size–weight illusion n. Quick reference
A Dictionary of Psychology (4 ed.)
...–weight illusion n . A powerful cognitive illusion that causes approximately 98 per cent of people to judge an object to be heavier than another object of the same weight but much larger size when the two are lifted by hand. In a simple home demonstration of the illusion, pieces of lead or other heavy material may be placed in two different-sized containers and surrounded by sand to prevent them from moving about and from being visible if the containers are transparent, and the weights of the containers may be adjusted until they are identical, whereupon...
size–weight illusion Reference library
Richard L. Gregory
The Oxford Companion to the Mind (2 ed.)
...–weight illusion . Lifting weights was a favourite activity of experimental psychology in its early days, but now, although these experiments involve much of interest, they are unfashionable and are seldom even mentioned in textbooks. This may change, however, as manipulative skills in space at zero g give rise to new problems in relation to perception ( see space psychology ). One of the most theoretically significant of perceptual illusions , which also has practical importance, is the size–weight illusion: when objects are lifted by the hand, a ...
size–weight illusion
10 Paper Reference library
Daven Christopher Chamberlain
The Oxford Companion to the Book
... c .1750 ; coated paper was produced and patented in 1827 , as was transparent paper. The weight of a paper can be gauged by hand, as can other aesthetics, often grouped together as ‘handle’. These are judged by gripping the sheet firmly, shaking it, and listening to the timbre of the rattle. Assessing paper by this method requires some experience, but it can give information on the degree of beating, possible furnish composition, and extent of surface sizing, all of which contribute to sheet bonding and rigidity. The process used for cleaning fibres may...
1 & 2 Samuel Reference library
Gwilym H. Jones, Gwilym H. Jones, and Gwilym H. Jones
The Oxford Bible Commentary
...and a night attack would be futile, for an old warrior like him would not be sleeping in camp with his men and he would throw Absalom's army into panic. Secondly, by suggesting that Absalom muster ‘all Israel…from Dan to Beersheba’ to battle, he was appealing to any illusions of grandeur that he may have held; he could envisage a pan-Israelite army supporting him and totally annihilating the enemy. Thirdly, his suggestion that Absalom himself go to battle in person was a direct appeal to his vanity. Hushai's eloquence and reasoning impressed Absalom...
cognitive illusion
weight-out
Charpentier bands
Ernst Heinrich Weber
Giotto di Bondone
tactile illusion n. Quick reference
A Dictionary of Psychology (4 ed.)
...illusion n . Any illusion of touch. See Aristotle’s illusion , Libet’s delay , rubber hand phenomenon , sensory saltation , size–weight illusion , thermal grill illusion . Compare auditory illusion , visual illusion...
cognitive illusion n. Quick reference
A Dictionary of Psychology (4 ed.)
...illusion n. An illusion in the cognitive domain, one of the best known examples being the size–weight illusion , although it is also a tactile illusion. See also experimentally induced false memory , filled-duration illusion , illusory correlation , Moses illusion , rubber hand phenomenon , Rumpelstiltskin phenomenon , Tycho’s illusion , yolk phenomenon...
Charpentier’s illusion n. Quick reference
A Dictionary of Psychology (4 ed.)
...illusion n. Another name for the size–weight illusion . [Named after the French physician (Pierre Marie) Augustin Charpentier ( 1852–1916 ) who published an article on it in 1891 , although the German psychologists Georg Elias Müller ( 1850–1934 ) and Friedrich Schumann ( 1863–1940 ) had already discovered and reported the illusion in 1889...
weight-out Quick reference
A Dictionary of Marketing (4 ed.)
...-out A decrease in the weight or package size of a product while retaining the same price . This will give the illusion that the price of the product has not changed, even though there is less product in the new package. This will also help to maintain the company’s margin on the product since smaller packaging will make up for increased production...
nulling Reference library
The Oxford Companion to the Mind (2 ed.)
...system may employ nulling for sensory discrimination (especially for weight), by comparing an expected against a sensed value. This could help to explain how discrimination can be so good over a very wide range, from a few grams to 10 or even 100 kilograms, though neural components are far less stable than the components available for electronic weighing devices, which would probably have to adopt a nulling method to do as well. There is some evidence from the size–weight illusion that mass discrimination works by nulling, and this might, possibly,...
illusions Reference library
The Oxford Companion to the Body
...kind of cognitive mistake can mislead, by not being appropriate to the situation. The same kinds of cognitive illusions can occur in computer vision. Table 2 Classes of illusions and kinds of causes Classes Physical causes Cognitive causes Optics Physiology Rules Knowledge Ambiguities Looking Pure yellow Figure-ground Hollow face through mist versus reversals red + green Distortions Mirages Café wall Perspective Size-weight illusion illusions illusion Paradoxes Looking glass Rotating spiral Impossible Magritte's after-effect objects painting of the mirror...
Weber, Ernst Heinrich Reference library
Richard L. Gregory
The Oxford Companion to the Mind (2 ed.)
...all sensory discrimination, so that larger differences are required for greater intensities. (For a detailed account of the psychophysics that is the basis of experimental psychology and is still rooted in the work of Weber and Fechner, see psychophysics ; see also size–weight illusion .) (Published 1987) Richard L. Gregory Ross, H. (1996). E. H. Weber on the Tactile Senses...
illusions Reference library
Richard L. Gregory
The Oxford Companion to the Mind (2 ed.)
... is cognitive. Illusion phenomena help to provide an answer. However, we have suggested that ‘phenomena cannot speak for themselves’. We meet the to-and-fro ping-pong game played between phenomena and theories. Here the art of science is to be a fair umpire. A phenomenon almost impossible to consider without cognitive concepts is the size-weight illusion . A smaller object feels heavier than a larger object of the same scale weight. This can be a kitchen experiment, with tins of different sizes filled with sugar to be the same measured weight. The smaller tin...
touch Reference library
The Oxford Companion to Consciousness
...we feel the circularity of a glass because we feel the circularity of the motion of our hand. Even in passive touch, the experience of the shape of objects might mirror the feeling of the concavities of the flesh. As to size , an object feels bigger if the touched body part feels temporarily elongated because of kinaesthetic illusions. This template function also holds for the experience of location : tactile properties are ascribed to a location within a spatial representation of the body. More precisely, the experimental literature has distinguished...
Obesity Reference library
Linda Murray Berzok and Andrew F. Smith
The Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America (2 ed.)
...in popular publications, and women's magazines filled their pages with weight-loss articles, often with before and after pictures, and fashion layouts featuring models so thin that the average woman could never hope to compete. The illusion of the reward for shedding pounds went beyond improved health and longevity to an almost mythical belief that all good things would magically be conferred—a glamorous job, wealth, sexual attractiveness, and marriage. By 1959 recommended weights had been pared down to 113 to 126 pounds for women and 138 to 152 pounds...
