Abstract
The effects of left and right alignment on the Ebbinghaus illusion were investigated in three experiments. In Experiment 1, the Ebbinghaus illusion was presented on the left or right side, and the points of subjective equality (PSE) were measured. Only the central disk of the figure with small inducers was perceived larger when it was positioned on the right side rather than on the left. In Experiments 2 and 3, left, right, and central placement were used to determine if the results of Experiment 1 were caused by a decrease of the illusion on the left side or an increase of the illusion on the right side. There was no difference in the illusion effect between the left and the center; however, the illusion effect increased when the figure was presented on the right side. These results suggest that a hemispheric asymmetry for global and local spatial attention influences the laterality of the Ebbinghaus illusion.
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Notes
In Experiments 2 and 3, a No-inducer single disk condition was not included. Thus, the magnitude of illusion was calculated with the actual size of the disk in these experiments. There was no difference between the results that were calculated with an actual size and those that were calculated with the perceived size of a No-inducer single disk in Experiment 1. Furthermore, there were no significant differences between the actual size and perceived size of the No-inducer single target disk. Because the apparatus (PC and monitor) did not change in these three experiments, the magnitude of illusion of Experiments 2 and 3 was calculated with the actual size of the disk.
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Acknowledgements
This study was supported by a JSPS KAKENHI Grant (number 25780445) to AS. I would like to thank the editor and three referees who have devoted time to reading and commenting on this paper. Furthermore, I would like to thank C. Michimata, B. Laeng, and M. Okubo for their helpful comments on this study. I am also grateful to R. Hosoya, K. Mothohashi, and K. Seko for their help with the experiments. I thank CDS group for their support for writing the paper.
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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. All experimental procedures were approved by the Institutional Review Board of the Teikyo University Psychology Department (no. 227).
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Saneyoshi, A. The Ebbinghaus illusion with small inducers appears larger on the right side. Exp Brain Res 236, 933–944 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-018-5168-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-018-5168-8