Why Your Brain Flips Over Visual Illusions

Tigersoap

The Living Force
I was reading the Sott article and looked at the video where your perception will make the sphere rotate to one side or the other.

At first the sphere would take a while to shift by itself, then I found out that if I was moving my eyes up (the sphere rotates from left to right) or down (the sphere rotates from right to left), or as I realized even from the left (the sphere rotates from left to right) to the right (the sphere rotates from right to left) I could change the rotation at will.

An imperceptible mouvment of my eyes would trigger this as well but then the switch rate is slower.

Anyone tried it ?

http://www.sott.net/articles/show/214776-Why-Your-Brain-Flips-Over-Visual-Illusions
 
Interesting.....I can change the direction by moving my eyes too....but if I look at the centre it doesn't appear to me moving either way. Only if I'm looking slightly left or right does it move that way.

The ballerina is interesting, looking head on she's always rotating one way....looking down (so she is in the top of my peripheral vision) there is no rotation....only if I look up or to the left does she change direction....and I've only had that direction stick once, perhaps because I'm aware of what I'm doing she seems to be stuck spinning one way only.
 
Tigersoap said:
I was reading the Sott article and looked at the video where your perception will make the sphere rotate to one side or the other.

At first the sphere would take a while to shift by itself, then I found out that if I was moving my eyes up (the sphere rotates from left to right) or down (the sphere rotates from right to left), or as I realized even from the left (the sphere rotates from left to right) to the right (the sphere rotates from right to left) I could change the rotation at will.

An imperceptible mouvment of my eyes would trigger this as well but then the switch rate is slower.

Anyone tried it ?

http://www.sott.net/articles/show/214776-Why-Your-Brain-Flips-Over-Visual-Illusions

I tried it. It appears to me the direction the sphere seems to turn depends on what dot patterns my brain picks out and compares with the top or bottom of the sphere.
 
With the dot sphere, it would appear to turn the direction I wanted it to, but only after giving it a mental "shove" with a jerk of the head in that direction.

With the ballerina, it appeared to move clockwise no matter what I did, but when I crossed my eyes slightly, (sort of in the manner that Don Juan instructs Castaneda, when looking for a "power spot" to sit in) I could make it turn either direction at will, and when I re-focused them, the ballerina remained spinning in that direction.
 
With the ballerina, she's going clockwise and I can't get it to go counter-clockwise.

Dot sphere, here's what was interesting. I was reading the article while waiting for the "sponsor message" to finish, then the sphere appeared and going counter-clockwise, and when I was thinking of an art or a painting while I'm looking at the sphere, it was going clockwise!

Cool... :cool2:
 
Tigersoap said:
Yes but I can't flip the direction at all with the ballerina one, it only turns one side :|


I had problems with her, too. But as I went to close the window, she flipped. So I looked back up at the close button for the page again, and she flipped again. Every time I looked up at that part of the page, she would flip. And this is quite a ways above the actual figure. But it worked every time for me.
 
Nienna Eluch said:
I had problems with her, too. But as I went to close the window, she flipped. So I looked back up at the close button for the page again, and she flipped again. Every time I looked up at that part of the page, she would flip. And this is quite a ways above the actual figure. But it worked every time for me.

Ah ok I found it ! Thanks !
It's different than the other one, I can't do it all the time though.

I have to shift my eyes in an oblique way and it flips side.

So it has to do with the mouvment or angles of the eyes somehow ? I am not sure what it all means in the end but it's interesting.
 
Keit said:
It is similar to the dancing ballerina illusion here.


Ok, now that's urber freaky. When I just look at the ballerina dancing, she 's going clockwise, but the minute I start to read the description to the left of her, she starts spinning counter clockwise.

So how does an animated graphic know what I'm thinking? ;D
 
Guardian said:
Keit said:
It is similar to the dancing ballerina illusion here.


Ok, now that's urber freaky. When I just look at the ballerina dancing, she 's going clockwise, but the minute I start to read the description to the left of her, she starts spinning counter clockwise.

So how does an animated graphic know what I'm thinking? ;D

Same thing happen with me Guardian, maybe because as we start to read our left side of the brain is switch on.
 
When I first looked at the sphere I couldn't get it to move but right. But when I looked at the red dot it would randomly change every few seconds. The ballerina I can't get to move other than clockwise. Even when I read the text or convert in my head the Celsius degrees on the side to Fahrenheit she still moves clockwise.
 
3D Student said:
When I first looked at the sphere I couldn't get it to move but right. But when I looked at the red dot it would randomly change every few seconds. The ballerina I can't get to move other than clockwise. Even when I read the text or convert in my head the Celsius degrees on the side to Fahrenheit she still moves clockwise.

Try an experiment if you feel like it:
Watch her shoulders for about 30 seconds or so, then immediately look down at the foot that's closest to the 'floor'. Your brain is going to make an effort to make sense of the motion. Depending on which 'cue' is picked up and what assumption is made about what that cue means (this may not be totally conscious but you might 'feel' it happening), the ballerina will spin accordingly, OSIT.

Try not to 'try'...just 'let it happen' - joda's cousin. :D
 
regarding the ballerina, it's relatively easy to switch directions by concentrating solely on her "fixed" foot. i think it's because this part of the figure lacks clear perspective and focusig on it doesn't make the brain to easily fix on one particular direction.
 
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