The Cylinder Configuration: When is a Distortion an Illusion?

Abstract

A figure with one end rounded and the other concluding in an ellipse (the ‘cylinder configuration’) may appear longer than a rectangle of the same true length. It is proposed that when this configuration is processed as a three-dimensional body, it provides a cue for object orientation which causes the perceptual system to make an adjustment in the direction appropriate for maintaining size constancy. This effect may be considered a normal perceptual adjustment, appropriately applied. When the cylinder configuration is embedded in a context which does not favour its being processed as three-dimensional, a weaker adjustment in length may still occur. It is suggested that this effect, which may properly be classified as an illusion, may arise through direct association of the critical pattern of lines with the process of lengthening produced by the size-constancy mechanisms. Some relations of the present configuration to the Müller-Lyer illusion, and implications for the latter, are also discussed.