Abstract
All current explanations of the Bourdon illusion imply that the illusion persists under mirror imaging over the vertical or horizontal axes. We tested this hypothesis in three experiments. For orientations of the standard Bourdon figure of about 135°, the illusion shows a dip, which is unexplainable in terms of current theories.
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The experiments reported in this article were part of a master’s thesis by I.M.V. The authors thank Ronald Hamel for his useful suggestions, Lonneke Frie for testing the subjects of Quadrants III and IV in the first experiment, and Ingrid Christoffels for her contribution in performing the second experiment.
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Verstijnen, I.M., Van Leeuwen, C. Anomalous orientation effects in the Bourdon illusion. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review 5, 290–294 (1998). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03212953
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03212953