Blodgett's (1919) "Ship camouflage" 105 years on: A misperception of dazzle perception revealed and redressed.

ABSTRACT: During WWI, dazzle camouflage involved painting allied shipping with bold geometric patterns to disrupt the perceptions of enemy submariners. The first experiment to provide quantitative results on this (Blodgett, 1919; MIT Libraries, MA) used scale models and mechanical simulation, and reported enormous perceptual errors for their perceived direction of travel (up to ∼60°), possibly due to a "twist" effect from forced perspective. However, Blodgett's work did not meet modern standards and the organisation of his report complicates evaluation. Here, we produce (i) reformatted and (ii) heavily edited versions of the original report to improve readability, and (iii) provide a critical reappraisal of the work including (iv) a detailed reanalysis of Blodgett's data and (v) a new control

SUBMITTER: Meese TS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11909666 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Mar-Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature