Illusory Effect Research Articles

Illusory truth effect across languages and scripts.

The repetition of a statement increases its credibility, a phenomenon known as the illusory truth effect. Here we tested whether the illusory truth effect persists across languages and scripts. In two experiments, Italian-English (n = 80) and Greek-English (n = 66), unbalanced bilinguals were exposed to 60 written unknown trivia statements in English. After a distractor math task, participants rated the truthfulness of the same 60 (repeated) statements and 60 new statements, which were presented either in the same language as in the exposure phase (English) or in a different language (Italian, Experiment 1, or Greek, Experiment 2). Response times were faster when information was repeated in the same language compared to a different language, suggesting increased processing fluency in the former than in the latter case. Truth ratings yielded an illusory truth effect: repeated statements were considered more truthful than new statements. Interestingly, the magnitude of the illusory truth effect remained regardless of whether the repetition was in the same or in a different language and persisted even when the different language condition also entailed a different script (Latin in exposure phase and Greek in repetition). The results suggest that the language of information presentation is not a critical factor to affect the illusory truth effect, despite the fact that repetition in the same language increases processing speed. We interpret our results in light of the referential theory (Unkelbach & Rom, Cognition 160: 110-126, 2017), attributing the illusory truth effect to conceptual fluency induced by the overlap of activated conceptual representations in bilingual memory.

Social Media News Use Amplifies the Illusory Truth Effects of Viral Deepfakes: A Cross-National Study of Eight Countries

ABSTRACT This study enhances our understanding of illusory truth effects (ITE) by focusing on deepfakes. Survey data from eight countries demonstrates ITE – such that those exposed to deepfakes previously were more likely to perceive the misinformation as accurate than those exposed to them for the first time. This pattern was observed regardless of the political and nonpolitical nature of deepfakes across all sociopolitical settings. Also, those who rely on social media for news are found to be more susceptible to deepfakes. Moreover, relying on social media for news consumption amplified ITE for all individuals (regardless of cognitive ability levels).

An Illusory Consensus Effect: The Mere Repetition of Information Increases Estimates That Others Would Believe or Already Know It

How do people estimate the prevalence of beliefs and knowledge among others? Here, we examine the hypothesis that mere repetition of information increases such perceptions of consensus — an “illusory consensus effect.” Although existing evidence suggests that repeated exposure to information may increase its perceived consensus, the impact of repetition has not been tested in isolation from other source and contextual cues. We conducted two experiments to fill in this gap. Prolific participants located in the U.S. read a series of trivia claims — half true and half false in Experiment 1 and all true in Experiment 2. These claims were not attributed to any source. After a short delay, participants made consensus judgments about previously seen (repeated) and new trivia claims. Repetition significantly increased perceived consensus in both experiments; in Experiment 1, participants judged that more Americans would believe repeated (vs. new) information, and in Experiment 2, participants judged that more Americans knew repeated (vs. new) information. These findings provide strong evidence for an illusory consensus effect, such that mere exposure to information increases perceptions of two different measures of consensus: how many others would believe it as well as estimates of current public knowledge. These findings are relevant to our understanding of how our information environments may contribute to (mis)perceptions of consensus.

Investigating the Kappa Effect Elicited Through Concurrent Visual and Tactile Stimulation.

The experience of time and space in subjective perception is closely connected. The Kappa effect refers to the phenomenon where the perceived duration of the time interval between stimuli is influenced by the spatial distance between them. In this study, we aimed to explore the Kappa effect from a psychophysical perspective. We investigated participants' perception of temporal duration in the sub-second range by delivering visual and tactile inputs through wearable devices placed on both the palm and the forearm. We compared the impact of unimodal sensory stimulation, involving either visual or tactile stimuli, with different bimodal stimulation conditions. Our results revealed that the illusory effect on inter-stimulus duration perception can be observed in both unimodal conditions, although the distortions were significantly more pronounced in vision. In the multimodal stimulation condition, where visual stimuli were presented at non-equidistant spatial locations, the integration of tactile input did not reduce the Kappa effect, regardless of the spatial location of the tactile stimuli. However, when the visual stimuli were equidistant in space, regardless of the spatial location of the tactile stimuli, the Kappa effect disappeared. These results can shed light on the effect played by multimodality on the perception of space and time.

