 The Brain / Museum / Illusions / Interpretive / Chairs |
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Two friends sit in the chairs. Who looks bigger? The brain uses hints from the environment to estimate the size and distance of images before it. The far-away big chair and the nearby small chair create the illusion that they are both about the same size and the same distance away. The people sitting in the chairs create yet another illusion: The person in the far chair looks smaller than the person in the nearby chair. The two chairs are placed so that the pictures they create on the retina are smaller in size. The brain chooses the interpretation that is consistent with its past experience; it assumes that the two chairs are about the same size and therefore about the same distance from the eye. When people of the same size are sitting on the chairs, they appear to be different in size. The images on our retina, however, are of different sizes because they are at located at different distances from us. We perceive them to be different in size in reality because we compare them with the chairs and with each other. Size and distance illusions result from the amazing capacity of the brain for perceptual consistency - it perceives objects or characteristics of objects as constant, even when conditions change (see also the Size Doesn't Matter and Dr. Ames' Enchanted Room illusions). Under some conditions, hints from the environment lead the brain to judge the size of a person or object as much smaller or larger than it really is.
Illusions of this type are much more convincing in photographs than in reality. Can you explain why? Links: Related exhibits:
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Chairs from Wonderland
