Chapter 1
The lying eye and how optical illusions hack your sight
Chapter 2
The rewrite machine and why memory is a puzzle
Chapter 3
Blind spots and the shortcuts your brain takes to save energy
Chapter 4
Cultural lenses and how background shapes what we see
Ch 1 · The lying eye and how optical illusions hack your sight
artiteacher Optical Illusions
Delayed by a tenth, painting what's next, hacking my sight!
artiteacher The checkerboard shadow illusion reveals how human brains process colors in shadows
BETA
artiteacher Decode the optical illusions to discover how your brain tricks your eyes and memory.
artiteacher We see square B as white even though squares A and B share the exact same shade of gray.
Quiz
What is the scientific term for the brain's ability to perceive a color as constant even under different lighting conditions?
artiteacher Pac-Man shapes trick our visual cortex into drawing imaginary lines to form triangles.
Quiz
In what year did Italian psychologist Gaetano Kanizsa publish his famous illusory triangle experiment?
Quiz
What is the German psychological school of thought, meaning 'shape' or 'form', that explains our brain's tendency to group separate objects into whole figures?
Fun Fact
The moon illusion: The moon looks giant near the horizon because your brain compares it to trees and buildings, not because the moon actually changed size.
Quiz
Which famous fantasy film trilogy used physical Ames room sets to make certain characters look much smaller than others?
Glossary
optical illusion (noun)
An experience of seeming to see something that is other than it actually is. In 1995, Edward Adelson designed the checker shadow illusion to prove that brains misinterpret uniform gray shades.
An experience of seeming to see something that is other than it actually is. In 1995, Edward Adelson designed the checker shadow illusion to prove that brains misinterpret uniform gray shades.
Quiz
What are the tiny, involuntary eye movements that help trigger peripheral drift illusions like the 'Rotating Snakes'?
Quiz
In which country did researcher Akiyoshi Kitaoka develop the famous 'Rotating Snakes' optical illusion in 2003?