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Psychological Phenomena

Size-Weight Illusion

Perception and Psychophysics Effects

The size-weight illusion, also known as the Charpentier illusion, is a perceptual effect named for the French physician Augustin Charpentier, the first to demonstrate it experimentally. It is also known as De Moor's illusion, after the Belgian physician Jean Demoor, who studied it around the same period.

Facts
Core Claim
The illusion occurs when a person underestimates the weight of a larger object compared to a smaller object of the same mass 1
First Described Year
1891 1
Classification
Type of Phenomenon
Perceptual Phenomenon 1
Connections

In Branch

Sources
1. Size-weight illusion, Wikipedia
  • Description section, paragraph 1
    The illusion occurs when a person underestimates the weight of a larger object (e.g. a box) when compared to a smaller object of the same mass.
  • References, citation 1
    Charpentier, A (1891). Analyse experimentale: De quelques elements de la sensation de poids [Experimental study of some aspects of weight perception]. Arch Physiol Norm Pathol. 3: 122-135.
  • lead section, phenomenon-kind classification
    The size-weight illusion, also known as the Charpentier illusion, is a perceptual effect named for the French physician Augustin Charpentier, the first to demonstrate it experimentally.
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