title: The Ames window illusion: perception of illusory motion by human infants.
abstract: The sensitivity of human infants, 5 1/2-9 months of age, to the illusory oscillation of the Ames window was assessed in three experiments that employed some variant of the habituation-dishabituation and forced-choice preferential looking paradigms. In Experiment 1, three groups--5 1/2, 7 1/2, and 9 months of age--were given a visual choice between rotating rectangular and Ames windows after exposure to a rotating circular form. The two older groups preferred the Ames window. The results of Experiment 2 showed that this preference is not based on structural differences between the two windows. In Experiment 3, familiarization with an Ames window produced a preference for rotary motion while familiarization with a rectangular window produced a preference for oscillatory motion. These results suggest that sensitivity to the illusion emerges around 7 1/2 months of age, an outcome consistent with the emergence, at this time, of sensitivity to pictorial cues to depth.
authors.affiliation: Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee 37240.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Oross
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Francis
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Mauk
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Fox
mesh_terms: D002657:Child Development; D005260:Female; D005556:Form Perception; D006801:Humans; D007088:Illusions; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D009039:Motion Perception; D009903:Optical Illusions; D009949:Orientation; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D002666:Psychology, Child