors.

We examined whether individual differences in susceptibility to the illusion of control predicted differential vulnerability to depressive responses after a laboratory failure and naturally occurring life stressors. The illusion of control decreased the likelihood that subjects (N = 145) would (a) show immediate negative mood reactions to the laboratory failure, (b) become discouraged after naturally occurring negative life events, and (c) experience increases in depressive symptoms a month later given the occurrence of a high number of negative life events. In addition, the stress-moderating effect of the illusion of control on later depressive symptoms appeared to be mediated in part by its effect on reducing the discouragement subjects experienced from the occurrence of negative life events. These findings provide support for the hopelessness theory of depression and for the optimistic illusion-mental health link.

Mood, pattern sensitivity and headache: a longitudinal study.

Fifteen persons who admitted to chronic worry were asked to complete morning and evening diaries in which they reported the occurrence of headaches, assessed their mood, and observed a visually stressful pattern, noting the illusions it induced. Results showed an association between both trait and state measures of mood and headache occurrence, and between trait and state measures of headache occurrence and illusion susceptibility. However, mood and illusion susceptibility did not appear themselves to be associated either as trait or state variables. The implications of these results for remediation of headaches are discussed.

Individual differences in visual-geometric illusions: predictions from measures of spatial cognitive abilities.

A sample of 490 observers was tested on 26 illusion variants and five tests of spatial ability. There was some suggestion that overall perceptual accuracy was related to perceptual ability. More importantly, the individual differences in the magnitude of visual illusions scores were significantly predicted by spatial abilities measures. The general relationship suggested that higher levels of spatial ability were associated with reduced illusion magnitude; however, a canonical correlation analysis revealed that the direction of this relationship depended on the type of illusion. Illusions of linear extent showed an inverse relationship between the two sets of measures, with higher levels of spatial abilities associated with lower degrees of illusion susceptibility. High spatial skills scores were related positively to illusion magnitude for illusions of area and direction.

Illusion of control for self and others in depressed and nondepressed college students.

Recently, it has been discovered that depressed people are less likely than nondepressed people to succumb to an "illusion of control" and judge that their actions influence outcomes that are objectively uncontrollable. This experiment examined the relationship between depression and susceptibility to the illusion of control for oneself and for others. Depressed and nondepressed college students were asked to judge either how much control they themselves had or how much control a male or female confederate had over a noncontingent, but positive, outcome. Replicating past findings on depression and judgments of control, depressed subjects judged relatively accurately that they exerted little control over the experimental outcome, whereas nondepressed subjects overestimated their personal control. Subjects' judgments of the confederates' control were a function of the subject's mood state and sex as well as of the confederate's sex. With one exception (depressed males in the male other condition), depressed subjects tended to overestimate the confederate's (male or female) control over the noncontingent outcome. Nondepressed females also judged that the confederate (male or female) exerted a high degree of control, thus succumbing to the illusion of control both for themselves and others. Nondepressed males, on the other hand, tended to judge more accurately that the confederate (particularly the female confederate) exerted little control and thus, succumbed to the illusion of control for themselves but not for others. These findings imply that an adequate understanding of depressive and nondepressive cognition requires an interpersonal as well as an intrapsychic perspective.

