Visual illusions
People tend to be fascinated by illusions,
not everyone responds to every illusion.
There is no simple explanation for this variability in
perception.
There is no evidence that these differences are
related to intelligence
or personality, although experience with them often
helps one
see new versions of the same kind of illusion.
Thus, you or your friends should not be upset if an
illusion
is not apparent to you. There are many of them and we
can enjoy
all that we can perceive.
Illusions are different from both hallucinations and
delusions.
Illusions are misperceptions that are perceived by
most people,
and are based on a specific stimulus received under
certain conditions.
Some experiments with animals indicate that several
species of mammals
and birds are "fooled" by illusions in much the same
way we are.
Many common perceptions involve illusions although
people are not aware of it.
That is, much of what we perceive does not correspond
to the stimulation of our
sense organs. Thus, for example, we do not see a
person who is walking away from
us as getting smaller and smaller, even though the
image in our eyes rapidly
decreases in size. We also get the illusion of depth
in paintings,
stereoscopes and holographs, even though these are
presented to us
on two-dimensional surfaces. Another good example of
an illusion
which we simply take for granted is the motion
picture.
Actually there are two illusions involved when we go
to see a movie.
The first is that there is really nothing moving as we
experience the
film. That is not quite correct. What is moving is a
series of still
photographs on a reel of film. Each is exposed for
only a very short
time and our eyes and brain to not see the separate
still shots but
see figures on the screen moving quite naturally. The
second part of
the movie illusion is the sound. When an actor speaks
we fully accept
that the words are coming from his or her mouth. The
fact is that the
sounds are actually coming from speakers well off to
the side of the
screen and possibly even in back of us. Yet as the
actor walks across
the scene we accept that the words are coming from his
or her mouth
from a different spot on the screen—a misperception,
and therefore
an illusion.
Perception may also be distorted in other ways.
One such distortion results from what is called
selective perception. Selective perception is a
result
of personal factors on perception. What a person
perceives often
reflects that person's past learning and present
state of mind,
as well as what is actually "out there." A Republican
and a Democrat
who listen to the same political speech
will "hear"
and remember
different things. If you ask them about it
afterwards,
it may be hard to believe they listened to the same
speech.
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 One of the oldest known illusion related to touch was
described
by Aristotle more than 2,000 years ago. If you cross
two adjacent
fingers and then touch an object such as a pen,
with both crossed finger tips at the same time it will
feel as
though you are touching two pens, not one.
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Some illusions can actually be dangerous to us.
Our sense of equilibrium or balance is located in the
inner ear
but it works closely with our visual world. When the
pilot of an
aircraft is flying at night or in a cloud and has no
visual reference
points it is possible for the pilot to become
disoriented.
He or she cannot tell whether the plane is gaining or
loosing altitude,
or turning left or right. This is called vertigo. It
is an illusion,
and pilots are trained to never rely on their sense of
position but to respond entirely to the plane's
instruments.
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 And trust me as I worked on putting this page together
looking at the images caused me to become ill . so
please use CAUTION viewing this site .
STORMY01
Web Designer
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How many faces do you see?
