Abstract
Vision scientists have tried to classify visual illusions for a long time. Piaget (1969) proposed that visual illusions can be classified into two groups, depending whether the illusion magnitude decreases or increases with age and intellectual development. These two groups are called primary and secondary illusions, respectively. Contrary to primary illusions, which are supposed to be innate, secondary illusions are thought to be acquired: daily experience with perspective cues enhances our susceptibility to them. Here, we tested illusion magnitudes for the Ponzo and Müller-Lyer illusions with three different complexity levels. We used a classic version of these illusions ("low" complexity), the illusions embedded into line drawing perspective ("intermediary" complexity) and their corresponding real world versions ("high" complexity). A linear model based on data from 86 observers with ages ranging from 6 to 66 years did not reveal any significant effect of the interaction between age and complexity. Illusion magnitudes of the three Müller-Lyer illusions were significantly correlated and the same is true for the Ponzo illusion, suggesting that each illusion makes up its own factor.
Meeting abstract presented at VSS 2018