Visual illusions have been widely used to compare visual perception among birds and mammals to assess whether animals interpret and alter visual inputs like humans, or if they detect them with little or no variability. Here, we investigated whether a nonavian reptile (Pogona vitticeps) perceives the Müller-Lyer illusion, an illusion that causes a misperception of the relative length of 2 line segments. We observed the animals' spontaneous tendency to choose the larger food quantity (the longer line). In test trials, animals received the same food quantity presented in a spatial arrangement eliciting the size illusion in humans; control trials presented them with 2 different-sized food portions. Bearded dragons significantly selected the larger food quantity in control trials, confirming that they maximized food intake. Group analysis revealed that in the illusory test trials, they preferentially selected the line length estimated as longer by human observers. Further control trials excluded the possibility that their choice was based on potential spatial bias related to the illusory pattern. Our study suggests that a nonavian reptile species has the capability to be sensitive to the Müller-Lyer illusion, raising the intriguing possibility that the perceptual mechanisms underlying size estimation might be similar across amniotes. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

中文翻译：

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在非鸟类爬行动物（Pogona vitticeps）中探索Müller-Lyer幻觉。

视觉幻觉已广泛用于比较鸟类和哺乳动物之间的视觉知觉，以评估动物是否像人类一样解释和改变视觉输入，或者它们是否检测到变化很小或没有变化。在这里，我们调查了非禽类爬行动物（Pogona vitticeps）是否感知到Müller-Lyer幻觉，这种幻觉会导致对2个线段的相对长度产生误解。我们观察到动物自发倾向于选择较大的食物量（较长的线）。在试验中，动物接受的食物数量相同，而且空间排列方式引起了人类的幻觉。对照试验为他们提供了2种不同尺寸的食物。在对照试验中，有胡子的龙明显选择了较大的食物量，从而证明它们可以最大程度地增加食物摄入量。小组分析显示，在虚幻的测试中，他们优先选择人类观察者估计更长的线长。进一步的对照试验排除了他们的选择基于与幻觉模式有关的潜在空间偏差的可能性。我们的研究表明，非禽类爬行动物具有对Müller-Lyer幻觉敏感的能力，这增加了引人入胜的可能性，即大小估计所基于的知觉机制在各种羊膜动物中可能相似。（PsycInfo数据库记录（c）2020 APA，保留所有权利）。我们的研究表明，非禽类爬行动物具有对Müller-Lyer幻觉敏感的能力，这增加了引人入胜的可能性，即大小估计所基于的知觉机制在各种羊膜动物中可能相似。（PsycInfo数据库记录（c）2020 APA，保留所有权利）。我们的研究表明，非禽类爬行动物具有对Müller-Lyer幻觉敏感的能力，这增加了引人入胜的可能性，即大小估计所基于的知觉机制在各种羊膜动物中可能相似。（PsycInfo数据库记录（c）2020 APA，保留所有权利）。