Perceptual distortion of an oblique line in the presence of an abutting vertical line

Wenderoth, Peter; Beh, Helen C.; White, Dennis

doi:10.1016/0042-6989(78)90019-6

Cited by 23 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…The Poggendorff illusion historically has been attributed to distortions in the perceived size of the angles that occur at the intersect of the parallel inducing lines and the judged transversal (e.g., Helmholtz, 1910Helmholtz, /1962Hotopf & Ollerearnshaw, 1972;Wenderoth, Beh, & White, 1978). It has become clear from more recent research that, even if such angular effects do contribute to the illusion (and its variants), other factors must be involved.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evidence for a significant contribution of interactions between oriented line segments in the Tolansky version of the Poggendorff illusion

Wenderoth

O’Connor

Johnson

1986

Perception & Psychophysics

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evidence for a significant contribution of interactions between oriented line segments in the Tolansky version of the Poggendorff illusion

Wenderoth

O’Connor

Johnson

1986

Perception & Psychophysics

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“…In addition to the optical factors, there are also specific patterns of neural interaction that cause contour attraction or repulsion, which also seem to contribute to various illusions (Coren & Girgus, 1978a, 1978bWeintraub & Schneck, 1986). These neural interactions are of a retinallocus and appear to operate through lateral inhibitory processes (Coren, 1970a;Coren & Girgus, 1978a;Wallace, 1975;Wenderoth, Beh, & White, 1978). It should be recognized, however, that similar effects have been postulated to occur at the cortical level because of interactions between populations of orientation-specific receptors (Carpenter & Blakemore, 1973).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

A method to assess the relative contribution of lateral inhibition to the magnitude of visual-geometric illusions

Coren

Porac

Aks

et al. 1988

Perception & Psychophysics

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Observer errors of judged length when viewing the Miiller-Lyer illusion arise partially from distortions caused by lateral neural interactions in the retina. To assess the relative contribution of such lateral neural interactions to the total magnitude of the illusion, the Miiller-Lyer figure was presented to observers under a form of intermittent-light stimulation that enhances lateral inhibitory activity. In Experiment 1, intermittent-light conditions produced the largest increase in illusion strength for the standard variant of the Miiller-Lyer figure but not for a dot form in which contour interactions are minimized. The results of Experiment 2 showed that the hypothesized lateral inhibitory contribution varied as a function of wing-shaft angle. In addition to confirming the contribution of lateral neural interactions to illusion formation, these findings also suggest that exposure of illusion configurations under intermittent illumination may provide a method of determining the relative contribution of lateral inhibition to illusion configurations other than the Miiller-Lyer.

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“…First, perhaps inhibition is greater near the vertex of acute angles, but observers estimate inclination by averaging along the complete line length (Howard, 1982;Wenderoth, Beh, & White, 1978). Second, it is possible that only the inhibitory effects at the angle vertex are taken into account by the visual system and that the orientations of the remainder of the angle's arms are "reconstituted," as occurs in the domain of lightness in the Craik-Cornsweet-O'Brien illusion (Frisby, 1979).…”

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confidence: 99%

The effects of angle-arm length on judgments of angle magnitude and orientation contrast

Wenderoth

Johnson

1984

Perception & Psychophysics

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Acute angles frequently are overestimated, an effect that has been attributed to lateral inhibitory mechanisms. It can be derived from such theories that lengthening the arms of an angle should either reduce or not affect its judged subtense. However, in Experiments 1 and 2, it was found that angles with longer arms were judged larger. In Experiment 3, direct measures of anglearm orientation indicated that orientation contrast does not increase with angle-arm length, that it decreases with distance from the angle vertex, and that these effects are not averaged along the entire length of the arm. It follows that inhibitory mechanisms alone cannot explain why longer armed angles appear larger or why angle arms appear straight rather than bowed. It is suggested that a distinction is required between the orientation and the angular domains and that the latter judgments depend, at least partially, on the space or area within an angle. The fact that angles appear unbowed may reflect the fact that perceived orientation differences occur along an angle's arm only when matches are made to small segments of the arm.

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Perceptual distortion of an oblique line in the presence of an abutting vertical line

Cited by 23 publications

References 32 publications

Evidence for a significant contribution of interactions between oriented line segments in the Tolansky version of the Poggendorff illusion

Evidence for a significant contribution of interactions between oriented line segments in the Tolansky version of the Poggendorff illusion

A method to assess the relative contribution of lateral inhibition to the magnitude of visual-geometric illusions

The effects of angle-arm length on judgments of angle magnitude and orientation contrast

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