The size-weight illusion comes along with improved weight discrimination

Abstract

When people judge the weight of two objects of equal mass but different size, they perceive the smaller one as being heavier. Up to date, there is no consensus about the mechanisms which give rise to this size-weight illusion. We recently suggested a model that describes heaviness perception as a weighted average of two sensory heaviness estimates with correlated noise: one estimate derived from mass, the other one derived from density. The density estimate is first derived from mass and size, but at the final perceptual level, perceived heaviness is biased by an object’s density, not by its size. Here, we tested the models’ prediction that weight discrimination of equal-size objects is better in lifting conditions which are prone to the size-weight illusion as compared to conditions lacking (the essentially uninformative) size information. This is predicted because in these objects density covaries with mass, and according to the model density serves as an additional sensory cue. Participants performed a two-interval forced-choice weight discrimination task. We manipulated the quality of either haptic (Experiment 1) or visual (Experiment 2) size information and measured just-noticeable differences (JNDs). Both for the haptic and the visual illusion, JNDs were lower in lifting conditions in which size information was available. Thus, when heaviness perception can be influenced by an object’s density, it is more reliable. This discrimination benefit under conditions that provide the additional information that objects are of equal size is further support for the role of density and the integration of sensory estimates in the size-weight illusion.