Dr. Tapan Kr.

Dutta
Panskura Banamali College
Please
reset to
silent mode
all the
mobile
phone in
this session

Thank you
It is characterized by visually
perceived images that differ from
objective reality. The information
gathered by the eye is processed in
the brain to give a perception that
does not tally with a physical
measurement of the stimulus
source.
There are three main types:
1. literal optical illusions that create images
that are different from the objects that
make them,
2. physiological ones that are the effects on
the eyes and brain of excessive stimulation
of a specific type (brightness, tilt, color,
movement), and
3. cognitive illusions where the eye and brain
make unconscious inferences. They can
also be known as "mind games".
This afterimages following bright
lights, or adapting stimuli of
excessively longer alternating
patterns (contingent perceptual
aftereffect), are presumed to be the
effects on the eyes or brain of
excessive stimulation of a specific
type - brightness, tilt, color,
movement, etc.
The theory is that stimuli have
individual dedicated neural paths in
the early stages of visual processing,
and that repetitive stimulation of
only one or a few channels causes a
physiological imbalance that alters
perception.
Cognitive illusions are assumed to
arise by interaction with assumptions
about the world, leading to
"unconscious inferences", an idea
first suggested in the 19th century by
Hermann Helmholtz.
Cognitive illusions are commonly
divided into
1. ambiguous illusions,
2. distorting illusions,
3. paradox illusions, or
4. fiction illusions.
1. Ambiguous illusions are
pictures or objects that elicit a
perceptual 'switch' between
the alternative interpretations.
The Necker cube is a well
known example; another
instance is the Rubin vase.
The Necker Cube is used in
epistemology (the study of
knowledge) and provides a counter-
attack against native realism. Native
realism (also known as direct or
common-sense realism) states that the
way we perceive the world is the way
the world actually is.
Necker cube
A rotating Necker Cube was used to
demonstrate that the human visual
system can recruit new visual cues
that affect the way things look.
The Necker Cube seems to disprove this
claim because we see one or the other of
two cubes, but really, there is no cube
there at all: only a two-dimensional
drawing of twelve lines. We see
something which is not really there, thus
(allegedly) disproving native realism.
This criticism of native realism supports
representative realism.
 Rubin's vase (sometimes
known as the Rubin face or the
Figure-ground vase) is a famous
set of cognitive optical illusions
developed around 1915 by the
Danish psychologist Edgar
Rubin.
 They were first introduced at large in
Rubin's two-volume work, the Danish-
language Synsoplevede Figurer ("Visual
Figures"), which was very well-received;
Rubin included a number of examples,
like a Maltese cross figure in black and
white, but the one that became the most
famous was his vase example, perhaps
because the Maltese cross one could also
be easily interpreted as a black and white
beachball.
2. Distorting illusions are
characterized by distortions
of size, length, or curvature.
A striking example is the
Caf wall illusion. Another
example is the famous
Mller-Lyer illusion.
Caf wall illusion
Mller-Lyer illusion
3. Paradox illusions are generated by
objects that are paradoxical or
impossible, such as the Penrose
triangle or impossible staircases seen,
for example, in M. C. Escher's
Ascending and Descending and Waterfall.
The triangle is an illusion dependent
on a cognitive misunderstanding that
adjacent edges must join.
The Penrose triangle, also known as the
Penrose tribar, is an impossible object. It was
first created by the Swedish artist Oscar
Reutersvrd in 1934. The mathematician Roger
Penrose independently devised and
popularised it in the 1950s, describing it as
"impossibility in its purest form". It is featured
prominently in the works of artist M. C.
Escher, whose earlier depictions of impossible
objects partly inspired it.
4. Fictional illusions are defined
as the perception of objects that
are genuinely not there to all
but a single observer, such as
those induced by schizophrenia
or a hallucinogen. These are
more properly called
hallucinations.