Reply to comment

Interpreting Ambiguous Figures: Omvivore’s Dilemma

Image 1 Image 2

Data:

Question Four: How does the starburst effect the perception of the horizontal lines in

Image 2? Most people said something along the lines of, “It makes the

middle lines appear to buldge outward slightly” or, “It makes the middle

buldge.” One person said “They’re actually parallel.” Two people didn’t

answer and a few had trouble seeing the curvature of the lines.

Question Five: What does this say about how peoples’ brains percieve the external

world? Most people came to the conclusion that our brain can

misinterpret reality and that we are easily influenced. Two people

neglected to answer because they weren’t sure.

Conclusion:

The optical illusiion in image 2 teaches us that the brain is inclined to make guesses about the future. Thus, in the starburst pattern the viewer feels pulled towards the middle of the pattern. The brain expects us to walk up closer to the image and thus shows us ahead of time the middle getting bigger. Our brain assumes that our relation to stationary objects will change over time in predictable ways but this is not always the case. Most of the time it is advantageous to anticipate what we will see a little into the future but sometimes it can be more useful to see what is infront of us now.