Date: Spring 2019Subjects: 12Corridor: East Wing B, 40.2m × 2.1mDuration: 3 weeks
⚠ ANOMALOUS RESULTS
Subjects were asked to walk the east wing corridor and estimate its length without measurement tools. Prior to the experiment, I assumed variance of ±15% based on existing spatial cognition literature.
The results were inconsistent with any existing model of distance perception. The corridor — a physically fixed space of 40.2 metres — was perceived by subjects as ranging from 38m to at least 500 metres. Subject 7 refused to provide an estimate, stating that the corridor "did not have a length in the usual sense."
Subject Data
Subject
Reported Length
Actual
Delta
Notes
S-01
42m
40.2m
+4.4%
Normal
S-02
38m
40.2m
-5.4%
Normal
S-03
67m
40.2m
+66.7%
Subject disoriented
S-04
39m
40.2m
-3%
Normal
S-05
200m
40.2m
+397%
Subject requested to repeat walk
S-06
41m
40.2m
+2%
Normal
S-07
—
40.2m
N/A
"No length in usual sense"
S-08
500m+
40.2m
>+1144%
Subject became distressed
S-09
40m
40.2m
-0.5%
Normal
S-10
38m
40.2m
-5.4%
Normal
S-11
150m
40.2m
+273%
Normal behaviour, high estimate
S-12
41m
40.2m
+2%
Normal
"This was supposed to be the control experiment. Instead it generated the first anomaly. Subjects S-03, S-05, S-07, S-08, S-11 all appear to have perceived something the others did not. I need to run this again. I need to understand what the corridor was showing them. — J."
Subject 7 was right. The corridor has no length in the usual sense. Its length is the recursion.