Boing Boing » optical illusions

Cats and optical illusions: Now with control experiments!

Maggie Koerth-Baker — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 17:29:45 +0000

Last week, I posted about a YouTuber who thinks his he might have tricked his cat with an optical illusion that's based on very human psychology. He asked other people to test the illusion on their cats, just to get some more data points. Now, the psychologists who created the illusion have pitched in to help out, posting a modified version that doesn't elicit the sensation of motion. Show your cat both versions and see whether it's the paper she's trying to kill, or the "rotating" circles. (Thanks to Diana Issidorides!)

Are cats fooled by optical illusions?

Maggie Koerth-Baker — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 23:50:07 +0000

The Rotating Snake Illusion is a fun image that makes your brain perceive motion where no motion actually exists. Psychologists understand the factors that make an illusion like this work (and work better) — for instance, breaking up and staggering the colored lines that radiate from the center of the circle creates a much stronger sensation of movement. But they don't know exactly why it works yet, according to Japanese psychologists Akiyoshi Kitaoka and Hiroshi Ashida.

And that brings us to this kitten video.

YouTube user Rasmus posted a video that he thinks might show his cat being tricked by the same sense of motion that catches the eyes of humans who look at The Rotating Snake Illusion. On the other hand, this just might be a cute video of a kitten attacking a piece of paper — which is known to happen.

So here's the challenge: Try it on your cat. You can print it off here. Then, report back here and/or post video responses to YouTube. Let's gather some data!

This is not exactly the soundest experimental methodology ever, but it sure would be interesting to see what happens.

The shape of your beer mug might help explain why you get drunk so fast

Maggie Koerth-Baker — Fri, 31 Aug 2012 14:44:49 +0000

In a recent study at the University of Bristol, young people drank beer faster when it was served to them in a curved, fluted glass. It's a small study, but the researchers think it could be a first clue toward understanding why we sometimes get more drunk than we meant to do. Researchers found it was difficult for people to judge volume of liquid in a curved glass, which might mean it's also harder to pace drinking. (Via Noah Gray)

Fun gallery of "double take" photos

Mark Frauenfelder — Wed, 23 May 2012 02:38:43 +0000

Bits & Pieces has a fun collection of "double take" photos. Each one caused a fun moment of "huh?" in my mind, until reality snapped into place.

Weird illusion causes faces to look very distorted

Mark Frauenfelder — Wed, 23 May 2012 00:25:48 +0000

[Video Link] Follow the instructions on this video and prepare to be freaked out.

(Via Doobybrain)

Optical illusions

Rob Beschizza — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 20:35:00 +0000

The Optillusions blog appears to be a collection of optical illusions, but there's something not quite right about it.

Why does the rising moon look so big?

Maggie Koerth-Baker — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 16:03:00 +0000

A few years ago, artist Maki Naro drew a comic explaining why the Moon appears larger on the horizon than it does way up in the sky.

Recently, he got a helpful email from astronomy blogger Phil Plait. Turns out, the original comic was just a bit wrong and Phil Plait had a much more thorough explanation. So, like any good evidence-based comic artist, Naro drew a new version of the comic, featuring a only-sorta-creepy Phil Plait jumping out of the bushes to accost people with accurate astronomical information.

See the full comic

Check out this post on Phil Plait's Bad Astronomy blog, upon which the comic is based.