Investigating children’s susceptibility to visual illusions (VIs) offers a unique window into the development of human perception. Although research in this field dates back to the seminal work of Binet in 1895, developmental trajectories for many VIs remain unclear. Here, for the very first time, we provide a comprehensive systematic review of research investigating children’s susceptibility to five of the most famous VIs: the Ebbinghaus, Ponzo, Müller-Lyer, Poggendorff, and Vertical-Horizontal illusions. Following PRISMA best-practice guidelines, 70 articles were identified across four databases (Scopus, PsycInfo, PsycArticles, and Web of Science). Our findings reveal opposing developmental trends across illusions; the magnitude of the Müller-Lyer, Poggendorff, and Vertical-Horizontal illusions tends to decrease with age, while the magnitude of the Ebbinghaus and Ponzo illusions typically increases with age. However, developmental trajectories identified by studies investigating the same illusion can vary dramatically due to substantial variability in methods and stimuli. Researchers are more likely to find decreasing VI magnitude with increasing age when employing the method of adjustment response paradigm, whereas the two-way alternative forced-choice paradigm typically reveals greater VI magnitude with increasing age. These findings suggest that conclusions regarding the development of VI susceptibility may be influenced by how they are studied and implicate the involvement of different cognitive abilities across response methods. These findings will benefit future research in dissociating the role of perceptual (e.g. the maturation of the brain's visual areas) and cognitive factors (e.g., attention span) in pinpointing the development trajectories for VI susceptibility.

研究儿童对视错觉 (VI) 的敏感性为了解人类感知的发展提供了一个独特的窗口。尽管该领域的研究可以追溯到 1895 年 Binet 的开创性工作，但许多 VI 的发展轨迹仍不清楚。在这里，我们首次对儿童对五种最著名的视觉错觉的易感性进行全面系统的回顾：艾宾浩斯错觉、庞佐错觉、穆勒-莱尔错觉、波根多夫错觉和垂直水平错觉。遵循 PRISMA 最佳实践指南，在四个数据库（Scopus、PsycInfo、PsycArticles 和 Web of Science）中识别出 70 篇文章。我们的研究结果揭示了不同幻想之间相反的发展趋势；米勒-莱尔错觉、波根多夫错觉和垂直水平错觉的强度往往会随着年龄的增长而减小，而艾宾浩斯错觉和庞佐错觉的强度通常会随着年龄的增长而增加。然而，由于方法和刺激的巨大差异，调查相同错觉的研究所确定的发展轨迹可能会有很大差异。当采用调整反应范式的方法时，研究人员更有可能发现 VI 幅度随着年龄的增加而减小，而双向替代强迫选择范式通常会随着年龄的增加而显示出更大的 VI 幅度。这些发现表明，有关 VI 易感性发展的结论可能会受到研究方式的影响，并暗示不同反应方法涉及不同的认知能力。这些发现将有利于未来的研究，将感知因素（例如大脑视觉区域的成熟）和认知因素（例如注意力广度）的作用分开，以确定VI易感性的发展轨迹。