Effect of Visual Spatial Context on Perception of One's Own Body

Three experiments, dealing with the effect of extension of surrounding visual spatial context on apparent size of body parts, were conducted. In the first two studies (forty‐eight subjects in each) the dependent variable was arm length, and in the third study (twenty‐four subjects) the dependent variable was head width. It was found that apparent arm length and apparent head width are relatively larger in an ‘open‐extended’ visual spatial context than in a ‘close‐confined’ spatial context. These results are interpreted in keeping with developmental and sensory‐tonic theory.