Perceptual Distances and the Basic Color Term Encoding Sequence

American AnthropologistVolume 85, Issue 2 p. 387-391 Free Access Perceptual Distances and the Basic Color Term Encoding Sequence RICHARD K. SUN, RICHARD K. SUN Department of Anthropology Northwestern University Evanston, ILSearch for more papers by this author RICHARD K. SUN, RICHARD K. SUN Department of Anthropology Northwestern University Evanston, ILSearch for more papers by this author First published: June 1983 https://doi.org/10.1525/aa.1983.85.2.02a00110Citations: 14AboutPDF ToolsExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat REFERENCES CITED Berlin, Brent, and Paul Kay 1969 Basic Color Terms: Their Universality and Evolution. Berkeley : University of California Press. Bornstein, Marc H. 1973 The Psychophysiological Component of Cultural Difference in Color Naming and Illusion Susceptibility. Behavior Science Notes 8: 41– 101. Ember, Melvin 1978 Size of Color Lexicon: Interaction of Cultural and Biological Factors. American Anthropologist 80: 364– 367. Farmer, Eric W., Robert M. Taylor, and Andrew J. Belyavin 1980 Large Color Differences and the Geometry of Munsell Color Space. Journal of the Optical Society of America 70: 243– 245. Heider, Eleanor R. 1972 Universals in Color Naming and Memory. Journal of Experimental Psychology 93: 10– 20. Hurvich, Leo M., and Dorothea Jameson 1957 An Opponent-Process Theory of Color Vision. Psychological Review 64: 384– 404. Indow, Tarow 1974 Applications of Multidimensional Scaling in Perception. In Psychophysical Judgment and Measurement. Edward C. Carterette and Morton P. Friedman, eds. (their Handbook of Perception, volume 2). pp. 493– 531. New York : Academic Press. Kay, Paul, and Chad K. McDaniel 1978 The Linguistic Significance of the Meanings of Basic Color Terms. Language 54: 610– 646. Nickerson, Dorothy, and Sidney M. Newhall 1943 A Psychological Color Solid. Journal of the Optical Society of America 33: 419– 422. Rosch, Eleanor 1975 Cognitive Reference Points. Cognitive Psychology 7: 532– 547. Von Wattenwyl, André, and Heinrich Zollinger 1979 Color Term Salience and Neurophysiology of Color Vision. American Anthropologist 81: 279– 288. Zipf, George K. 1972 Human Behavior and the Principle of Least Effort: An Introduction to Human Ecology. New York : Hafner. (reprinted from Addison-Wesley, 1949). Citing Literature Volume85, Issue2June 1983Pages 387-391 ReferencesRelatedInformation

An intra-cultural investigation of susceptibility to 'perspective' and 'non-perspective' spatial illusions.

Conventional Müller-Lyer and modified Müller-Lyer (without 'perspective' cues) illusions were presented to two samples of children aged between eight and 19, matched in education, but living in 'carpentered' and 'uncarpentered' environments in Zambia. Traditional differences in susceptibility have been obtained with both the variations of the Müller-Lyer illusion. In view of the lack of perspective cues in one of these, it is concluded that the perspective theory as presented within the 'carpentered world hypothesis' is inadequate. Since these differences are intra-cultural, they also do not support the hypothesis which suggests that cross-cultural variations in illusion susceptibility are due to genetic factors--such as macular (or retinal) pigmentation.

Illusion Susceptibility and Adaptation to the Marine Environment

The relatively flat and featureless marine environment makes unique perceptual demands on fishermen who must make distance judgments in order to locate themselves with respect to available resources. Past research has found that perceptual adaptation to one environment (e.g., a carpentered environment) can result in perceptual erors in another (e.g., judging line lengths on the Muller-Lyer Illusion). This paper provides a strong test of the environmental hypothesis by interrelating years of experience as a fisherman with susceptibility to the horizontal-vertical illusion among small-scale fishermen in the Gulf of Nicoya, Costa Rica.

