Abstract
The perceived shape of circles and ellipses as influenced by surrounding figures has been studied under monocular conditions. The data show systematic field effects of a complex character. An effort was made to apply the potential theory in Newtonian physics to the perception. The conclusion drawn was that the force function which monotonically decreases with distance is a valid model for the description of simultaneous effects, but is too simple a model for an adequate description of the data concerning after‐effects. A model based on a more complex function was tested, which gave a better fit. The existence of methodological artefacts concerning the identity matching method due to after‐effects is indicated.

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