[Brian English]

I think the illusion discussed in week 4 class 1:

Is explained by the same process of observing similarity that Dr. Binswanger presented with the position example:

In Dr. Binswanger’s example the 2 and 5 are “pushed together” in our awareness (and 21 is consequently “pushed apart”) because of the similarity of their position.
The illusion is set up to highlight differences in size. The outer circles on the left are similar in size so they are grouped together in our awareness with the center circle being “pushed apart” in size and thus made to appear smaller. The effect is the opposite in the circles on the right with the center circle being “pushed bigger”. This is why the two center circles appear different in size.

[Bradley Foster]

I think I missed this example.  I can’t picture it and so I’m not sure about your point.   When I saw your post here I meant to go back and look for it but just have not had the time.   It sounds like an interesting observation.

[Brian English]

I attempted to add images to my post showing the illusion but it didn’t work. The illusion I was referring to is this one

It was mentioned in the office hours following class 4.1

[Bradley Foster]

Got it. I think that’s a good observation. Because we’re depending on relationships to assign “larger” or “smaller”, the fact that the two center circles are identical is obscured by the more obvious relationships with the closer surrounding circles. There’s no good point of reference or comparison, unless you overlay one (e.g. a ruler.)

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