Optical Illusions

 Ambiguity - Distortion - Movement - Paradox - Priming

Optical Illusions are an interest of mine. I've also won two trophies for my forensics speech on optical illusions, so you could also say I'm quite the authority on the subject. Choose a type of illusion to learn more about it and to see some examples.

Ambiguity

Ambiguity is where there is more than one interpretation of a figure. Once you are aware of both interpretations, you can flip back and forth between the two.

Distortion

Distortion is where figures appear distorted due to your visual systems inability to process the stimulation it receives, usually due to the placement of objects around it and with the use of pattern and contrast.

I didn't believe this at first, but then I ran digital color meter, and as it turns out, they are both 42% red, 42% blue, 42% green!



Which line is longer?


The horizontal lines are straight and parallel.


Believe it or not, these lines aren't bulging!




The red squares are the same color.

Movement

Movement illusions are where a static picture appears to move or change. The underlying mechanism is not yet fully understood, but like distortion effects, color and contrast play an important role.

The scintillating grid

Paradox

Paradox illusions are where the brain has trouble interpreting a flat picture as a 3D figure.

Priming

Priming illusions, unlike the previous examples, are concerned primarily with content more than anything else. Here, you are bombarded with two sources of information, the written words and the colors themselves. Try to say the colors of each of the words. It may help if you are colorblind or a non-English speaker.