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RESEARCH PRODUCT
Quantifying the Wollaston Illusion
Sven ThönesStefanie SiebrandHeiko Hechtsubject
AdultMaleVisual perceptionAdolescentgenetic structuresmedia_common.quotation_subjectIllusionPortraits as TopicExperimental and Cognitive PsychologyFixation Ocular050105 experimental psychologyVisual artsYoung Adult03 medical and health sciences0302 clinical medicinePortraitArtificial IntelligenceHumans0501 psychology and cognitive sciencesmedia_common05 social sciencesArtIllusionsSensory SystemsOphthalmologySpace PerceptionFemalesense organsCuesFacial Recognition030217 neurology & neurosurgerydescription
In the early 19th century, William H. Wollaston impressed the Royal Society of London with engravings of portraits. He manipulated facial features, such as the nose, and thereby dramatically changed the perceived gaze direction, although the eye region with iris and eye socket had remained unaltered. This Wollaston illusion has been replicated numerous times but never with the original stimuli. We took the eyes (pupil and iris) from Wollaston’s most prominent engraving and measured their perceived gaze direction in an analog fashion. We then systematically added facial features (eye socket, eyebrows, nose, skull, and hair). These features had the power to divert perceived gaze direction by up to 20°, which confirms Wollaston’s phenomenal observation. The effect can be thought of as an attractor effect, that is, cues that indicate a slight change in head orientation have the power to divert perceived gaze direction.
| year | journal | country | edition | language |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020-04-11 | Perception |