Developmental trends in susceptibility to perceptual illusions: Not all illusions are created equal

Abstract

This study examined the development of the utilization of contextual information in visuospatial integration during childhood. We examined four contextual size illusions in children and adults asking whether young children's sensitivity to context is reduced or varies with the perceptual mechanisms or the levels of integration involved. We tested susceptibility to contextual illusions in four-year-olds, seven-year-olds, and adults, employing two psychophysical paradigms, perceptual estimation and a 2AFC discrimination task. We tested susceptibility to Ebbinghaus and Ponzo illusions to estimate the effect of the interaction of object size with its contextual background on the rescaling of its perceived size; we also tested susceptibility to the rectangle and 3D-cube illusions to estimate the effect of the interaction of two dimensions of the target object on the rescaling of its perceived size. While four-year-olds were affected by the Ebbinghaus and Ponzo illusions, they showed no susceptibility to the rectangle or 3D-cube illusion. The results show that, overall, sensitivity to context is not reduced in early childhood; rather, it varies with the perceptual mechanisms or the levels of integration involved. In particular, development is protracted for size illusions in which contextual effects entail the extraction of the relations of dimensions within an object.

A shared fractal aesthetic across development

“…Distributions of the child data may have been particularly affected by attrition (due to inadequate comprehension of Ponzo task instructions by some child participants and lack of SQ completion by parents). No significant correlation was detected between SQ and Ponzo scores (r = −0.12, p = 0.22) likely explained by prior research regarding age-related differences in illusion susceptibility (Hadad, 2018). A one-tailed correlational analysis on SQ scores and Ponzo error in adult participants alone (n = 82) detected a significant correlation (r = −0.21, p = 0.028*) (with higher SQ scores relating to reduction in Ponzo errors), and was performed since the link between visual illusion susceptibility and SQ scores was previously established only in adult participants (Walter et al, 2008) and attrition of child participants (n = 23) reduced the data available.…”

“…Impact of individual differences and age. Perceptual integration of contextual information varies across development and can impact susceptibility to visual illusions (Hadad, 2018). Differences in general perceptual strategies or age-related handling of contextual information may alter the perception of patterns, either by influencing the degree to which local compared to global features Fig.…”

“…After decades of exposure to natural patterns, this theory suggests that understanding of visual patterns will have deepened compared to that of early childhood, shifting preference towards the most complex patterns an individual can process (Roder et al, 2000;Kidd et al, 2012). To define the impact of these factors on fractal aesthetics, it is vital to consider a wider sample of participant ages (children as well as adults) and account for the impact of individual perceptual biases (determined by assessing Systemizing Quotient (SQ) scores (Baron-Cohen et al, 2001) and susceptibility to global context effects in the Ponzo Task (Hadad, 2018), see Fig. 2 (Walter et al, 2008)).…”

Object complexity modulates the association between action and perception in childhood

“…An important limitation of the previous studies is that the adherence to Weber's law was examined using objects whose size was manipulated only along the task-relevant dimension (e.g., Ganel, Chajut, et al, 2008;Ganel et al, 2014;Hadad et al, 2012;Heath, Mulla, Holmes, & Smuskowitz, 2011). It remains possible, therefore, that visuomotor representations of these objects might rely on simple, low-level, visual cues (e.g., retinal size) that emerge early in the course of development (and for a similar argument in the case of susceptibility to visual illusions across development see Hadad, 2018). In natural environments, however, individuals are required to interact with more elaborate objects that may vary along multiple, different dimensions.…”

People with autism perceive drastic illusory changes for repeated verbal stimuli

“…However, in the present study, not only did individuals with ASD report a larger variety of forms, but their reported forms contained drastic perceptual changes as well. A recent study suggested that susceptibility to perceptual illusions is not an all or nothing phenomenon and may depend on the specific nature of the perceptual process involved 23 . Indeed, individuals with ASD exhibit clear susceptibility to perceptual illusions, at least in some cases 17,24 .…”