[Leica] OT: optical illusion

[aaron.sandler at duke.edu (Aaron Sandler)]

Cool demo, Eric.  Since you said you're always interested in learning more 
about visual phenomena...

A prof in my department studies visual perception using so-called "optical 
illusions."  His basic hypothesis is that that our perceptions are 
empirical, based on the most frequently occurring real-world sources of the 
stimulus, rather than on characteristics of the stimulus itself.  It is a 
combination of our personal experience and our species memory ("learned" by 
importance to our ancestors' survival) that determines this empirical set 
of real-world sources we expect to see.  It's quite interesting, really.

His lab's website has a few more demonstrations, and some more 
explanation.  He also has written some books, some of which I think are 
intended for non-neuroscientists.
http://www.purveslab.net/main/

Best,
Aaron


>http://www.patmedia.net/marklevinson/cool/cool_illusion.html
>
>Thought this was very interesting.  I'm always interested in learning more
>about visual phenomena.
>--
>Eric
>http://canid.com/