OPTICAL ILLUSIONS
The Art of Seeing
Daily Objective
• Students will explore
the art of perception
and experience its
subjectivity by viewing
optical illusions and
sharing the effect that
they have on them.
Instructions
• Read the information
included in this PPT
presentation.
• Print out the Optical
Illusions Worksheet &
respond to the drill in
your drill notebooks.
• View each of the optical
illusions & write your
responses on the
worksheet. The
Homework should be
answered on the back,
and it will be turned in
tomorrow.
What Are Optical Illusions?
• Warm-up: We’ve all seen them, although you
may not have even realized what they are.
When you hear the phrase “Optical Illusion,”
what do you think of?
Definition
• Involves an apparently inexplicable
discrepancy between the appearance of a
visual stimulus and its physical reality
• Visually perceived images that are deceptive
or misleading
The Ames Room
• Observe this room.
Take special note of the
size, shape, color and
details of the room.
• Can one girl really be
that much bigger than
the other?
The Ames Room
Viewer assumes room is
rectangular and the image cast
onto the retina is consistent
with this hypothesis
• Naïve viewers conclude that one
girl is larger, when in fact she is
just closer
• Further Reading:
http://psylux.psych.tu-dresden.
de/i1/kaw/diverses%20Material
/www.illusionworks.com/html/a
mes_room.html
Optical Illusions
• The perceptual hypotheses that we create
become especially striking when they are
wrong
• Proximity, Depth Cues, Similarity, and Figure
Ground perception affect the hypotheses that
we make
• Human perceptions are HIGHLY
SUBJECTIVE
Let’s Try a Few
• On the chart provided for you (see
optical_illusion_chart.rtf) describe your
perceptions for the following illusions. Be
sure to submit this form along with your
responses to the homework tomorrow at the
beginning of class.
Illusion #1
Which center circle is bigger?
Illusion #2
Which line is longer?
Illusion #3
Which line is longer?
Illusion #4
Water goblet or two faces?
Illusion #5
Old woman or young woman?
Another version!
Illusion #6
Skull or woman in a mirror?
Illusion #7
Eskimo or Native American head?
Illusion #8
Face or musician?
Illusion #9
A face? A word?
Illusion #10
(4) Which word do you see first?
Illusion #11
Stare at the center for 15 sec and then
look up – what do you see?
Illusion #12
Stare at the center for 15 sec and
then look up – what do you see?
Illusion #13
How many black dots are there?
Illusion #14
Follow directions below
Illusion #15
Stare at the center – what color do the
dots become?
Illusion #16
Mind Warp
Illusion #17
How does it move?
Illusion #18
Impossible Figures (3)
• objects that can be represented in two-
dimensional pictures but cannot exist in
three-dimensional space
Playing with Words
Perception of letters, words and
phrases
Illusion #19
Read the following out-loud – now read it again slowly
and see if you fell for the trick
Illusion #20
Illusion #21
What do you think?
• Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at an Elingsh
uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the
ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng
is taht frist and lsat ltteer is at the rghit pclae.
The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll
raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae we do
not raed ervey lteter by it slef but the wrod as a
wlohe.
Illusion #22
The Stroop Effect
Time yourself saying the word – then time yourself saying the
color of the ink. What is the difference?
The Stroop Effect
• The words themselves have a strong effect over your
ability to say the color
• There is an interference in the information your brain
receives - and this causes a problem
• Speed of Processing Theory
– Words read faster that colors are named
• Selective Attention Theory
– Naming colors requires more attention than reading the
word
• For Further Reading:
http://www.snre.umich.edu/eplab/demos/st0/stro
opdesc.html
Stereograms
Bring your eyes close to the screen. As
you slowly move your head away from the
screen, take your eyes out of focus and a
picture will pop out.
Illusion #23
Try your best – what do you see?
Illusion #24
And another?
Illusion #25
Do you see something floating?
Homework
• Describe how a person’s perceptions
affect that person’s point of view. What
are some examples of this bias? What
role does subjectivity have in your
perceptions?
