Illusions - How Do They Work

20-May-13

Illusions

The first illusion that grabbed my attention was the words and color illusion. It is the illusion that will say black but the letters might be green, but you are post to read it out loud and say the color of the text. The reason I found this illusion interesting I originally thought this illusion would be easy to do with out getting mixed up. The reason why this illusion works is that the written words have a strong influence over what you mind wants to say out loud.

The easiest illusion I think was the ones that require you to make the circles the same size as the other one. To me these illusions are easy. All it requires is for you to block out the other distractions that are causing the main circle to look smaller then what it actually is, Or in the where you had to make the red circles the same size the yellow circle made it look bigger then what it really was.

My favorite illusion is the dealing with the phantom spots. This is a Hermann grid illusion. In this illusion it is a grid of black squares with white lines running in between all the squares making a grid. This illusion works based on the response of your neurons that are in your primary visual cortex that respond best when there are bars of light. Also according to research done is that if the lines are slightly curved the illusion will not work. Some people will see grey diamonds instead of grey blocks like me.

Another interesting illusion is the figure-ground illusion. In this illusion you look at a picture that looks like theirs two faces talking or you see a vase. This depends on your perspective. This illusion works because humans like to be able to pick objects out of backgrounds.