ZÖLLNER ILLUSION

Zöllner illusion: translation

The eponym Zöllner illusion refers to the German astrophysicist Johann Karl Friedrich Zöllner (1834-1882). It is used to denote a * geometric-optical illusion in which parallel lines seem to diverge when one of the lines is intersected by short diagonal lines slanting in one direction and the other by similar lines slanting in the other direction. Zöllner has been credited with being the first to describe the phenomenon in 1860, although a similar description has been found in the workApologie de Raimond Sebondby the French philosopher and politician Michel Eyquem de Montaigne (1533-1592). The Zöllner illusion is commonly classified as a * physiological illusion.

Johannsen, D.E. (1971). Early history of perceptual illusions.Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences, 7, 127-140.

Zöllner, F. (1860). Uber eine neue Art von Pseudoskopie und ihre Beziehungen zu den von Plateau und Oppel beschriebenen Bewe-gungsphaenomenen.Poggendorffs Annalen der Physik und Chemie, 110, 500-523.