Ebbinghaus Illusion

Abstract

Abstract. For 25 years, the web has been used for psychological research ( Krantz et al., 1997 ; Reips, 1997 ). While many areas of psychology have benefitted from the increased access to participants and other benefits of web-based research, one area of psychology has rarely taken advantage of the online format, that is, sensation and perception. Largely, sensation and perception research has not used the web because of the need for carefully calibrated equipment to successfully run their experiments. However, there may be classes of phenomena in our sensory processes that might be studied online where the equipment and stimuli vary. Suppose the critical feature of the stimulus is an abstraction of the physical stimulus that does not vary with different displays. In that case, these features can be successfully studied online, meaning that results from online studies will match those from controlled laboratories. This study will examine the Ebbinghaus illusion to illustrate the successful use of the web for perceptual research. The implications and some discussion of types of perceptual studies conducted on the web will be discussed.