They are useful because these illusions prove the existence of "top-down" visual processing. That is, you clearly are perceiving something that does not exist, so the information going to your visual centers that make sense of the world cannot be solely coming from your retina (bottom-up) -- there must be influence coming from higher visual areas that influences what we perceive.
3 comments:
WOW. Does anyone know how these things work?
Not completely, but they are some of the most powerful tool for studying how the visual system works.
To continue my previous comment:
They are useful because these illusions prove the existence of "top-down" visual processing. That is, you clearly are perceiving something that does not exist, so the information going to your visual centers that make sense of the world cannot be solely coming from your retina (bottom-up) -- there must be influence coming from higher visual areas that influences what we perceive.
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