Definition:
Optical illusion is something that you think you see, but
which is not really there.
Optical illusions occur as a result of how information is
received through the eyes and how that information is
interpreted in the brain.Example:-
Trees and electric-poles along the road appear to grow
smaller as they stretch away toward the horizon.
- We look down a long, straight road, we see that it
seems to grow narrower in the distance.
- We know that a white house looks larger than the
same house painted a dark colour.
- A person wearing a suit with up-and-down stripes
looks thinner than he/she would if the stripes went
crosswise.
But still what is an optical illusion?
In order to answer this you must first understand the idea
of ‘perception’.
Perception refers to the interpretation of what we take in
through our senses, in terms of optical illusions this means
our eyes. Optical illusions occur because our brains our
trying to interpret what we see and make sense of the world
around us. Optical illusions simply trick our brains into
seeing things which may or may not be real.
If you search the net you will find many sites on optical
illusions. And if you search for explanations, you will
probably form the opinion that nearly every illusion has a
different cause.
Illusions are important and amazing to most people. Some
of the illusions have been known since century's ago
(450-300BC and 1800 AD). The scientific study of illusions
dates back to the beginning of the nineteenth century when
scientists got interested in perception. Since then there
has been enduring interest, and illusions have been used as
tools in the study of perception. An important strategy in
finding out how perception operates is to observe situations
in which misperceptions occur. By carefully altering the
models, images, brain and testing the changes in visual
perception psychologists tried to gain insight into the
principles of perception...
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