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Poggendorff Illusion


PoggendorffIllusion

The illusion that the two ends of a straight line segment passing behind an obscuring rectangle are offset when, in fact, they are aligned. The Poggendorff illusion was discovered in 1860 by physicist and scholar J. C. Poggendorff, editor of Annalen der Physik und Chemie, after receiving a letter from astronomer F. Zöllner. In his letter, Zöllner described an illusion he noticed on a fabric design in which parallel lines intersected by a pattern of short diagonal lines appear to diverge (Zöllner's illusion). Pondering this illusion, Poggendorff noticed and described another illusion resulting from the apparent misalignment of a diagonal line; an illusion which today bears his name (IllusionWorks).


See also

Illusion, Müller-Lyer Illusion, Ponzo's Illusion, Vertical-Horizontal Illusion, Zöllner's Illusion

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References

Burmester, E. "Beiträge zu experimentellen Bestimmung geometrisch-optischer Täuschungen." Z. Psychologie 12, 355-394, 1896.Day, R. H. and Dickenson, R. G. "The Components of the Poggendorff Illusion." Brit. J. Psychology 67, 537-552, 1976.Fineman, M. "Poggendorff's Illusion." Ch. 19 in The Nature of Visual Illusion. New York: Dover, pp. 151-159, 1996.Gillam, B. "A Depth Processing Theory of the Poggendorff Illusion." Perception & Psychophys. 10, 211-216, 1971.Gillam, B. "Geometrical Illusions." Sci. Amer. 242, 102-111, Jan. 1980.Greene, E. "The Corner Poggendorff." Perception 17, 65-70, 1988.Update a linkIllusionWorks. "Poggendorf [sic]." http://www.illusionworks.com/html/poggendorf.htmlLucas, A. and Fisher, G. H. "Illusions in concrete situations: II. Experimental Studies of the Poggendorff Illusion." Ergonomics 12, 395-402, 1969.Robinson, J. O. The Psychology of Visual Illusion. London: Hutchinson, 1972.Rock, I. Perception. New York: W. H. Freeman, 1984.Schiffman, H. Sensation and Perception. New York: Wiley, 1995.Seckel, A. The Art of Optical Illusions. Carlton Books, p. 27, 2002.Spivey-Knowlton, M. J. and Bridgeman, B. "Spatial Context Affects the Poggendorff Illusion." Perception & Psychophys. 53, 467-474, 1993.

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Poggendorff Illusion

Cite this as:

Weisstein, Eric W. "Poggendorff Illusion." From MathWorld--A Wolfram Web Resource. https://mathworld.wolfram.com/PoggendorffIllusion.html

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