Critical data studies meets discard studies: Waste data reflectivity in digital urban waste tracking system

The article critically examines the implementation and impact of the Digital Urban Waste Tracking System (DUWTS), a ‘smart’ waste management technology deployed in several towns in Poland to enhance urban waste segregation practices. By integrating critical discard studies with critical data studies, the article introduces the concept of ‘waste data reflectivity’ to investigate how data representation in DUWTS influences perceptions and responsibilities within waste management. The study highlights how DUWTS employs advanced dataveillance technologies to monitor waste disposal, creating distorted reflections that obscure the complexities of municipal waste management. These distortions are analyzed through the metaphorical lenses of three mirrors – concave, kaleidoscopic, and ceiling – which reveal the illusory effects on municipalities, waste disposal companies, and residents. Additionally, the article discusses how DUWTS exemplifies ‘technologies of (un)knowing’, which systematically obscure or misrepresent waste management issues, leading to the marginalization of true responsibilities and challenges. The findings demonstrate that while DUWTS represents a technological advancement, it can also perpetuate the existing challenges in waste management by masking the true nature of waste issues and obscuring the responsibilities of different stakeholders. The article concludes by emphasizing the socio-technological consequences of such systems and the importance of a critical analysis in evaluating the effectiveness and ethics of data-driven waste management technologies.

Competing for Trust: How Initiative and Repetition of Exposure Influence Information Credibility

ABSTRACTModern democracy often requires citizens to engage in policy debates demanding multidisciplinary knowledge. This can lead to a cognitive gap that urges citizens to seek information for decision‐making on unfamiliar policy issues. The credibility of this information is crucial, as it shapes individual perceptions and attitudes, which aggregate as public opinions. To deepen the understanding of information credibility, this study proposes an experiment leveraging theories of the continued influence effect and the illusory truth effect to answer how initiative and repetition of exposure influence the evaluation of information credibility. 1,400 participants will be recruited and requested to rate the credibility of opposing arguments regarding a fictitious referendum provided with varying orders and numbers. The result is expected to show a positive causality between exposure initiative, information repetition, and information credibility. The findings will aid in promoting well‐informed democratic deliberation in an era of political polarization.

Audiovisual integration and sensory dominance effects in older adults with subjective cognitive decline: Enhanced redundant effects and stronger fusion illusion susceptibility.

Subjective cognitive decline (SCD) refers to individuals' perceived decline in memory and/or other cognitive abilities relative to their previous level of performance. Sensory decline is one of the main manifestations of decline in older adults with SCD. The efficient integration of visual and auditory information, known as audiovisual integration, is a crucial perceptual process. This study aims to evaluate audiovisual integration in older adults with SCD. We adopted the audiovisual detection task, the Colavita task, and the Sound-Induced Flash Illusion (SIFI) task to evaluate the audiovisual integration by examining both redundant and illusory effects. Older adults diagnosed with SCD (N=50, mean age=67.8 years) and a control group of non-SCD older adults (N=51, mean age=66.5 years) were recruited. All participants took part in the three aforementioned experiments. The outcomes showed that a redundant effect occurred in both SCD and non-SCD older adults, with SCD older adults gaining more benefits in audiovisual detection task. Moreover, an equivalent amount of the visual dominance effect was observed among both SCD and non-SCD older adults in Colavita task. In addition, older adults with SCD perceived an equal fission illusion but a bigger fusion illusion compared with non-SCD older adults in SIFI task. Overall, older adults with SCD exhibit increased audiovisual redundant effects and stronger fusion illusion susceptibility compared to non-SCD older adults. Besides, visual dominance was observed in both groups via the Colavita task, with no significant difference between non-SCD and SCD older adults. These findings implied that audiovisual integration might offer a potential way for the identification of SCD.

Penciptaan Produk Eksklusif Melalui Aplikasi Material dan Tekstur Pada Karya Fotograf

This research is an effort to synthesize, explore and experiment to formulate photographic products of applied art by combining aspects of photographic art and aspects of painting. Concretely, through this research, digital photo printing will be carried out on paper and canvas media which in the next stage will be applied with painting materials and techniques to get an exclusive impression. The physical consumption of photography is now increasingly focused on meeting domestic and artistic needs. The results of observations show that the texture in the painting has its own visual strength, which is not found in photographic works. The main question of this research is how to select, digitally print photos on certain media, and apply materials and painting techniques to produce unique, exclusive, and characteristic photo works through the application of materials and painting techniques. The innovation resulting from this research is a working model to increase the value of photo prints in society by adding textural elements resulting from the touch of a hand. The creative method for creating works refers to Graham Wallas in The Art of Thoughts which consists of stages: preparation, incubation, illumination and verification. The product will be analyzed by using Otto Ocvirk’s theory in Art Fundamentals Theory and Practice. He discusses that texture gives the illusion of a touch effect so that the surface character looks real. It is found that applying resin to photos printed on paper has a positive impact and corresponds to the illusory effect to be achieved. Keywords: texture, photograph, exclusive product

