Department of Psychology, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, Mainz, Germany.
Perception. 2020 May;49(5):588-599. doi: 10.1177/0301006620915421. Epub 2020 Apr 11.
In the early 19th century, William H. Wollaston impressed the Royal Society of London with engravings of portraits. He manipulated facial features, such as the nose, and thereby dramatically changed the perceived gaze direction, although the eye region with iris and eye socket had remained unaltered. This Wollaston illusion has been replicated numerous times but never with the original stimuli. We took the eyes (pupil and iris) from Wollaston's most prominent engraving and measured their perceived gaze direction in an analog fashion. We then systematically added facial features (eye socket, eyebrows, nose, skull, and hair). These features had the power to divert perceived gaze direction by up to 20°, which confirms Wollaston's phenomenal observation. The effect can be thought of as an attractor effect, that is, cues that indicate a slight change in head orientation have the power to divert perceived gaze direction.
19 世纪早期，威廉·H·沃拉斯顿（William H. Wollaston）用肖像雕刻品给伦敦皇家学会（Royal Society of London）留下了深刻印象。他操纵面部特征，如鼻子，从而戏剧性地改变了感知的注视方向，尽管虹膜和眼窝所在的眼部区域保持不变。这种沃拉斯顿错觉已经被复制了无数次，但从未使用过原始刺激。我们从沃拉斯顿最著名的雕刻中取出眼睛（瞳孔和虹膜），并以模拟的方式测量它们感知的注视方向。然后，我们系统地添加了面部特征（眼窝、眉毛、鼻子、颅骨和头发）。这些特征具有将感知的注视方向转移多达 20°的能力，这证实了沃拉斯顿的现象观察。这种效果可以被认为是一种吸引子效应，也就是说，指示头部方向略有变化的线索具有将感知的注视方向转移的能力。
