Bimanual thumb-index finger indications of noncorresponding extents

Abstract

Two experiments tested a prediction derived from the recent finding that the Oppel-Kundt illusion – the overestimation of a filled extent relative to an empty one – was much attenuated when the empty part of a bipartite row of dots was vertical and the filled part horizontal, suggesting that the Horizontal-vertical illusion – the overestimation of vertical extents relative to horizontal ones – only acted on the empty part of an Oppel-Kundt figure. Observers had to bimanually indicate the sizes of the two parts of an Oppel-Kundt figure, which were arranged one above the other with one part vertical and the other part tilted -45°, 0°, or 45°. Results conformed to the prediction but response bias was greater when observers had been instructed to point to the extents’ endpoints than when instructed to estimate the extents’ lengths, suggesting that different concepts and motor programs had been activated.