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akaltwasse's picture

Just noting that, for the

Just noting that, for the second time, Serendip has logged me out and returned me to the home page after clicking "preview comment."  Has this happened to anyone else?

 For my survey, I asked residents of Rockefeller 1st-1st and 1st-2nd to answer three questions using this image:

1.) Which of the three soldiers looks the tallest?

All six subjects answered that the soldier on the right looks the tallest, which did not surprise me because that was my first impression (and the reason I made it the first question).

2.) Briefly explain your answer.

Although all six subjects said something different, all of them mentioned perspective, the spacing between the lines, the direction of the lines, and the angle at which each soldier stands.  These results did not surprise me, either, because it is clear from how the lines slant that there is an impression that there's a vanishing point and that the third soldier is placed towards that vanishing point, when he's really just placed the highest in the image.

3.) "All three are the same height."  Do you agree with this statement?"

Five of the subjects circled "yes" and one wrote in "maybe" (yes and no were the only choices I gave).  I am curious to know what makes that subject unsure, since you can easily measure each soldier or even remove the lines from the drawing.  But I do see how she could be uncertain without measuring, because, even though I know they're all the same height, I can't quite get my eyes to see that, too.

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