Mueller-Lyer Illusion: Effect of Age, Lightness Contrast, and Hue

Abstract

Mueller-Lyer figures produced by lightness contrast (white on black) and by hue contrast in the absence of lightness contrast (red, yellow, green, or blue on gray) were presented to subjects aged nine to adult. Contrary to Piagetian expectations, the illusion magnitudes resulting from the colored figures did not decline with age.

The effect of lightness contrast on the colored Müller-Lyer illusion

“…The strength of these hue-induced illusions is consistent with the results of previous studies (pollack, 1970;Youn et al, 1987) in which the same method of presentation was utilized, and they are consistent as well with Gregory's (1977) observation that a red figure against a green ground of matching brightness produced a robust illusion. However, the greater magnitude of hue-produced illusions is contrary to Livingstone and Hubel's (1987) finding that isolurninant Milller-Lyer figures generate smaller illusions than do those that include a difference in lightness between figure and ground.…”

“…Since these purely colored illusions are as large as those produced by achromatic figures under similar viewing conditions (Pollack, 1970;Youn et al, 1987), it is quite possible that multiple processes are contributing to the illusion. However, the fact that parafoveal figures, which are off center in the viewer's attentive field, do not produce reliably smaller illusions than the foveal ones do, fails to substantiate the presence of cognitive contributions based on assimilation (Pressey, 1967(Pressey, , 1971Pressey & Kersten, 1989) or enlargement by centration (Piaget, 1969).…”

“…In consistency with this argument, Livingstone and Hubel (1987) have reported, on the basis of informal observation, a diminution in the hue-produced Muller-Lyer illusion; they maintain that this finding supports the attribution of the illusion to inappropriate depth-cue scaling. It is important, however, that previous quantitative investigations of isoluminant Miiller-Lyer figures (Gregory, 1977;Pollack, 1970;Youn, Lambert, & Pollack, 1987) have not reported that such figures produce a smaller illusion.…”

Influence of color and luminance on the Müuller-Lyer illusion

“…The researchers in the first group, who concentrated on the effect of brightness, were Gregory (1977), Pollack (1970b), Ebert and Pollack (l972b), and Butler (1981). Gregory (1977) used stimuli with a color different from that of the background.…”

Developmental susceptibility to the horizontal-vertical illusion

“…For the ML and SP illusions, similar declines have been reported between the ages of3 and 12 (Binet, 1895;Dawson et al , 1973;Piaget & Albertini, 1954;Walter, 1952;Wapner & Werner, 1957). These trends, however, have not been observed in other studies (Grieve, Hogben, & Williams, 1983), or they have been attributed to cultural differences (Segall, Campbell, & Herskovits, 1963, 1966, eye pigmentation (Berry, 1972 ;Pollack & Silver, 1967), stimulus figure color (Pollack, 1970) , type of stimulus figure (L-shaped vs . inverted-T figure ; see Fraisse & Vautrey, 1956), or the complexity of experimental procedures (Grieve et al .…”