The Effect of Object Familiarity on the Perception of Size and Distance

Abstract

The perceived sizes and perceived distances of familiar objects were investigated in two experiments in which images of familiar objects were presented monocularly, one at a time, in an otherwise dark field of view. It was found that the angular size of the objects as well as their familiar size determined reported size. Reported distances were increasingly underestimated as a function of increasing simulated distances of the objects. The results are consistent with the conclusion that, as a function of the retinal size of the objects, the observer perceives the familiar objects as off-sized, and, that as a consequence of these off-sized perceptions, the observer's judgements of the object distances reflect inferential rather than perceptual processes.