Archive for the ‘perception’ tag
Magic and Science #
New research is looking into the way magicians are able to trick us to discover what insights that can give us into the nature of cognition. Cool.
Seeing the Future #
This fact seems to be the key to “optical illusions” which seem to be moving when they are not:
In an experiment originated by Dr. Nijhawan, people watch an object pass a flashbulb. The timing is exact: the bulb flashes precisely as the object passes. But people perceive that the object has moved past the bulb before it flashes. Scientists argue that the brain has evolved to see a split second into the future when it perceives motion. Because it takes the brain at least a tenth of a second to model visual information, it is working with old information. By modeling the future during movement, it is “seeing” the present.
PS: This is the 1000th post on this blog. Just thought you should know.
When Parent Infallibility Ends #
The always-interesting Ze Frank is collecting stories of when people realized their parents aren’t perfect. Those contributed so far are interesting, and a reminder that I don’t remember when that happened for me.