More familiar, more credible? Distinguishing two types of familiarity on the truth effect using the drift-diffusion model

ABSTRACT Familiar information is more likely to be accepted as true. This illusory truth effect has a tremendous negative impact on misinformation intervention. Previous studies focused on the familiarity from repeated exposure in the laboratory, ignoring preexisting familiarity with real-world misinformation. Over three studies (total N = 337), we investigated the cognitive mechanisms behind the truth biases from these two familiarity sources, and whether fact-checking can curb such biased truth perceptions. Studies 1 and 2 found robust truth effects induced by two sources of familiarity but with different cognitive processes. According to the cognitive process model, repetition-induced familiarity reduced decision prudence. Preexisting familiarity instead enhanced truth-congruent evidence accumulation. Study 3 showed that pre-exposing statements with warning flags eliminated the bias to truth induced by repetition but not that from preexisting familiarity. These repeated statements with warning labels also reduced decision caution. These findings furthered the understanding of how different sources of familiarity affect truth perceptions and undermine the intervention through different cognitive processes.

Measuring mislocalization of angle vertices.

Localisation of simple stimuli such as angle vertices may contribute to a plethora of illusory effects. We focus on the Müller-Lyer illusion in an attempt to measure and characterise a more elementary effect that may contribute to the magnitude of said illusion. Perceived location error of angle vertices (a single set of Müller-Lyer fins) and arcs in a 2D plane was measured with the aim to provide clarification of ambiguous results from studies of angle localisation and expand the results to other types of stimuli. In three experiments, we utilised the method of constant stimuli in order to determine perceived locations of angle vertices (Experiments 1 and 2) as well as circular and elliptical arcs (Experiment 3). The results show significant distortions of perceived compared to objective vertex locations (all effect sizes d > 1.01, p < .001). Experiment 2 revealed strong effects of angle size and fin length on localisation error. Mislocalization was larger for more acute angles and longer angle fins (both ηp² = .43, p < .001). In Experiment 3, localisation errors were larger for longer arcs (ηp² = .19, p = .001) irrespective of shape (circular or elliptical). We discuss the effect in the context of modern trends in research of the Müller-Lyer illusion as well as the widely popular centroid theory. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Variability in English-Spanish bilingual phonotactics

Spanish prohibits initial sC clusters. Past studies have reported that this phonotactic restriction results in the perception of an illusory /e/, ‘repairing’ the illicit sequence (e.g., spid perceived as espid). Because English allows sC clusters, English-Spanish bilinguals are confronted with conflicting phonotactic systems. The present study investigated if this locus of phonotactic conflict yields bilingual variability (i.e., non-monolingual-like language behavior). Spanish monolinguals and English-Spanish bilinguals performed a nonce word judgment task, whereby they assigned acceptability ratings to sC-initial nonce words. Monolinguals were highly unaccepting of sC-initial words, whereas bilinguals were more likely to accept them as phonotactically licit, showing evidence of bilingual variability. The bilingual variability was constrained by English phonotactics, as sC clusters were rated as significantly more acceptable than other illicit onset clusters that are illicit in both languages. Furthermore, the monolinguals failed to show evidence of an illusory vowel effect, highlighting the importance of task type in phonotactic perception studies.

Who shares misinformation on social media? A meta-analysis of individual traits related to misinformation sharing

An important step in developing effective interventions to stop the spread of misinformation is to develop a comprehensive understanding of the characteristics of people who are likely to share misinformation on social media. Accordingly, we conducted a meta-analysis of 60 articles on the individual traits of people who share misinformation. Results showed that the passing time motivation (r = 0.524) had the strongest positive relationship with misinformation sharing, whereas trust in information (r = 0.437) and the socialization motivation (r = 0.350) had a large positive effect. The motivations for entertainment (r = 0.276) and altruism (r = 0.220), and trust in social media (r = 0.219) all had medium positive effects. Prior exposure to misinformation (r = 0.191) and political conservatism (r = 0.119) both had a small positive association with misinformation sharing, whereas the personality trait of agreeableness (r = −0.094) had a weak negative association with misinformation sharing. Information literacy (r = −0.229) exerted a medium negative effect, but new media literacy was not significantly related to misinformation sharing. Finally, contextual and methodological factors emerged as important moderators. Older people and women were more likely to spread health misinformation, whereas younger people and men were more likely to share political misinformation. Overall, this study indicates that misinformation sharing is more strongly related to psychological traits than to personality and demographic traits. Moreover, the uses and gratifications theory, theories related to trust and credibility, and the illusory truth effect may well explain misinformation sharing in the online space.

Why Do People Believe in Vaccine Misinformation? The Roles of Perceived Familiarity and Evidence Type

ABSTRACT The proliferation of health misinformation poses a significant threat to public health, making it increasingly important to understand why misinformation is accepted. The illusory truth effect, which refers to the increased believability of a message due to repeated exposure, has been widely studied. However, there is limited research on this effect in the context of COVID-19 vaccine misinformation. This paper aims to examine the role of perceived familiarity with COVID-19 vaccine misinformation on various message perceptions, including perceived accuracy, agreement, perceived message effectiveness, and determinants of vaccination, including vaccine attitude and vaccination intention. Furthermore, it explores the impact of misinformation evidence (statistical vs. narrative) on the magnitude of the effects of perceived familiarity. To investigate these factors, a between-subjects experimental study was conducted, employing a 2 (Familiarity: strong vs. weak) × 3 (Evidence type: statistical, narrative, and both evidence) + 1 (Control: a message about drinking water) design. The results revealed that perceived familiarity with COVID-19 vaccine misinformation significantly predicted perceived accuracy, which was found to be negatively correlated with vaccine attitudes and vaccination intentions. Moreover, statistical evidence presented in misinformation was perceived as more persuasive in perceived message effectiveness, compared to narrative and mixed evidence. Interestingly, the effects of perceived familiarity were not contingent on the type of evidence used in COVID-19 vaccine misinformation. These findings emphasize the importance of avoiding the repetition of misinformation, reducing the processing fluency associated with misinformation correction, and educating individuals on how to critically evaluate statistical evidence when encountering (mis)information.

Theory of Mind and Social Informant Discrepancy in Autism.

When autistic youth are asked to assess their own social skills, they frequently rate themselves more favorably than their parents rate them. The magnitude of this informant discrepancy has been shown to relate to key clinical outcomes such as treatment response. It has been proposed that this discrepancy arises from difficulties with Theory of Mind. Participants were 167 youth 11 to 17years old; 72% male, and their parents. Youth completed self-report measures of social skills and social cognitive tasks, while their parents completed questionnaires regarding social skills. A repeated-measures ANOVA indicated both non-autistic and autistic youth rated themselves more favorably than their parents rated them across all measures. Zero-order correlations revealed that raw differences between parent- and participant-report were negatively correlated with scores on parent-reported Theory of Mind measures. However, polynomial analysis did not indicate interaction effects between parent- and participant-report on any of the measures used. Polynomial regression revealed that increases in parent-reported social skill predicted larger increases in parent-report Theory of Mind at low levels of parent-reported social skill compared to high levels of parent-reported social skill. Participant-report social skills predicted performance on a behavioral Theory of Mind test in a curvilinear fashion, such that the relationship was positive at low levels of participant-reported social skills, but negative at high levels. This study replicates the finding that raw difference score analyses may result in illusory effects that are not supported when using more contemporary analysis methods, and that more complex and subtle relationships between social insight and perspective-taking exist within autistic youth.

False information is harder to debunk after gist repetitions than verbatim repetitions

ABSTRACT Research has shown that repeating a claim increases belief in it and makes it more difficult to correct. This is referred to as the illusory truth effect. Previous studies have mostly examined the illusory truth effect in a verbatim paradigm, that is, when information is repeated word-for-word. In the present study, we looked at the difference between repeating a claim word-for-word and repeating only its gist, and how both these contexts can mitigate belief in false information that is refuted or not. Results show that gist and verbatim repetitions both lead to high, and relatively equal, levels of belief when they are not disconfirmed, and that a subsequent correction is more effective in lowering belief levels after verbatim than after gist repetition. This provides evidence that the way in which information is repeated has a differential impact on our ability to debias it.

An ongoing secondary task can reduce the illusory truth effect.

