ABSTRACT
Dean and Voss (1999) describe an experiment to assess the impact of visual context on human subjects’ ability to reproduce a straight line. The experimental procedure has a subject look at a picture of a 5 cm straight line, then draw freehand a line of the same length on a sheet of paper. The recorded response is the length of the segment drawn. This basic procedure is repeated six times for each subject, with each repetition drawn on a
of Design and Analysis of
separate sheet. Visual context is varied with the six pictures, each having one of six, distinct, preprinted borders. The goal of the experiment is to understand differences, if any, in responses, depending on the six bordering treatments. That understanding is hampered in so far as responses vary for reasons having nothing to do with the treatments.
