Experiments may bring out 
differences that are not really 
present in perception. One such 
reason might be the conflict, to 
which I just alluded, between 
the two modes of perception. If 
a conflict does indeed exist, it 
may become a matter of 
judgment in deciding what the 
experimenter really wants and 
thus how to resolve it. 
Naturally, then, different 
people may come to different 
conclusions. Artists and some 
others may be more sensitive to 
or more aware of the proximal 
mode of perception. We would 
expect this to influence their 
matches in the direction away 
from constancy more so than it 
does for other individuals. But 
even if this is true it would not 
mean what the quantitative 
results seem to imply—–namely, 
that they are poorer in 
achieving constancy.

    The same reasoning could 
also explain some puzzling 
results of experiments on the 
development of size perception 
in children. Some studies seem 
to show that the extent of 
perceptual constancy increases 
with age. These findings would 
make perfect sense if the 
testing of young infants 
revealed no sign of constancy, 
but, as we have seen, such 
studies suggest that perceptual 
constancy is present in the 
early months of life.