People are more likely to believe repeated information-this is known as the Illusory Truth Effect (ITE). Recent research on the ITE has shown that semantic processing of statements plays a key role. In our day to day experience, we are often multi-tasking which can impact our ongoing processing of information around us. In three experiments, we investigate how asking participants to engage in an ongoing secondary task in the ITE paradigm influences the magnitude of the effect of repetition on belief. Using an adapted ITE paradigm, we embedded a secondary task into each trial of the encoding and/or test phase (e.g., having participants count the number of vowels in a target word of each trivia claim) and calculated the overall accuracy on the task. We found that the overall ITE was larger when participants had no ongoing secondary task during the experiment. Further, we predicted and found that higher accuracy on the secondary task was associated with a larger ITE. These findings provide initial evidence that engaging in an ongoing secondary task may reduce the impact of repetition. Our findings suggest that exploring the impact of secondary tasks on the ITE is a fruitful area for further research.

Network dynamics underlying alterations in apparent object size.

A target circle surrounded by small circles looks larger than an identical circle surrounded by large circles (termed as the Ebbinghaus illusion). While previous research has shown that both early and high-level visual regions are involved in the generation of the illusion, it remains unclear how these regions work together to modulate the illusion effect. Here, we used functional MRI and dynamic causal modelling to investigate the neural networks underlying the illusion in conditions where the focus of attention was manipulated via participants directing their attention to and maintain fixation on only one of the two illusory configurations at a time. Behavioural findings confirmed the presence of the illusion. Accordingly, functional MRI activity in the extrastriate cortex accounted for the illusory effects: apparently larger circles elicited greater activation than apparently smaller circles. Interestingly, this spread of activity for size overestimation was accompanied by a decrease in the inhibitory self-connection in the extrastriate region, and an increase in the feedback connectivity from the precuneus to the extrastriate region. These findings demonstrate that the representation of apparent object size relies on feedback projections from higher- to lower-level visual areas, highlighting the crucial role of top-down signals in conscious visual perception.

Integrating multiple cues in metamemory: using the illusory effect of font size and level of processing to inform FOK judgments

Integrating multiple cues in metamemory: using the illusory effect of font size and level of processing to inform FOK judgments

Coming to grips with reality: Real grasps, but not pantomimed grasps, resist a simultaneous tilt illusion

Investigations of grasping real, 3D objects subjected to illusory effects from a pictorial background often choose in-flight grasp aperture as the primary variable to test the hypothesis that the visuomotor system resists the illusion. Here we test an equally important feature of grasps that has received less attention: in-flight grasp orientation. The current study tested a variant of the simultaneous tilt illusion using a mirror-apparatus to manipulate the availability of haptic feedback. Participants performed grasps with haptic feedback (real grasps) and without it (pantomime grasps), reaching for the reflection of a real, 3D bar atop a background grating that induced a 1.1° bias in the perceived orientation of the bar in a separate sample of participants. Analysis of the hand's in-flight grasp orientation at early, late, and end stages of the reach showed that at no point were the real grasps biased by the illusion. In contrast, pantomimed grasps were affected by the illusion at the late and end stages of the reach. At each stage, the effect on the real grasps was significantly weaker than the effect of the illusion as measured by the mean point of subjective equality (PSE) in a two-alternative forced-choice task. In contrast, the effect on the pantomime grasps was statistically indistinguishable from the mean PSE at all three stages of the reach. These findings reinforce the idea that in-flight grasp orientation, like grasp aperture to pictorial illusions of target size, is refractory to pictorial backgrounds that bias perceived orientation.

The effect of the Uznadze illusion is temporally dynamic in closed-loop but temporally constant in open-loop grasping.

Although it is known that the availability of visual feedback modulates grasping kinematics, it is unclear whether this extends to both the early and late stages of the movement. We tackled this issue by exposing participants to the Uznadze illusion (a medium stimulus appears larger or smaller after exposure to smaller or larger inducers). After seeing smaller or larger discs, participants grasped a medium disc with (closed-loop [CL]) or without (open-loop [OL]) visual feedback. Our main aim was to assess whether the time course of the illusion from the movement onset up to the grasp differed between OL and CL. Moreover, we compared OL and CL illusory effects on maximum grip aperture (MGA) and tested whether preparation time, movement time, and time to MGA predicted illusion magnitude. Results revealed that CL illusory effects decreased over movement time, whereas OL ones remained constant. At the time of MGA, OL, and CL effects were, however, of similar size. Although OL grasps were longer to prepare and showed earlier and larger MGAs, such differences had little impact on modulating the illusion. These results suggest that the early stage of grasping is sensitive to the Uznadze illusion both under CL and OL conditions, whereas the late phase is sensitive to it only under OL conditions. We discuss these findings within the framework of theoretical models on the functional properties of the dorsal stream for visually guided actions.