Salience of Central Figure in the Ebbinghaus Illusion: The Oreo Cookie Effect

Abstract

The Ebbinghaus illusion was used to study size estimation as influenced by salient features of the central figure. Two groups of fourth graders, 9 boys and 11 girls, and two groups of seventh graders, 9 boys and 9 girls, judged the size of two central figures (an Oreo cookie or a black cardboard disc) with small and large black cardboard disc inducers. Responding showed the Oreo cookie was consistently perceived as larger than the cardboard disc when surrounded by the large inducing figures. The results are discussed in terms of an interaction between the geometric properties and salience of the central figure with the surrounds. This Oreo effect is not predicted by a strict version of the token-value hypothesis and differs from explanations based on contrast and conceptual similarity.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Ashley

W. R.

Harper

R. S.

, & Runyon

D. L.

(1951) The perceived size of coins in normal and hypothetically induced economic states. American Journal of Psychology, 64, 564–572.

Bruner

J. S.

, & Goodman

C. C.

(1947) Value and need as organizing factors in perception. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 42, 33–44.

Brysbaert

, & D'Ydewalle

(1989) Why Belgian coins grow smaller. Psychologica Belgica, 29, 109–118.

Coren

(1971) A size contrast-illusion without physical size differences. American Journal of Psychology, 84, 565–566.

Coren

, & Enns

J. T.

(1993) Size contrast as a function of conceptual similarity between test and inducers. Perception & Psychophysics, 54, 579–588.

Coren

, & Miller

(1974) Size contrast as a function of figural similarity. Perception & Psychophysics, 16, 355–357.

Coren

, & Porac

(1978) A new analysis of life-span age trends in visual illusion. Developmental Psychology, 14, 193–194.

Dember

W. N.

(1960) The psychology of perception. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.

Girgus

J. S.

Coren

, & Agdern

(1972) The interrelationship between the Ebbinghaus and Delboeuf illusions. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 95, 453–455.

10.

Kirkland

, & Flanagan

(1979) Long-term memory and the value-size hypothesis. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 48, 1149–1150.

11.

Massaro

D. W.

, & Anderson

N. H.

(1971) Judgmental model of the Ebbinghaus illusion. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 89, 147–151.

12.

Smith

H. V.

Fuller

R. G. C.

, & Forrest

D. W.

(1975) Coin value and perceived size: a longitudinal study. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 41, 227–232.

13.

Tversky

(1981) Distortions in memory for maps. Cognitive Psychology, 13, 407–433.

14.

Weintraub

D. J.

(1979) Ebbinghaus illusion: context, contour, and age influence the judged size of a circle amidst circles. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 5, 353–364.