Objective 36: Explain the relationship between size constancy and the Muller-Lyer illusion.

In the image at the left, there are 3 different arrows. Right now your brain might be telling you that that the length of the middle segment has to be a different length, because the length of the entire arrows are different; however, your brains perception is lying to you. In the Muller-Lyer illusion, the three line segments in the middle of the shape are actually the same length. Varying amounts of research have been done on this illusion. Some saught to find if culture can have an influence on perception, even that of the length of a line segment; this was refutred as is the norm of psychology. The cultural emphasis was countered by research that the different pigment in our retinas are to account for our misinterpreted perceptions. There is however, a psychological principle that has proved difficult to argue. Size constancy ocurs because our perceptive abilities tell our brains that the object still retains it size, despite our sensations telling us other wise. For example, when a man starts running away from us, our eyes may signal our brain that he is getting smaller, but our brains understand and perceive that he is not getting smaller, but he is in fact getting farther away. (USE MULLER LYER ILLUSION AND SIZE CONSTANCY WIKIPEDIA)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mller-Lyer_illusion

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