Judgmental model of the Ebbinghaus illusion.

1971/01/01 by Dominic W. Massaro, Norman H. Anderson · 21 citations
Neuroscience · Psychology · Agricultural and Biological Sciences · #Visual perception and processing mechanisms #Color perception and design #Sensory Analysis and Statistical Methods

paper · doi:10.1037/h0031158

Abstract

Two experiments studied the Ebbinghaus illusion as a function of four stimulus variables: the size of the context circles, the number of context circles, the distance between the context circles and the center circle, and the size of the center circle. The results provided a quantitative test of a judgmental model that considers the Ebbinghaus illusion to be comparative in nature. The context circles, then, serve as standards or yardsticks, and the center circle is judged partly relative to them. The model provided a reasonably good description of the magnitude of the illusion as a function of the several stimulus variables. The center circle in Fig. 1 appears larger when surrounded by small circles, smaller when surrounded by large circles. This figure, known as the Ebbinghaus illusion, or Titchener circles, has seen relatively little systematic study. The present article reports two parametric studies done within a judgmental theory of stimulus integration (Anderson, 1970a, 1970b; Massaro &

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