ECOLOGY, PERCEPTUAL DEVELOPMENT AND THE MÜLLER‐LYER ILLUSION

• Published in: British Journal of Psychology
• Main Author: BERRY, J. W.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Wiley 1968
• Subjects: eskimo*
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-8295.1968.tb01134.x; https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1111%2Fj.2044-8295.1968.tb01134.x; http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/wol1/doi/10.1111/j.2044-8295.1968.tb01134.x/fullpdf

Two separate traditions of research into the Müller‐Lyer illusion have existed for at least 70 years: the ecological and the developmental. To assess the ecological hypothesis, a sufficient range in visual ecology typically has been sought in cross‐cultural comparisons; however, many of these comparisons have been inconclusive, especially when other ethnic variables have been held constant. These insignificant findings are considered to result from a confounding of the ecological and developmental variables. Appropriate sampling from Temne and Eskimo populations (enabling, in turn, one variable to be matched while the other is varied) demonstrates this confounding within cultures and, when eliminated, the significant influence of each variable on susceptibility to the Müller‐Lyer illusion. Further work, however, is needed to discover other factors which will account for variance in susceptibility between cultures.