School of Experimental Psychology, University of Liverpool, Eleanor Rathbone Building, Bedford Street South, Liverpool L69 7ZA, UK.
Cognition. 2012 Jan;122(1):1-11. doi: 10.1016/j.cognition.2011.07.001. Epub 2011 Sep 1.
Participants decided when somebody, Janine, could see their face in a horizontal row of adjacent mirrors mounted flat on the same wall. They saw real mirrors and a shop-dummy representing Janine. Such coplanar mirrors reflect different, non-overlapping areas of a scene. However, almost everybody made an unexpected error: they claimed that Janine would see her face reflected in multiple mirrors simultaneously. They therefore responded as if each mirror showed similar information and thus grossly overestimated how much each mirror revealed. Further studies established that this multiple reflection error also occurred for vertical rows of mirrors and for different areas of a single, large mirror. The error was even common if the participant themselves sat in front of a set of covered-up mirrors and indicated where they would be able to see their own reflection. In the latter case, people often made multiple reflection errors despite having seen all the mirrors uncovered immediately before they responded. People's gross overestimation of how much of a scene a mirror reflects and their inability to learn to correct this false belief explains why, despite a lifetime's experience of mirrors, they incorrectly think they will see themselves in all nearby mirrors.
参与者决定当一个人，珍妮，能在同一面墙上安装的一排相邻的平面镜子中看到自己的脸时。他们看到了真正的镜子和一个代表珍妮的商店模特。这样的共面镜子反射出场景的不同、不重叠的区域。然而，几乎每个人都犯了一个意想不到的错误：他们声称珍妮会同时看到她的脸在多个镜子里反射出来。因此，他们的反应就好像每个镜子都显示出相似的信息，从而大大高估了每个镜子所揭示的内容。进一步的研究表明，这种多次反射错误也会发生在垂直排列的镜子和单个大镜子的不同区域。即使参与者自己坐在一组被遮盖的镜子前，并指出他们能够看到自己的反射的位置，这种错误也很常见。在后一种情况下，尽管人们在做出反应之前已经看到了所有的镜子都被揭开了，但他们仍然经常犯多次反射错误。人们对镜子能反射多少场景的严重高估，以及他们无法学会纠正这种错误的信念，解释了为什么尽管他们一生都在使用镜子，但他们仍然错误地认为自己会在所有附近的镜子里看到自己。
