The Open Behavioral Science Journal

2008, 2 : 13-22
Published online 2008 March 18. DOI: 10.2174/1874230000802010013
Publisher ID: TOBSJ-2-13

Perceiving the Center of Three-Body Displays: The Role of Size-Ratio, Symmetry, Elongation, and Gravity

Jay Friedenberg and Bruce Liby
Department of Psychology, Manhattan College, Riverdale, New York, USA.

ABSTRACT

Participants judged the perceived center of three-dot displays at different orientations. In Experiment 1, the dots formed an equilateral triangle. The direction of the response distribution aligned with the largest dot, along axes of reflectional symmetry and with the gravitational down. In Experiment 2, we created isosceles triangles where the distance between one of the dot pairs was varied. Errors were higher for configurations where the symmetry axis was horizontal and a virtual elongation axis was vertical. The results of Experiment 3 replicate this finding and show that response direction is an accommodation to gravity and other shape factors.

Keywords:

Center of mass, symmetry, elongation.