Research designed to establish the relationship between chronological age and visual distortion has produced reliable but contradictory findings. It is proposed that the contradictions cannot be resolved by better experimental techniques; that laws do not exist in nature independently of the observer, and that psychological scientists must include the observer and the measuring device as integral components of their enterprise.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
CapraF. (1983) The turning point. New York: Bantam Books.
2.
ComalliP. E. (1970) Life-span changes in visual perception. In GouletL. R.BaltesP. B. (Eds.). Life-span developmental psychology: research and theory. New York: Acadamic Press. Pp. 211–226.
3.
FarquharM.LeibowitzH. W. (1971) The magnitude of the Ponzo illusion as a function of age for large and small stimulus configurations. Psychonomic Science, 25, 97–99.
4.
HeisenbergW. (1962) Physics and philosophy. New York: Harper & Row.
5.
JaegerT. (1986) Life-span ontogeny of the parallel-lines illusion. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 63, 1183–1189.
6.
LeibowitzH. W.HeiselM. A. (1958) L'evolution de l'illusion de Ponzo en fonction de l'age. Archives de Psychologie, 36, 328–331.
7.
LeibowitzH. W.JudischJ. A. (1967) The relation between age and the Ponzo illusion. American Journal of Psychology, 80, 105–109.
8.
PresseyA. W. (1967) A theory of the Mueller-Lyer illusion. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 25, 569–572.
9.
PresseyA. W. (1974) Age changes in the Ponzo and filled-space illusions. Perception & Psychophysics, 15, 315–319.
10.
PresseyA. W. (1983) Some delusions about illusions. Invited address at Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS.
11.
PresseyA. W. (1985) The role of internal contextual features in the Baldwin illusion. In McGaughJ. L.(Ed.), Contemporary psychology: biological processes and theoretical issues. New York: Elsevier. Pp. 365–376.
12.
PresseyA. W.MurrayR. (1976) Further developments in the assimilation theory of geometric illusions: the adjacency principle. Perception & Psychophysics, 19, 536–544.
13.
PresseyA. W.WilsonA. E. (1978) Another look at age changes in geometric illusions. Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society, 12, 333–336.
14.
PrigogineI.StengersI. (1984) Order out of chaos. New York: Bantam Books.
15.
SigurdsonE. (1974) The effects of culture and environment on assimilation and contrast illusions. Unpublished Master's thesis, Univer. of Manitoba.
16.
WeintraubD. J.CooperL. A. (1972) Coming of age with the Delboeuf illusion: brightness contrast, cognition, and perceptual development. Developmental Psychology, 6, 187–197.
17.
WheelerJ. A. (1978) The “past” and the “delayed-choice” double-slit experiment. In MarlowA. R.(Ed.), Mathematical foundations of quantum theory. New York: Academic Press. Pp. 9–48.