Replication update: Mueller-Lyer Illusion (Ch 14)

Mueller-Lyer

Turns out this illusion is probably universal–not only in humans, but also in other species. Photo: Dr. Dorsa Amir

One of the examples in Chapter 14 is about the Mueller-Lyer Illusion (pictured), specifically, as a prominent example of culture's influence on psychological processes. The original study (conducted by Segall, et al., 1966) showed that people who don't grow up in "carpentered" worlds don't fall for this illusion: They see the two blue lines as the same length. Segall and his colleagues argued that only people in Western, carpentered worlds see the top line as longer than the bottom one. 

It turns out that the phenomenon of drastic cultural differences in this illusion is probably not replicable. And the explanation is probably incorrect.

Specifically, Professors Dorsa Amir and Chaz Firestone have published a new paper in Psychological Review, arguing that:

"(1) the illusion is not limited to humans, appearing in non-human animals from diverse ecologies;
(2) the statistics of natural scenes are sufficient to capture the illusion;
(3) the illusion does not require straight lines typical of carpentry (nor even any lines at all);
(4) the illusion arises in sense modalities other than vision; and
(5) the illusion arises even in congenitally blind subjects."

I'm convinced by their argument. You can download a preprint of their paper here (I especially appreciated the figures!).

I'll be updating this example in the 6th Edition of Research Methods in Psychology

Big thanks to Dr. Hilary Barth, who made sure I knew about this paper!