This problem has been studied in the field of configuration psychology, and many samples have been introduced since Arnheim reported the law of grouping of shapes (refer to the footnote on page 156). As many diagrams as possible described in such literature were collected, and they are organized into the following 12 groups with a similar tendency (pages 158-169).

 

(1) Illusion on distortion of shapes

A straight line is influenced visually when there is another line intersecting the straight line from the oblique direction. In this case, the straight line looks more deformed (bent) when the number of the intersecting lines and the crossing angle is increased. This phenomenon is even better understood using parallel lines (Figs. 301-306). In addition, the original squares become hardly seen as a square when a background is specially designed as shown in Figures 304-306. Its application is shown in Figure 310. Curved lines are also influenced similarly (Figs. 308-310).

Figure 307 shows that an imaginary line looks curved differently from the examples above. In other words, all the straight lines which touch the seven circles look bent. This is because these lines are recognized as a curved line touching the upper boundaries of these circles.
 
 


304
305
306
  		 
307
308
309
310

 

Figure 304: Square looks deformed due to the circles in the background.
Figure 305: Square looks deformed due to the pattern  in the background.
Figure 306: Square looks deformed with the influence of the  background patterns.
Figure 307: An illusion by S. Thompson.
Figure 308: Circle looks deformed due to radiation-shaped lines.
Figure 309: Circle looks deformed because of the slanting lines in the background.
Figure 310: Vertical lines of the character and illustrations look deformed.


 

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