Fig. 1 shows two equal-length lines used by a museum researcher investigating a visual illusion. Visitors viewed the figure for five seconds before reportin...
Question 1 Report
Fig. 1 shows two equal-length lines used by a museum researcher investigating a visual illusion. Visitors viewed the figure for five seconds before reporting which line appeared longer. The researcher is interested in how the brain uses surrounding information in perception.
(a) Which line is most likely to be judged longer? [1]
(b) Explain why the two lines are perceived as different lengths. [2]
(c) Outline how Gregory's constructivist theory accounts for this illusion. [3]
Answer Details
(a) The line with outward-pointing fins / Line B [1] (b) The outward fins make the line appear to extend further [1]; contextual cues cause the brain to misjudge its length despite equal retinal information [1]. (c) Perception is an active construction rather than a direct copy of sensory information [1]; the brain uses past experience / learned assumptions about angles and distance [1]; it makes a hypothesis that is incorrect for this two-dimensional figure, producing the illusion [1].
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