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Related Experiment Video

Updated: May 17, 2026

Methods to Explore the Influence of Top-down Visual Processes on Motor Behavior

Methods to Explore the Influence of Top-down Visual Processes on Motor Behavior

Published on: April 16, 2014

Visual-illusion distance paradoxes: a resolution.

Theodore E Parks¹

¹Department of Psychology, University of California-Davis, CA 95616, USA. teparks@dcn.org

Attention, Perception & Psychophysics

|October 17, 2012

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Illusory visual phenomena can be explained by size scaling, but only if distance perception contradicts conscious experience. Milner and Goodale's two-stream theory of vision provides a framework for understanding these visual paradoxes.

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Area of Science:

Visual Perception
Cognitive Neuroscience
Psychophysics

Background:

Size scaling is a factor in visual illusions.
Previous explanations require contradictory distance estimates.
The two-stream theory of vision offers a potential framework.

Purpose of the Study:

To explain visual illusions using size scaling.
To reconcile contradictory distance estimates within a theoretical framework.
To demonstrate the utility of the two-stream theory for understanding visual paradoxes.

Main Methods:

Analysis of illusory phenomena.
Application of size scaling principles.
Integration with Milner and Goodale's two-stream theory.

Main Results:

Visual illusions are explained by size scaling when distance perception conflicts with conscious experience.
These "paradoxical" findings align with the two-stream theory of vision.
The theory successfully accounts for the interplay between different visual processing streams.

Conclusions:

Size scaling, coupled with conflicting distance cues, explains certain visual illusions.
The two-stream theory of vision provides a robust model for understanding these phenomena.
This research highlights the dissociation between perception and action in visual processing.