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Steve Higgins is sometimes a Psychologist, sometimes a Neuroscientist, and sometimes even a Human Factors Engineer. He works for the U.S. Government. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois in Psychology.
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« Someone stole the Nobel Prize! | Main | Get hypnotherapy with a cat »
Optical Illusion Video - Different Colors?
Posted on: October 9, 2009 11:18 AM, by The Omnibrain
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Comments
Sorry, but color me underwhelmed.
No doubt there is some instructive lesson to be drawn from this, about the neural or cognitive mechanisms of vision, but you do not tell us what it is, and neither does the video. (Something about edge detection, maybe?)
As it stands, it is an unspectacular and (to me, anyway) unsurprising illusion.
Aside from an explanation, one thing that might have made it a little more interesting would be if three pencils had been used to cover all of the shade transitions together. Would the rightmost shade look indistinguishable from the leftmost? If it did, the illusion would be noticeably more impressive. If it did not, it might produce an interesting visual paradox, with each shade apparently identical to the one next to it, but the end ones differing. But the video maker does not seem to have had the imagination to try it.
Posted by: Nigel | October 9, 2009 6:46 PM
If it did not, it might produce an interesting visual paradox, with each shade apparently identical to the one next to it, but the end ones differing.
Posted by: acı çehre | October 10, 2009 5:23 AM
My google fu is bad today, but there's another similar illusion of a sheet of paper with a divider down the middle. It looks like the left side is a light gray and the right side is dark gray. Remove the divider and it either appears to be one solid color or gradual fade from one to the other. I can't remember which exactly.
Posted by: Bob | October 10, 2009 12:05 PM
Nigel, why don't you try it and let us know?
Posted by: The omnibrain | October 11, 2009 1:11 PM
Now, the test colors are shades of blue, and the pencil is yellowish-orange, nearly its visual opposite. (Refer to the color wheel at http://www.tigercolor.com/color-lab/color-theory/images/color-wheel-300.gif for an example.) If the pencil had been green or purple, would the illusion fail?
Posted by: speedwell | October 11, 2009 8:35 PM
Could this be the Cornsweet illusion (which sounds like what Bob is describing as well)? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornsweet_illusion
Posted by: Erika | October 12, 2009 10:03 PM
why don't you try it and let us know
Posted by: leather handbags | December 2, 2009 3:02 AM
It appears to be a MOND autumn in the science glossies, as Science publishes a review on our favourite alternative physics theory and the status of MOND like extensions to general relativity.
Posted by: porno izle | December 4, 2009 4:54 AM
He said: "I felt I'd test my hypothesis and I did that by getting my cat certified by a number of the most prominent lay hypnosis organisations in the United States. It was a frighteningly simple process.
Posted by: kelebek sohbet | December 9, 2009 7:24 AM