Changes in the size of attentional focus modulate the apparent object's size

Previous research has shown that the allocation of spatial attention at a small region of space increases the apparent size of the adjacent spatial area. In four experiments reported here, we systematically induced either small or large foci of attention and examined how this affects the perceived object's size. We observed that an increase in the size of the attentional focus consistently decreased the apparent object's size. This outcome provides new insights into how attention alters appearance.