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

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 reflec- tional symmetry and with the gravitational down. In Experiment 2, we created isosceles triangles where the distance be- tween 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.