Check out some of these optical illusions, below — and see how you perceive images placed before your eyes.
Just how do optical illusions work?
“From an evolutionary standpoint, optical illusion is our brain’s attempt to process a segment of visual information and make a quick response in order to help us survive,” psychologist May Han, founder of Spark Relational Counseling in Portland, Oregon, told Fox News Digital.
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Optical illusions “harness the shift between what your eyes see and what your brain perceives,” according to Livescience.com.
“They reveal the way your visual system edits images before you’re even made aware of them, like a personal assistant deciding what is and isn’t worthy of your attention.”
What colors do you see? (IMAGE ABOVE)
People all over the globe disagreed about the color of this dress after it was posted online.
The way people see colors can vary quite a bit, Professor Stephen Westland, chair of color science and technology at the University of Leeds, in West Yorkshire, England, told the BBC.
“One in 12 men is color-blind. But what people don’t know is that even if the rest of us are not color-blind, we don’t always see color in the same way,” he told the outlet.
Don’t peer too closely at the middle of this black-and-white checkered hallway — or you’ll find yourself being pulled into the vortex. (IMAGE ABOVE)
Moving your eyes a bit might seem to move the walls, too.
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Let’s try another one …
Would you be able to walk on this sidewalk? (IMAGE ABOVE)
While it’s made of brick and is relatively level, this painting makes it look anything but.
This is a style of street painting in which bricks and walkways are painted to give the perception of a drop, or a fall, over an edge.
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How about another image?
Can you keep from slipping “inside” this photo? (IMAGE ABOVE)
Staring at either side of the circle, or at the circle itself, makes a person feel a bit off-kilter.
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Now, check this one out …
A girl poses on the “Head on a Platter” at Zagreb’s Museum of Illusions on May 23, 2021. (IMAGE ABOVE)
The museum displays dozens of optical illusions.
Question: Where are this young girl’s legs?
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Now, let’s look at another one …
What do you see here? (IMAGE ABOVE)
Is it a bat-like creature, or two male profiles?
Let’s move to the next one …
Stare at the circle in the center of the rectangle (ABOVE) — that is, if you like feeling off-balance.
Which shape is in the foreground, and which is in the background?
(Also ask yourself: Is the circle squarely in the middle of the rectangle?)
Check out the next one …
How will this man get down from there? (IMAGE ABOVE)
And what is he thinking?
A few more …
When you look at something — including the IMAGE ABOVE — what you’re actually seeing is the “light that bounced off of it and entered your eye,” according to Inside Science.
This “converts the light into electrical impulses that your brain can turn into an image you can use,” the publication said.
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So, your brain takes shortcuts, simplifying what you see to help you “concentrate on what’s important” — hence, the optical illusion is your brain concentrating on one particular thing in an image, the same source noted.
What about optical illusions that seem to move, even when we know they’re not?
This is, in part, due to how we perceive light and dark, according to Live Science.
Luminance — our sense of light and dark — “is kind of unreliable,” an article in the publication said.
“Our brains are able to perceive lighter values much more quickly than dark values.”
There are also key points in which your “perception of motion” is reset, the same source said.
“Blinking, shifting your eyes and looking away and back fuels the illusion of motion” — which adds to “our feeling that shapes are moving.”
Read the full article here
