title: The effect of the Müller-Lyer illusion on map reading.
abstract: One important reason for studying visual illusions is that they can influence real-world perception as people interact with human-made displays. Three experiments examined how the Müller-Lyer illusion affects distance judgments and decision-making in the complex graphical context of a map by having subjects estimate the lengths of road segment lines framed by inward-going or outward-going wings in actual maps, in control displays that had the map context removed, and in simulated maps. The experiments showed that (1) outward-going wings led to higher distance estimates than did inward-going wings to the same extent both with and without the map context, (2) decisions based on distances determined from maps were affected by Müller-Lyer elements in the maps, and (3) map readers' measurement behavior influenced the effect of the Müller-Lyer elements in maps. The discussion focuses on how certain display manipulations and task manipulations affect the Müller-Lyer illusion. In addition, the discussion addresses the instances in which using a map might be affected by misestimation due to Müller-Lyer elements.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces 88003, USA. gillan@crl.nmsu.edu
authors.forename: D J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Gillan
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Schmidt
authors.forename: R J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Hanowski
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention; D004215:Distance Perception; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008377:Maps as Topic; D009903:Optical Illusions; D009949:Orientation; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D011340:Problem Solving; D011601:Psychophysics