Ontogeny of the Ponzo Illusion: Effects of Age, Schooling, and Environment

Subjects were 384 Moroccan males (age range 6–22 yrs.), divided into 16 equal groups, according to the factorial design: age (4) × schooling (2) × environment (2). Subjects were tested on four Ponzo configurations (differing in contextual information) from Leibowitz et al. (1969), the Ponzo perspective stimulus from Segall et al. (1966), the CEFT from Witkin et al. (1971), and a measure of pictorial depth perception. Individual measures of contact with mass-media and urban life were collected on each subject. Analyses indicated that all main factors of age, schooling, and environment played important, and differing, roles in inducing illusion susceptibility. Piaget's (1969) theory of primary and secondary illusions was found useful in understanding the results of the Ponzo configurations used in the study. Primary illusion configurations were found to be relatively insensitive to experiential variables, and illusion susceptibility decreased with chronological age. In contrast, secondary illusion configurations were affected by many experiential factors, and illusion susceptibility was mediated through perceptual development and pictorial depth perception rather than chronological age. It was concluded that single-factor theories of ontogenetic change in illusion susceptibility were inadequate to explain the complex interactions found in this study. Seize groupes de sujets marocains, constitués en fonction de l'âge, du degré d'éducation et du type d'environnement ont été examinés au moyen de quatre formes de l'illusion de Ponzo. Les résultats montrent que chacun des trois facteurs joue un rôle important et particulier dans l'induction de la susceptibilité à l'illusion. La distinction piagétienne entre illusions primaires et secondaires offre une voie intéressante d'interprétation. Les figures suscitant l'illusion primaire se révèlent relativement insensibles aux influences de l'expérience et la suggestibilité diminue avec l'âge. En revanche, l'illusion secondaire subit l'influence de plusieurs facteurs d'expérience et la sensibilité à l'illusion est davantage liée au développement perceptuel et à la perception de la profondeur picturale qu'à l'âge chronologique. On peut conclure que les interactions complexes observées dans cette étude ne peuvent s'expliquer à partir de théories postulant un facteur unique responsable des changements génétiques dans la sensibilité aux illusions.

A Cross-Cultural Test of the “Carpentered World” Hypothesis Using The Ames Distorted Room Illusion

Abstract The differing predictions of the nativist position of Pollack and the empiricist position of Segall et al., regarding illusion susceptibility were tested on a mixed- race, single-environment American sample and a mixed-environment, all-black Zambian sample using a hitherto untested instrument, namely a miniature model of the Ames Distorted Room illusion. Results indicated no significant effect of pigmentation within the American population, and evidence of a direct relationship between environmental “carpenteredness” and illusion-susceptibility in the Zambian sample, thus giving qualified support to the empiricist position. Age was found to be inversely related to susceptibility in all samples, and females overall were found to be significantly more illusion-susceptible than males.

Developmental Influences on Geometric Illusion Susceptibility among Hong Kong Chinese Children

Hong Kong Chinese developmental results are presented to test cross-cultural developmental theories relating to changes in illusion susceptibility with age. The Muller-Lyer (M-L) and Sander-Parallelogram (S-P) illusion data confirm the expected decrease with age from 3-12 (Walter, 1942), and the later increase to age 21 due to exposure to a more sophisticated environment (Wapner and Werner, 1957). The data also supported Piaget and Morf's (1956) developmental hypotheses regarding contiguous and noncontiguous versions of the Horizontal-Vertical (H-V) illustions. The United States, Hong Kong, and Arunta cross-cultural comparisons also support the "carpentered world hypothesis," while H-V illusion susceptibility was also related to ecologically valid desert/urban differences in habits of perceptual inference. However, intersample differences in retinal pigmentation and the cross-sectional nature of the study may have influenced the results.

The Psychophysiological Component of Cultural Difference in Color Naming and Illusion Susceptibility

Two classical cognitive phenomena-the naming of colors and the susceptibility to visual illusions-are known to vary across cultures. Explanations for these intercultural differences have, in the past, cen tured on theories of cultural learning, evolution, or relativity. A survey of primary color names reported in this paper suggests a regular geo graphic patterning of color naming identities which parallels the dis tribution of eye pigmentation. It is suggested that differential color sensitivity to short wavelengths, the result of yellow ocular pigment, directly influences color naming. Moreover, this yellow pigment, which reduces chromatic abberation and is therefore advantageous to visual acuity, produces better judgment of certain illusions. The psychophysio logical approach tendered here explains many of the cross-cultural differences in color naming and Muller-Lyer "susceptibility" in a direct and parsimonious fashion.